FCP or Compressor?

Hi:

I shot some footage with a DVX 100A using 24p. I am capturing on a MBP using firewire. When I capture the footage should I capture it as PRO RES 422 at 30 fps or do a pulldown or should I convert the frame rate in Compressor? I want the best film or Varicam look I can get.

Thanks.

Do some tests and go with whatever looks better. Nothing beats testing.

When life gives you dilemmas...make dilemmanade.

>I shot some footage with a DVX 100A using 24p.

On the DVX, that would mean you shot on DV. 24p means that a pulldown was added into the stream that you cannot remove on capture. So you will capture as DV (since you cannot get better quality than your source material), and at 29.97fps. After that, you can try to reverse telecine it in Compressor and see if that works well, or just cut at 29.97.



www.strypesinpost.com

So what I cut on the timeline will be in 29.97. So no use of using a pull down in FCP in my case?And the for the "Look" I reverse telecine in Compressor?

Looks wise, it starts in pre-production and in production. The frame rate is the smallest part of the equation that makes anything look "filmic".

>So what I cut on the timeline will be in 29.97

What are you delivering?



www.strypesinpost.com

Via Firewire you pretty much have to capture at the same format it was shot in (in that case, DV @29.97). If you shot at 24p then it will have the filmic look to it already and (as Strypes said) editing at 29.97 would make no difference. Had you shot it at 24PA you could edit at 23.98 but it would look the same visually.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but nothing you can do in Compressor really gives your footage a "Look." That's achieved during post.

JK

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SCQT! Self-contained QuickTime ? pass it on!

Strypes, it will be on a DVD. Also yea it does have the film look but the other issue is I don't have an external monitor so I can't see an nice output on a monitor. Well unless I hook my MBP up to my plasma but its just a bigger monitor.

The shots are well lit and the camera work is quite nice as well. I don't have a DOF, so any tips on what else can be done during post to enhance the "look"?

Thx

> The shots are well lit and the camera work is quite nice as well. I don't have a DOF, so any tips
> on what else can be done during post to enhance the "look"?

That's like asking "How do I make my film great?" Without knowing anything about what you're trying to achieve, we have no way of telling you how to get a "look". A comedy would have a different look from a thriller; a 24 fps frame rate would look strange if your goal were to shoot a series meant to look like a webcam (eg. The Guild). And as strypes mentioned, you should have been asking in pre-production what the desired "look" would be so that you know how to shoot for a look. You should have known the intent going into the shoot.

I can tell you right now, though, that most of shaping the look is in the on-set lighting and exposure; and then a great deal of the rest is in simple, basic colour correction.


www.derekmok.com

Thx for the response. What I meant by "Look" was that I wanted it to look as close to film as possible since I don't have a DOF and can't afford RED or any other such cameras of that league. Its a fifteen minute corp video for an upscale salon chain. As I mentioned earlier we lit it very nicely and really like the camera work. So our Pre Production "Look" is no problem I knew how we had to make it look. I was quite curious to know about the frame rates and other such issues.

It's DV. It's not going to look like film, no matter what. It's not going to look "as close to film as possible," because it is not possible for it to even vaguely resemble film.

If some of the replies you're getting here ? mainly mine ? sound a little snippy, it's because this exact same question has been asked roughly sixty trillion times, to the point where many people ? mainly me ? have developed an involuntary eye twitch when they hear "film" and "look" within three words of each other.

The "look" of a show is not something you achieve in post. It's a creative decision made before you start shooting. It informs shot composition, lighting, makeup, set dressing, costume design ? and yes, even crappy little industrial videos still involve makeup, set dressing and costume design choices, just within strict limits. Your job as the colorist-or-whatever is to apply the look decided upon in advance by whoever was wearing the DP hat on the day. If you were wearing the DP hat and you didn't decide on a look in advance, and shoot with that look in mind, then it's too late now.

Any retroactive tricks you might apply in post aren't going to make your DV material look like film. They're going to make it look like you applied a crappy trick in post.

If at this point you're trying to make your footage look good, and you've got some very specific ideas about what that means, then great. Lots of folks here and elsewhere stand ready to offer advice and tips on how to achieve whatever specific things you're trying to pull off. But if you're just kinda sitting there going "Oh, you know, like film," then stop it and do the other thing I said. You'll waste less time and deliver a much, much better result, and end up with a much, much happier client.

So if I make "crappy little industrial videos" and am a bit curious about frame rates I basically can't post a question here because you might get "an involuntary eye twitch". As I mentioned earlier, I am happy with the "Shoot" it came out nice. I was just trying to tweak it a bit and was wondering if i can refine it more in post. But I do agree nothing much can be done in post. Again I was curious so I asked.

Well, we do get a lot of questions in the general ballpark of "We shot in DV and we have only got 20 dollars. How do I make it look like film?"

There's a reason why big budget pieces are shot for a lot of money. You can make something look better in post, you can make it look better in production, and you can make it look even better if you planned for all of that through the entire pipeline. And if you know what you are doing, you can get a pretty good look at the fraction of the price than someone who flies by the seat of their pants into film production.

Without knowing what you shot and what sort of look and feel you are going for, it is really hard to give any sort of advice, aside from "Use FCS/Avid MC with Symphony/send it to Smoke".



www.strypesinpost.com

If a "film look" effect is all you are looking for then sure, you can make your video look a bit more like film. Google how to make my video look more like film and you will come up with a bunch of tutorials. There are a few here at lafcpug. There are a bunch of film look plugins that will do the job for you. Nattress makes a bunch. You can also fake DOF if you want to spend a lot of time. Play around and see what you come up with.

BUT, bottom line it ain't gonna look like you got in your head. But its fun to try.

Michael Horton
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Michael Horton Wrote:
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> BUT, bottom line it ain't gonna look like you got
> in your head. But its fun to try.

Yup thats very true. If things pick up I might invest in some Magic Bullet. But I do agree things have to be perfect during the shoot

> it is really hard to give any sort of advice, aside from "Use
> FCS/Avid MC with Symphony/send it to Smoke".

Agreed Strypes, but if I keep on making these "crappy little industrial videos" its gonna be hard for me to move up to a smoke/flame. Hope things pick up BIG...

M1119, have you considered shooting film? You can buy a Bell & Howell 16mm camera on eBay for about $100. If it comes with three lenses, sell a couple of them back on eBay (there are a lot of digital filmmakers who pay a few hundred dollars for film lenses; that will more than cover your cost of buying the camera).

Then buy a roll of film (they have that on eBay too) for a few dollars and shoot those scenes you want to make them have the "film look" in 16mm. If you're in Hollywood, there's Yale Lab for processing. You can get the footage telecined at Magic Film @ $125 per hour.

If you want the "film look" as practiced by digital filmmakers, besides expensive plug-ins, there are several filters in iMovie that produce the film look fast and free: you know, hair in the gate, projector scratches, flashed film, dirt on film, jumping film (old Keystone projector look), etc.

If you have money for fancy digital plug-ins, there are bleach bypass filters, outdated Kodachrome look, faded film stock from the late 19th Century look, etc. These are much more expensive because millions of dollars have been spent on research and development by digital camera manufacturers out to destroy the 35mm film industry. LOL

Thx Filmman. I'll look into it. Guerilla filmmaking is always cool wether you work 100% digital or film.