When trying to achieve the film-look....
 

Is it better to have really high sharpness, or really low? Or somewhere in the middle? What do you do? Two knotches below...Above?

I do three things that tend to help me get a good look with my GL2. First, I turn the sharpness down as far as it can go without looking too soft. Second, I have a Tiffen Soft FX 2, which does some cool hazing on bright highlights for a nice effect. And finally, Frame mode.

'Film Look' is subjective, since everyone's idea of what it is differs. But what I can tell you is that the above does a lot in losing the 'video' look.

That's cool, but can you offer any specifics as to the sharpness level?

Around 20-25% sharpness. You'll have to fiddle with it to get the setting you like best.

Side note, keeping the sharpness down also helps fight grain in low light scenarios.

I keep my sharpness down 2 notches on the gl2, always use frame mode. Also, I usually monkey around with custom white balance settings and color phase settings to give the scene a particular cast. If using a diffuser, I would keep it to the minimum you can get, just enought to take the edge off the highlights, without the typical bloom caused my heavier diffusion.

Barry

This is the movie I made today. The editing, shots, and mood worked out PERFECT. But something went wrong with the picture....It seems in some shots, there are different layers of fuzzed out grain, I can't really describe it...And the WMV compression sort of gets rid of it. But you can see it in the Sky in one scene, and in the main character's Arm in another....

When he's walking out of the door, it's supposed to be washed out...But can you offer advice as to how to get rid of this? This may be the editor, or the Tape I recorded on...Any ideas?

http://www.joecam.net/MustardFriend.WMV

Your footage looks great considering you're just getting started with this cam! The white balancing looked good pretty much all the way through. Though there were a couple of shots that seemed inconsistent in brightness. But one thing I noticed is that the balancing looked good as your character went out the door. The light all looked very natural, so kudos.

I can't really see the problem you mentioned though, on this .wmv.

Thanks! I appreciate the comments. I actually just fixed the problem. Turns out, I exported it as an Avi instead of a DV avi before I did my frame blending and stuff. I fixed it and it looks great!

I was using a Glidecam 2000 Pro for this, and for the most part it did everything I wanted it too...Sometimes the wind blew it, and it tilted a little, or it moved when I didn't want it to, but it worked fine other than that.

when using the GC-2000 how do you prevent the unwanted mvmt? I am having a difficult time keeping my camera from bobbing around. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
thanks

Practice and a delicate touch (don't overcontrol it).

That and an awesome balance job....It is no shocker when I spend 30 minutes or more balancing my glidecam.