> Buy a pdx10 PAL, get 20 pct more resolution,
> shoot as clean as you can and then play with the
> picture in post. Should look very nice.

Yes, should look nice. I actually thought about doing this, using a tool which I think is called DVFilm Atlantis. It's a great idea if you have the time for all that processing. And if you are transferring to film it should make even more sense. But I do some TV work so the prospect of processing everything just was not too attractive... also: in my market it costs more to get hands on PAL equipment.

I am thinking that applying a little motion blur will help achieve the film look for this reason. If you think about it there is persistance beyond the 1/60 or even 1/30 (1/24) for film that allows some after image to remain with the eye causing a slight overlap, in the mind anyway, of the preceeding and next images. A slight motion blur might help simulate this effect that would be naturally happening in your mind in a theater.

Just a thought.

Sean

On the Mac, Joe's Filters provides a nice plug-in for this. I found it useful for making computer animation look a bit more like real footage. Certainly worth experimenting with, but a good deinterlacer will probably do what you want. Joe's Filters also has that, or another option is DVFilm Maker.

Boyd, have you tested the new DV Film Maker yet that does 24p? I tried it but got very bad flicker that made it unusable.

Graeme

Motion Blur and more
 

Yes. Motion Blur is the way to go. In FCP I can control the strength and the amount of samples for motion blur. The more samples, the more render time, the smoother it looks.

If I add to this some non-linear transfer function (like Stib's Film Curves) then I get a really very 'film like' result. Well actually what I see is similar to that of film transferred to video.

Applying 'film' curves helps get more contrast from the mids, this especially helps if I underexpose a bit, wich also keeps the highlights from being slammed video style.

I also like to do other non-linear stuff like desaturating highlights and lowlights, you can do this with one of Apple's plugs.

It is also possible to use Stib's curves to seperately affect color channels, adding a non-linear tint to the picture. This makes for a really nice effect as seen on many music videos.

Of course, any blurring will --well-- blur the picture a little bit. This might seem like a resolution loss sometimes, but it has the added advantage of reducing noise and chroma artifacts, which is something good if using Stib's Film Curves or something like that with DV-originated material.

So as you see it all kind of fits together, 'film' curves, motion blur, underexposure.

Stib's free plugs:
http://www.scriptgeek.netfirms.com/

Graeme's plugs:
http://www.nattress.com/

Too Much Too Soon:
http://dtlx.datom.se/~mas/index2.html

CHV Silk & Fog:
http://www.chv-plugins.com/silkandfog_m1.html

More (the original link):
http://www.digitalzoo.com.au/lunchti...ed_02_free.htm



I would love to post some footage but I can't right now because of bandwidth and space limitations.

Sorry for the long post. Hope it helps.

Could you repost that link? The "..." are confusing my browser as the link was shortened somehow.

Thanks,

Sean

Ok, sorry for the inconvenience. Added some direct links and fixed the original one.