Film look on a budget?
 

Apologies if this has been hammered to death, but with new technology being introduced every month it is hard for a newbie to know what to purchase....

I have written a few screenplays, Ken Loach, Shane Meadows type stuff and I want to film a few scenes.

I have various Canon L Series Zooms and Primes and a mac book pro for my photography work if any of this could be used in conjunction with other hardware?

Canon XM2?

Regards

Far as I can tell the best way to get a film look is a multi-step process.

1) Shoot at 24 progressive frames per second.
2) Use a 35mm adapter of some kind to decrease DOF.
3) Color correct to make the colors look more like film, using Magic Bullet or Apple Color.
4) Introduce a slight bit of grain.

And as complicated and expensive as that is, it's still easier to do than to shoot with 16mm.

Ok so I can use my Canon lenses with an adapter (Lexus35?). I already have FCS2. So I just need a camcorder...

the next impossible decision...

Hi Richard,

There is a lot to the film look. Cadence - 24 fps (25fps in PALandom in your case is likely close enough) is most often cited as the first thing, but really, when talking about video and film, the real differences like in just about everything else.

Film's latitude is continuous and color palette and gamut of film wider and richer, but it doesn't stop there, either.

The 35mm adapters go a long way to control DOF, but one of the significant things they really eliminate the use of is zoom lenses, something cinema cameras rarely use in production.

Foremost is style. Shooting your show like a film will make a difference.

My best,

Mike

Hi Richard,
Obtaining the 'film look' has often been the look i want for my productions and personaly the thing that makes all the difference for me is the lighting of your scenes. I read everywhere about a 35mm adapter helping get the look along with post production colouring and grain etc but after years of experimenting, i have found that if i get the lighting right then everything else seems to fall into place. Example, i had a scene for a short film i was working on where 2 people were having an emotional convo, now i framed my camera as 'filmic' as possible and got a very shallow depth of field which all looked lovely, but still something wasnt quite right, it all just looked too bright and everything in shot was evenly illuminated. It wasnt until i started to play around with my back and key light until i started to produce some shadows on my cast that id say almost completley changed the way the scene looked. I found myself quickly being able to change the 'feel' of an entire scene just by adjusting a few lights.

I was always told that during film, light is your friend, however i've personally found shadows are just as friendly :)