In Search for the "Cinematic look"

[Joan Daniel]

My dear colleagues,
In my search for the Cinematic look, right know I’m experimenting in a “trial and error” kind of mode, to add them to my presets.
To get the best personalized setting for my short films using the plenty of parameters that we enjoy in the XL2, I wonder, is there a reasonable difference in lighting setup, between shooting in 2:3(TV) or 2:3:3 (for transfer to film stock). Since basically we are doing video, do we need better contrast for 2:3:3?. If so, any one knows a good chart reference to take a look. And how much of the “Cinelook” we can left for Postproduction? Or none?

yours truly


Joan Daniel

[Pete Bauer]

Howdy Joan,

If someone with more technical knowledge knows better, please speak up. But as far as I know, there should be no difference in exposure or color saturation, etc (ie, "the look") at any given shutter speed + aperture combination between the 2:3 (24p) and 2:3:3:2 (24pA) settings. The difference is just in the cadence that fields are repeated to write the 24 frames to a 60i signal on the tape.

[Rob Lohman]

Shutter speed:
- changes the way motion looks (and how much light you need)

Iris / aperture:
- changes the depth of field (what is in focus + how much light you need)

Framerate:
- changes the way motion looks

Gain:
- amplifies CCD levels (changes noise levels + how much light you need)

The difference between 2:3 and 2:3:3:2 is the way 24p footage
is converted to 30p before it is layed down to tape. This is mainly
important for editing etc.

Then there are all kind of options to actually change the look of
the footage, including:

- white balance (changes the way colors look)

- setup level (changes how black, black is)

- color gain (how vivid are the colors, can also produce B&W) = saturation

- skin detail (soften imperfections)

- gamma curve / knee / black stretch & press (changes the gamma curve to more closely match films gamma curve)

- color matrix (change the look of colors)

- color phase / RGB gain (shift or boost colors)

- vertical detail (soften or sharpen the image vertically)

- sharpness (overal sharpness)

- coring (adjust detail noise levels)

- master pedestal (darken + increase constrast, or lighten + lower contrast)

- noise reduction

That's basically this. All of it is described in the manual. Carefully
read that and do tests yourself. That is the only way to see what
you like and what works for you or doesn't.

Personally I'm a fan of doing things in post, but then again I haven't
shot anything with this camera myself yet.
-

[Joan Daniel]

And Yes, the camera's manual is where I'm taking my references from.

but nothing like this for the XL2? :

http://panasonic.com/business/provid...ene_select.asp

Anyway if the answer is not I'll try my best to give you and the whole community screen shots and settings.

cheers!!

[Rob Lohman]

That is not possible with the XL2 at this time indeed.

[Michael Escher]

Rob, I was lead to belive that one could transfer presets from XL2 to XL2 with a firewire cable. It seems that you could set up looks like the linked panasonic page and you'd be good to go. I am frankly surprised no one, including Canon has set a page like this up for XL2 owners.

[Patrick King]

I'm another one that would use a reference for the XL2 similar to the Panasonic listing. It seems this should be the sort of thing available in the "XL2 Owners Club".

Another DVinfo member, Matt Cherry has provided a setup sheet for use in documenting presets for a shoot, but more for after the fact documentation than idea provoking possibilities like the Panny site.

[Michael Escher]

Well, I just got off the line with the Canon customer service rep from the US west coast and put in a request for a page on their website similar to the one listed in one of the emails above that panasonic has for their cameras.

The supervisor that I spoke to said that Canon would be more responsive if they recieved a number of requests for the info from different people, so if you all want this info, I suggest you call Canon at one of the divisions listed on the website below.

http://www.usa.canon.com/html/indust..._america.shtml

Perhaps if we put enough heat on them, they will come through with something we all can use.