What not to wear

Z

Zeakio

Well-known member
Hey guys,

Just did a search on google and dvxuser and couldn't find anything on this topic... So I'm trying to put together a list of clothing that speakers cannot wear on camera due to technical reasons. EG: No bright reds because the colour bleeds.. no pin stripes because they strobe. If you guys know of any other clothing taboos for the camera, I would be very keen to hear what they are!
 
Any white or bright clothing will cause exposure issue since these tends to blow out more easily than the rest of the scene. Pure black is also a problem if you're doing a darkly lit scene as they can easily blend into the BG without a backlight.
 
The recording format I am looking at is to DVCAM through studio cameras... but feel free to discuss any other formats (film, HD) that might have trouble with different types of clothing as well.
 
I would avoid filming pink polyester and/or white loafers because of overblown exposure issues; but even more so because the resulting footy shows up gay.
 
No small, busy patterns. No bright primary colors. No combinations of complementary colors in the same outfit (unless you're after the harlequin effect). No big huge massively-specular jewelry. No bright or primary color makeup (bright green metallic eye shadow and lipstick lady from 1985, I'm looking at *you*).
 
Technically speaking, synthetic fabrics like polyester are noisier than natural fabrics so you should avoid when using lav mics.
 
Call_Me_Kurt said:
Hahahahahahahahahaaaaa! That was some Gotcha, Callaghan! :)
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echeershat.gif
 
You want something that is going to make the actor's skin stand out. The audience's eye should be drawn to the character rather then their clothing. So like a medium shade of a gray hoodie will draw more attention to the orangish colors of skin, hence, the audience's eyes will be drawn to the character's face (hopefully where the most skin is exposed) before it is drawn to his/her clothing. Take a look at the trailer from the newest Transformer's movie. Look at the Scene in the classroom where everyone is wearing very neutral or teal colors, because cyan and blue are direct opposites from the orange tone of human skin.

Take a look at this: http://kuler.adobe.com/ Its a great way to see what colors will create contrast and draw attention to the right things. Make sure you click "create" and set the rule to "complementary".
 
Joe Calabrese said:
You want something that is going to make the actor's skin stand out. The audience's eye should be drawn to the character rather then their clothing. So like a medium shade of a gray hoodie will draw more attention to the orangish colors of skin, hence, the audience's eyes will be drawn to the character's face (hopefully where the most skin is exposed) before it is drawn to his/her clothing.
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IF that supports the story. But there are times when you're trying to hide the identity of a character and you don't want attention drawn to them where the clothing could help in that distraction...just sayin'...:engel017:
 
chapelgrovefilms said:
Don't forget -- nothing with logos or copyrighted graphics/text.
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What are the exact legalities of logos? I'm editing a movie right now, and there's a scene where a guy is drinking out of a Seagrams bottle along with a few other small logos, such as bottles in the background of the same scene, and a few other similar logo placements. Although this isn't going to be a widely distributed movie, it will be screening at small-mid sized festivals. Should I worry about trying to change this?
 
yommytacoe said:
What are the exact legalities of logos? I'm editing a movie right now, and there's a scene where a guy is drinking out of a Seagrams bottle along with a few other small logos, such as bottles in the background of the same scene, and a few other similar logo placements. Although this isn't going to be a widely distributed movie, it will be screening at small-mid sized festivals. Should I worry about trying to change this?
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I'm pretty sure that if you have logos, its okay, as long as your not portraying them in a negative light. So if your character is drinking the soda, then spitting it out and saying it sucked, then I'm pretty sure the company would have a problem.

Don't quote me for this, I'm just expressing what I've gone by for my films.
 
Joe Calabrese said:
I'm pretty sure that if you have logos, its okay, as long as your not portraying them in a negative light. So if your character is drinking the soda, then spitting it out and saying it sucked, then I'm pretty sure the company would have a problem.

Don't quote me for this, I'm just expressing what I've gone by for my films.
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I worked on a few small independent feature films as a prop master ad any labels must be covered unless they are sponsors. unless it's too far in the shot to be see or if it's even in focus.

short story with independent film happen to make it:

When I studied under Lynn Shelton, Director of "HUMPDAY", in her earlier film Corona the beer company tried to sue her for having a shot of the a person drinking the beer and only the "ONA" was in the shot, well besides the very distinct yellow on the bottle.

I would be careful and take full precaution. You never know.
 
People can spend money to sue for any reason. Doesn't mean they can collect. From signage on walls to branding on shirts, truth is, if companies didn't want their point of sell seen, the'd not spend so much money on branding. If a call is made on this, it shouldn't be asking for permission so much as negotiating a price for placement.
...imo
 
Studios have become extremely conservative about this. Without an express product-placement agreement, clearance will demand that virtually any trademark be obscured, avoided or replaced.
 
Tight patterns, particularity on men's ties can be a nightmare. This is especially
true when the detail on the camera (at least on my DVX) is set to THIN.

Huy Vu said:
Any white or bright clothing will cause exposure issue since these tends to blow out more easily than the rest of the scene. Pure black is also a problem if you're doing a darkly lit scene as they can easily blend into the BG without a backlight.
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Funny enough, I usually agree with this statement. But I recently shot an interview
with a black man wearing a white shirt and the footage from the DVX was beautiful.
Went against everything I'd be taught. No changes to the camera's settings other
than exposure. No color grading. Here are two screen caps (one keyed, one not):

1260143845.jpg


1260143868.jpg


I love my DVX!

Peter
 
yommytacoe said:
What are the exact legalities of logos? I'm editing a movie right now, and there's a scene where a guy is drinking out of a Seagrams bottle along with a few other small logos, such as bottles in the background of the same scene, and a few other similar logo placements. Although this isn't going to be a widely distributed movie, it will be screening at small-mid sized festivals. Should I worry about trying to change this?
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This is an interesting issue, particularly with documentary work.

The classic case is you interview someone on a downtown street and behind them is signage
from different stores, name brand logos, etc. Traditionally since you're shooting on a public
street, you wouldn't need to get permission from those stores or the companies who's logos
appear. But legal departments of major broadcasters are getting a lot more paranoid and some
(at least in Canada) are asking for releases - which basically makes the shot unusable.

This of course is where shallow depth of field is so great! No clear backgrounds :)

The lesson is, you never know when a broadcaster or distributor down the line is going
to have a problem, so it's best to leave signage or logos out where possible.
 
There's the issue of what to wear for NTSC-esque color reproduction and to prevent moire, but there's another consideration: Delivery format frame rate. If your work will primarily be seen online, anything that defeats frame-differencing compression schemes will introduce either visual mud (one sees this on digital TV and satellite TV from time to time) as the codec tries to take a ton of visual changes and fit 'em into a tight bandwidth. The classic example, of course, is sequins. Done it, hated it, not good! (er, ahem, meaning I dealt with such footage, not that I was dressed in sequins :p) Anything metallic (and shiny/blingy, as per an earlier post) can also be problematic, but so can densely/finely-patterned fabrics that flutter or re-drape/re-fold with slight movements.
 
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