Ok, I did the search for a film noir type setting, and just kept getting referred to this thread. Any noir scenes yet?

Ok, I did the search for a film noir type setting, and just kept getting referred to this thread. Any noir scenes yet?
If you read the very post in this thread you will see all of the scene files listed, including the film noir setting I created.

You can directly download the zipped scene file (http://homepage.mac.com/timdashwood/.Public/SCN_files/TD_scene_files_v2.zip) or look at a pdf with the recipe. (http://homepage.mac.com/timdashwood/.Public/SCN_files/HD100_Scene_File_Recipes2.pdf)

So... Yes, I was missing it? Thanks, as always, Tim.

Where did you get those nifty color charts to go with your PDF?

Please Add this thread to the top of the heap.

Click here for Brite_OD thread. (http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=73585)

Also I've uploaded the scene file "how to" load on SD card tut to Chris' server. Can you please update the original post to reflect it's new location?

Thanks a bunch.

S.Noe

We've been getting some interesting scene file contributions lately, so I though it would be best to keep track of them here in one sticky. If you have a scene file to contribute, please start a new thread, give it a unique name that describes its look or purpose, and explain its use. I will then add it to this top post.

There are two ways to put a scene file on the HD100/101:

The slowest method is to manually program in the settings provided in a scene file "recipe" and then store the file on your camera internally or to the SD card.

Sometimes users will provide a link to a .SCN file that can be loaded on to your SD card.
To load a .SCN file onto your SD card you will need a 3rd party SD card reader (or a SD digital camera in MASS MEDIA mode may work.)
The HD100 will only recognize 4 files on a SD card, no matter how big the card is.
The four available file names are EXT1.SCN,EXT2.SCN,EXT3.SCN or EXT4.SCN
Therefore you must rename any downloaded SCN files to one of those four names before copying the file over to your SD card (a simple drag and drop on Mac and Windows XP.) Then just put the SD card back in your camera and load the EXTERNAL files 1 through 4.
Stephen Noe has prepared a WMV explaining the process. (http://home.comcast.net/~stephenlnoe/scene.wmv)

WARNING: HD100 .SCN scene files CONTAIN ALL MENU SETTINGS and WHITE BALANCE A & B memory settings at the time it was saved. Therefore you may have to change your frame rate, re-white balance, and modify other settings to your liking after you have loaded another user's .SCN file.



Hey Tim,

The link to the WMV does not work. Is there any other way of getting a detailed explanation on how to load and re-name scene files for download to a card?

Thanks,

Carl

Hey Tim,

The link to the WMV does not work. Is there any other way of getting a detailed explanation on how to load and re-name scene files for download to a card?

Thanks,

Carl

"How to" load a scene file with a card reader WMV (http://media.dvinfo.net/avid/scenefile.wmv)

Hey Tim,
The link to the WMV does not work. Is there any other way of getting a detailed explanation on how to load and re-name scene files for download to a card?

I thought what I wrote before was about as detailed as it could get. It is actually quite a simple two step process. Rename the downloaded SCN file and drag it onto the SD card. That's it.

I thought what I wrote before was about as detailed as it could get. It is actually quite a simple two step process. Rename the downloaded SCN file and drag it onto the SD card. That's it.

Oh, ok, thanks.

"How to" load a scene file with a card reader WMV (http://media.dvinfo.net/avid/scenefile.wmv)

Thank you.

Would I be correct in saying that you can't use the camera itself as a card reader (which unfortunately I don't have...although I have a Panasonic mini DV cam with USB...that could work eh?)?
Currently playing around with the recipe's kindly posted on this forum...thought I'd first play around with the 'Amelie' recipe. Using this in 25p (SD) the image is extremely shuttery...am I doing something wrong?
Understand the delicate nature or progressive shooting but this quite extreme.
Shutter speed issue...that fact this is not in HDV?
thanks folks.
dave.

Would I be correct in saying that you can't use the camera itself as a card reader (which unfortunately I don't have...although I have a Panasonic mini DV cam with USB...that could work eh?)?
Currently playing around with the recipe's kindly posted on this forum...thought I'd first play around with the 'Amelie' recipe. Using this in 25p (SD) the image is extremely shuttery...am I doing something wrong?
Understand the delicate nature or progressive shooting but this quite extreme.
Shutter speed issue...that fact this is not in HDV?
thanks folks.
dave.
You should set your shutter speed to 1/50th for shooting in PAL DV (25P or 50i). The camera process settings will not affect the shutter in any way.

Cheers Tim - not sure why the shutter speed had altered???
Same apply (1/50) for HDV?
must admit I'm struggling a little over CAM1/2 etc and the EXT.SCN and USER buttons?!?! Can the camera store more than 4 scenes whereas you can only store 4 of them on a card?
Can't say I've fallen in love with the JVC manual!

Thanks.
dave

Hey Tim,

Under file manage, what is the selection LIVE HD30P/HD25P used for, and when should it be used for?

Thanks.

Cheers Tim - not sure why the shutter speed had altered???
Same apply (1/50) for HDV?
Yes. Shutter speed is shutter speed regardless of format. However, similar to what Canon does, the default shutter speed in DV mode is 1/25th on E models (1/24th on U models.) That is something to watch out for when using the camera in DV mode. The default shutter speeds in HDV mode are correct.
must admit I'm struggling a little over CAM1/2 etc and the EXT.SCN and USER buttons?!?! Can the camera store more than 4 scenes whereas you can only store 4 of them on a card?
There are two user spaces on the camera and max 4 on any size SD card.
Can't say I've fallen in love with the JVC manual!
It sometimes seems like the English manual was written by an automatic translator (Babelfish.) How many times have you seen "time cord" instead of "timecode?"
Under file manage, what is the selection LIVE HD30P/HD25P used for, and when should it be used for?
They are just factory preset scene files designed as a starting point for new users. I've never used them, so I can't really comment on them.

Cheers Tim.

Quote:
Originally Posted by David Scattergood
must admit I'm struggling a little over CAM1/2 etc and the EXT.SCN and USER buttons?!?! Can the camera store more than 4 scenes whereas you can only store 4 of them on a card?

There are two user spaces on the camera and max 4 on any SD card.

Cam 1 and 2 then EXT.SCN a through 4 right? I'll have to read up a bit more on this...I figured the User buttons were used for scene files also...and yes th translation is a bit 'wronged up' at times - I'd even asked on another thread what 'time cord' was!

Cheers for the reply.

They are just factory preset scene files designed as a starting point for new users. I've never used them.

Thanks Tim.

...I figured the User buttons were used for scene files also...
The external user buttons can be assigned functions in the SWITCH MODE menu. (BARS, PRESET TEMP., B STRETCH 1-2-3, B COMPRESS 1-2-3, AE LEVEL + or -)

These buttons cannot be used to recall scene files.

Most of the links published are broke for recipe

Thanks Tim - I'm getting there!

Thank you all on this thread for your knowledge. I´ve learned a lot about camerasettings to achieve a special look in-cam. Does somebody know if this is doable on a (for example) Sony DSR570. I´m about to do a shooting of a theatrical piece with 3 Sony 570 and a JVC 101.The Sonys will work from long to mid-range and the JVC go extremclose on one actors face. I would like to have a bleachout look from all of them but less so from the JVC101.

Thanks for all the reciepe on scene files.

Hello. I've been using Tim's various receipes (color reversal, warm), Stephen's panamatch, and Paolo's TC the past few months. All of them are great and have their own uses. Which HD100 setting do you guys think is the closest to Steven Dempsey's panalook (XL-H1)?

Here's an example footage (warning, large download):

http://www.realm.cc/upload/disjecta/FridayHarbor.wmv

That's really special George, I'm struggling to believe this is from the same camera I have in front of me (still learning the multitude of elements that go into this and I haven't as yet had chance to film in high def).
Big file indeed...my PC struggled to catch up with it unfortunately, meaning the scenes stuttered.
Is this for a film project?

It's one of Steven Dempsey's short subject films. It's pretty amazing that he can get that kind of quality from an XLH1. I'm pretty sure an HD100 can create stunning pictures like that, too. I just want to see what settings would be appropriate. I think the closest is probably Steven's panamatch setting shot during magic hour :-)

I am still downloading but that is an amazing video.

Oh - sorry I thought it was the HD100...still fantastic footage.

I may have mentioned this on another thread but I recently used Paulo's tru colour 3 setting on a recent job. It was very bright day and I only had the on board ND filters and iris reduction at hand. From what I've read, this scene file was more for HDV than SD (I was using Standard Def - 25p) - as such some of the colours are a little bleached in parts.
Is there a suitable scene file for Standard Definition - these are small corporate jobs so a middle of the road setting would suffice (mainly filming exterior buildings/inside of shops/bars etc).

Many thanks.

Would I be correct in stating that following the scene files on this forum (which are in the main for the NTSC market) would cause me a little trouble?
They clearly look great from the footage shown on here, but as mentioned on my post above shooting in 25p (SD) some of my outdoor scenes were 'roasted' almost.
I guess I need a British Paulo, Tim et al...other than that hire a DP, which at the moment I can't really afford (same applies to a decent portable monitor).

Cheers,
Dave.

When using one of the Scene Files for a Project, what is the proper way to credit the designers?

Steve, I would add a personal thank you note on the end credits (eg. Special thanks to Tim Dashwood for Bleach Bypass - HD100 camera setting, same with Paolo and Stephen's stuff).

They clearly look great from the footage shown on here, but as mentioned on my post above shooting in 25p (SD) some of my outdoor scenes were 'roasted' almost.
I think most of us designed our settings in HDV, so switching from 24 to 25 won't make a bit of difference in colour reporoduction or exposure.
The colourspace of standard definition is a little bit different than HDV, but that still shouldn't affect your exposure too much.

Thanks Tim, little concerned that with scenes designed for NTSC might not look the same on PAL? I don't currently have the option of 'painting' scenes via a top end monitor so rely on the generous help offered on this site - there doesn't appear to be the same HD100 community in the UK, on the net at least.

I find the truecolo(u)r 3 file works pretty well in SD PAL.

I use it as a base most of the time, switching in black stretch/crush and tweeking the knee as seems necessary.

If you are shooting urban settings, with a bright-overcast sky, chances are you will get some overexposure in the sky unless filtered. Best to keep an eye on that zebra and perhaps add some black stretch or lift the lower midtones in post if they work out a little dark.

If you are shooting interiors that are not specially lit and/or windows gelled down then it is almost guaranteed that some windows will be blown out, on almost any medium you shoot.

If you can choose your time, you could pick an late afternoon where the light outside would be less intense, or an overcast day- but unless the interior is lit with daylight balanced lights you will still have top contend with the mixed light: cold-outside/warm-inside and choose which, or where in-between to balance for.

Come to think of it it might be possible to mask and selectively correct blue windows in post.

lesh

Some time back I had asked if anyone had come up with a good scene file for doing green screen work (another thread) with the HD100 with little feedback, so I did my own testing and tweaking during our last full production shoot. I'm posting here since this was the first place I looked originally for these setting, and still nothing to date has been added for this that I could find. I hope no one minds.

We found that by starting with Paolo's TC3 and making a few changes we got the best results with the HD100, when going to post from a well lit talent and screen. For reference, we chose to start from TC3 simply because we prefer to produce our "look" in post giving us the most flexible process, however using TC3 native we found the colors to be just a little too saturated overall for green screen work. The most trouble coming from the the red levels, but the tweaks got us there in the end, so it was a great place to start. I'm not claiming that this is the end all for the HD100 and green screen work, I'm only sharing what produced the best results for us that day with our HD100 and a modified TC3. Thanks for the head start Paolo!


I'm only going to list the settings that we changed from Paolo's original TC3

Detail = -3
This was brought up from "Min" just for that day (we keep it at Min for everything we shoot normally) but as it ended up softening the talents edges a bit much to pull a clean key, we faired better with -3 to 1. Any higher and we risked a more typical and slight ringing of the edges.

Gamma = Standard
Not sure exactly how this helped (perhaps Paolo can explain) but it did bring the color to a more suitable level. Our DP was switching back and forth between Standard and Cinelike comparing and the result was obvious enough on the monitor to change to Standard.

Gamma Level = Normal
Again, our DP's choice but it looked right.

Color Gain = -1
This helped bring the levels down just a notch and kept colors from over saturating.

Red Gain = 2
Dropping back 1 on the red gained helped a fair amount but even still the JVC tends to show blacks with a slightly red hue for us with most everything we have shot. Reducing the red gain a notch was a fairly obvious change for the better with a large green screen involved.


For the most part that was it. I know this is no longer "True Color" but we have it saved as "True Key". At least now we have something to work with and maybe it will help someone else later down the line.

Peace!

Daniel, thank you for that wonderful post. I needed that for sure. I did chroma-key shots for 3 long scenes 2 weeks ago and I wasn't very happy with what I did. I will definitely save this scene file for future projects.

Daniel P:

I didn't see any change in the color matrix of TC3, but just to be sure: would that scene file work with blue screen as well as green screen, or is that setup only for green screens?

Sorry, not tested, so I can't say for sure. We have only used green in the local larger studio, as well as our smaller in-house setup. But simply from the perspective of a slightly lower overall saturation, I would "guess" the answer might be yes. Regardless, it might be worth doing what we did... start with TC3, tweak it, and test the key then and there. It could be nailed down far more than our little tweaks, I could have spent a full day (and more $$) doing just that.

Thanks Daniel for sharing the info.

I am sorry, I read through the post, but I'm not too clear on how to go about actually loading one of these scn files onto my camera. I had thought I could just plug in a firewire cable and pull it off my mac. So I need to load the Scn files onto an 3rd party SD card reader ? Can anyone suggest a card reader?

Thanks,
Tommy Davis

Hi, I was inputting Paolo's recipe into my HD100 the other day and notices that it didn't speicy some settings like: v/h balance, H Frequency, V Frequency, white paint. Should I worry about it? What should be the settings? I also looked at other recipes and they don't specify these either. Thanks.

Hi, I was inputting Paolo's recipe into my HD100 the other day and notices that it didn't speicy some settings like: v/h balance, H Frequency, V Frequency, white paint. Should I worry about it? What should be the settings? I also looked at other recipes and they don't specify these either. Thanks.
Hi Rati. No I don't change the defaults for those settings.

. Thanks for the head start Paolo!

You're very welcome.

Gamma = Standard
Not sure exactly how this helped

Just an overall observation via the WFM seemed to me to lead to a more balanced gamma. TrueColor tries to achieve both accurate color rendition and maximum latitude. BTW, the emphasis in TrueColor is on skin tones so that explains the red levels as red+yellow are the main components of skin tones. While I think that the red level is where it's supposed to be in the VScope, it could be that it's not the optimal for GS work. It would be interesting to see how it works with a blue screen.

Take care.

I used your TcV3 in a short film I made this year. Worked really nice. Credited you in the film.
Cheers,
Jon Jaschob

http://www.fotgfilms.com/OnceUponATimeInTheCampsite

Thank you Jon.

Is anybody else having trouble downloading the zipped .scn files for "dark interior"?

Best,
Tommy

So I need to load the Scn files onto an 3rd party SD card reader ?Yes, you need an SD card reader in order to move scene files.

Can anyone suggest a card reader?It makes absolutely no difference which one you choose, as long as it's compatible with Secure Digital flash memory cards.

I've read a few interviews with the Austrailian/Asian cinematographer Christopher Doyle recently (having watched a batch of the excellent films he's been involved with).
On 'The days of being wild' (Wong Kar-Wai) he talked of using 4/5 filters for certain scenes. Would this kind of technique be necessary with the HD digital video camera's? I can see why we would use ND filters etc but having scene file manipulation within such camera's would this still be relevant?
Part of the reason I've posted this is because I want to try and achieve a similar look to his films...that green hue but with 'violent' reds:
The film 'Dumpling' is a good example (the colours to me appear to be a more aggressive 'Amelie' setting)

http://www.filmmakermagazine.com/fall2005/features/images/doyle1.jpg

2046 another example:

http://filmbrain.typepad.com/filmbrain/images/2046_wkw.jpg

Slightly off the topic...I've recently used Paulo's tru colour 3 setting for a corporate video - this worked really well (thanks Paulo). Mostly shot as exteriors - if I were to carry on shooting for the same project but indoors (in say a darker exterior) would I need to make any alterations to this setting...use another setting perhaps (but still matching the 'look' of the exterior shots)?

Cheers.

I have a question about Paolo's True Colour settings. Does V3 render V2 totally obsolete or there are still situations where V2 or even V1 would be recommended over V3?
Does V2 have a wider dynamic range or something? Would any of them be recommended to shot a low key lit with lots of shadows night shoot show?

Why do we use these scene files? Can't we have these effects in post with After Effects or something?

Why do we use these scene files? Can't we have these effects in post with After Effects or something?

Yes... but using the on-board processor BEFORE the mpeg2 compression or downsampling is applied can give you more range of control.

If you are capturing with an uncompressed card, then definitely attempt to optimize the maximum latitude possible for your scene and manipulate the image in post.