What settings do you pro's change before a shot?

[Zblock]

Here's what I do. Can you add a step or two to improve my footage?

I'm shooting with an adapter so I'd pick my lens for framing first.
Frame
Focus
Adjust F-stop
White Balance

Now here's what I'd like to know... What scene settings or recording settings would you change from shot to shot. (I was on a shoot and my footage didn't look right. Another hvx user came up and played with my master ped, chroma... whatever and the footage greatly improved.)
I've tried playing around with the setting and reading about them in the book but I don't notice much difference.

Tips?

 

[DGW]

I've played with most of the scene files in my studio and notice pretty significant changes when adjusting master ped, chroma and color temp. Some of the gamma curves, knee, etc. are tough to notice unless you're focused close up on a well lit subject (at least for me). Small changes are probably much harder to detect depending on what your viewing the output on. I feed component sd to my production monitor or hd to my DP1 and then observe as I am making changes. When I get an image with the color reproduction and contrast, etc. I am looking for (or just plain like) I lock it down and save the file.

 

[Zblock]

So Chroma and Color temp would be a good place to start? And would I change these on the same project?

For instance it is recommended to make a lot of these changes in post. Would it be wise to be changing these settings on every scene change?

 

[DGW]

Not necessarily. Usually you would set up your scene file and make adjustments for the overall type of look you are trying to achieve. It depends on how different your scenes and lighting may be, I suppose, but I wouldn't think you'd typically change those color and chroma settings too often between scenes. The master pedestal, for example, would lighten or darken your black levels, so perhaps this could be adjusted based on some specific details you may be looking for in shadows or dark areas. I usually modify colors in post, if needed, and generally leave my camera settings relatively fixed, once I have created a look I plan to use. It really does depend on what you're doing, and what your scenes will be.