name that filmic-ness (clip evaluation)
 

so this is just a frivolous home movie...

but when i burned it to DVD, or watched it on my computer, I was shocked by how much I loved the way it looked.

Kind of filmic (i think).

But I can't actually name the characteristic that makes me think that.

I am aware that:
1) it was shot with a progressive sensor (but 30p not 24p)
2) the soft magic hour sunlight was filtering through my large glass doors creating some really perfect color saturation (i think)
3) the unique characteristics of the room, and the shadowed textures in the background create some feeling of depth and "portraiture".
4) these are the world's two most adorable little boys in the world (completely objective on this one)

And all of that could be any camera....

But there is something about the shadows, highlights, contrast, and maybe gamma, that seems to stand out.

Here's the clip (windows media player (.wmv) 720p 110mb)
www.stock20.com/media/filmic-clip.wmv

I'm not revealing yet what camera was used (maybe a viper, or a pixelvision, or my cel phone.... that will be part of the fun).

But am I imagining it, or does this look pretty filmic (maybe you can imagine a shallower DOF)?

And if so, what terms would you use to describe it.

If anyone is interested I'll post other clips in other settings.

Peace.

one thing besides the whole P things is I think that you are close to the subject, which is well lit, and the background is dark, so you create the filmic DOF without an adapter and such. Plus you get more DOF anyway because your close to the subject and the distance between the subject en background is pretty large. (I hope I discribe it well, and excuse me for calling these little kids 'subjects' ;-) )

It reminded me of old 8mm footage from my childhood. Not really in the "look" as the old 8mm reels are really grainy and the focus is worse and what not. But just the fact that their was no "live" audio and it was just these fast whip-pans between the two kids. That and the hand held nature of it just reminded me of those old films. The progressive mode definitely helps to move it away from the reality look of interlaced video. Good stuff. What did you shoot this on?