Film look question for Shannon, or anyone with experience at DVinfo.net

Art Guglielmo · April 21st, 2005, 03:51 PM

Hello all,

I have an FX-1, have been through every editing solution available now, and have settled on Cineform Aspect. Right now its the most efficeint workflow with the least amount of pain and quality loss.

Now my question,

What way of achieving the best "filmlook" using a PC has everyone come up with? What workflow?

In other words, shoot 60i, edit 60i, then deinterlace and filter the final output? Do i capture, then detinerlace all the raw footage? Do I not de-interlace at all? Do I wait for Nattress to write PC plugins?

Magic bullet looks nice, but the render time are unreal. And even in that case, do i Maguc bullet the final product, or the raw footage after capture. (In that case, I can start editing a wedding a mere week and a half after the event, waiting for magic bullet)

I address this to Shannon, in that I know he has had his hands on the fx-1 for a while now, and figure he has been through all this ^&#* already.

Tim Kolb · April 24th, 2005, 04:03 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Art Guglielmo

I have an FX-1, have been through every editing solution available now, and have settled on Cineform Aspect. Right now its the most efficeint workflow with the least amount of pain and quality loss.

Now my question,

What way of achieving the best "filmlook" using a PC has everyone come up with? What workflow?

The next release of Aspect will give you the ability to shoot in 25p and clock it down to 24p on ingest with pitch correction. I would think this would be the quickest way to go, shoot 25 (PAL) and make it 24p on capture/convert.

I've shot with the other cam...the Z1U and the CineGamma modes don't seem very pleasing, and FX-1 owners don't have to lose any sleep over not having CineFrame 24...it's going to need some tweaking. 30p works alright as well...I was able to get a bit of the "video-ness" out of the piece I shot by using that.

The Z1U has an amazing dynamic range. We were seeing over 6 stops at points...I've never seen anything like that in such a small camera.

Dominic Jones · April 24th, 2005, 12:33 PM

Well, a 6 stop latitude has already done half the work of making it look filmic for you!

As for post processing, I'd have a look at Magic Bullet for starters, and have a play with the closest preset to the look you're going for...

But as far as frame-rates go, you're best bet *would* have been to shoot 50i and deinterlace to 25p. The pitch adjust for 24p is a simple process not requiring of any particularly specialist software - I was doing them in Soundforge about 5 years ago with no problems, and others for WAY longer than that.

However, I'm assuming you've got an NTSC version of the FX-1, which lands you in 60i -> 24p land, which is a bit more complex. I believe Magic Bullet will do a 3:2 pulldown effect to simulate 24p, and there are other tools for this approach too (DVFilm Maker, for instance), but I'm afraid that living in PAL land I can't give you much advice on how well they work - others here will have plenty of experience, however. Try posting the question in the "Toward a film look using DV" forum...

Bear in mind, however, that how well lit/framed/moved/etc the camera work is defines 90% of the look - all this stuff is just the icing on the cake. Get a good DP (and for god's sake get a decent sound man, too!) and you're well on your way.

April 21st, 2005, 03:51 PM	#1
Art Guglielmo Regular Crew Join Date: Jan 2004 Posts: 35	Film look question for Shannon, or anyone with experience Hello all, I have an FX-1, have been through every editing solution available now, and have settled on Cineform Aspect. Right now its the most efficeint workflow with the least amount of pain and quality loss. Now my question, What way of achieving the best "filmlook" using a PC has everyone come up with? What workflow? In other words, shoot 60i, edit 60i, then deinterlace and filter the final output? Do i capture, then detinerlace all the raw footage? Do I not de-interlace at all? Do I wait for Nattress to write PC plugins? Magic bullet looks nice, but the render time are unreal. And even in that case, do i Maguc bullet the final product, or the raw footage after capture. (In that case, I can start editing a wedding a mere week and a half after the event, waiting for magic bullet) I address this to Shannon, in that I know he has had his hands on the fx-1 for a while now, and figure he has been through all this ^&#* already.

April 24th, 2005, 12:33 PM	#3
Dominic Jones Major Player Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: Brighton, England Posts: 225	Well, a 6 stop latitude has already done half the work of making it look filmic for you! As for post processing, I'd have a look at Magic Bullet for starters, and have a play with the closest preset to the look you're going for... But as far as frame-rates go, you're best bet would have been to shoot 50i and deinterlace to 25p. The pitch adjust for 24p is a simple process not requiring of any particularly specialist software - I was doing them in Soundforge about 5 years ago with no problems, and others for WAY longer than that. However, I'm assuming you've got an NTSC version of the FX-1, which lands you in 60i -> 24p land, which is a bit more complex. I believe Magic Bullet will do a 3:2 pulldown effect to simulate 24p, and there are other tools for this approach too (DVFilm Maker, for instance), but I'm afraid that living in PAL land I can't give you much advice on how well they work - others here will have plenty of experience, however. Try posting the question in the "Toward a film look using DV" forum... Bear in mind, however, that how well lit/framed/moved/etc the camera work is defines 90% of the look - all this stuff is just the icing on the cake. Get a good DP (and for god's sake get a decent sound man, too!) and you're well on your way.