GL2 settings for Film Look, looking for details.

[Steve Maisch]

I need some advice from any DP out there with intimate working knowledge of the Canon GL2.

What I am looking for is specific settings for the GL2 for an outdoor day and evening shoot, to make it as film like as possible. I do understand that film is film, but you can make the footage look very movie like, I have seen it.

What I need is specifics for the Full Manual mode on:

Shutter speed
Aperture size
Gain
White Balance (use outdoor preset or manual?)
Nuetral Density Feature (on or off?)

I do understand that I should shoot in 30P mode and 16:9.

I will be using Premiere Pro and Magic Bullet for post. Rendering at 16:9 and 24P.

Also, any special filters or techniques I can use in post to give it that ethereal film quality.

Thanks in advance.

Steve

[Jarrod Whaley]

Originally Posted by Steve Maisch

What I need is specifics for the Full Manual mode on:

Shutter speed
Aperture size
Gain
White Balance (use outdoor preset or manual?)
Nuetral Density Feature (on or off?)

I'm not sure I understand what you're asking. You need specifics about these things? Wha??

Are you asking which setting will get you the most film-like images?

There's going to be some kind of trade-off between shutter and aperture. A shutter speed of 60 will give you the amount of motion blur closest to that of film that you can get on this camera, and a wide-open aperture will help you get somewhat shallower depth of field. Unfortunately, you're going to have to use one of the two to adjust exposure, so it depends on which look you want to go for (or which of the two best suits a particular scene).

Gain is a big no-no. Set it at 0 and leave it there, unless you want a grainy image. Wait, even if you want a grainy image, add the grain in post--you'll have more control over it, and you'll still have the option to change your mind. Gain grain's forever.

Always do a manual white balance. You'd be surprised at how much better you are at deciding what's white than your camera is. But you can also WB to non-white objects for interesting effects. Do a search here, there are plenty of threads that cover this.

Use your ND filter if: 1) the scene is overexposed and there's no other way to bring down the exposure; 2) you want to be able to open your aperture up a bit for lessened depth of field.

None of these things are particularly filmic, as they already apply to both video and film (except WB, where the film equivalent would be choice of proper color temp in lights and choice of film stock). It's been said here and elsewhere over and over, but the best way to get a "film look" is to use lights, get good audio, cast decent actors, edit well, and expose your images well.

Hope this is helpful. Search the forums, there are literally bajillions of threads about this topic.

EDIT: One more thing--if you're planning on converting to 24p in post, you're probably better off shooting in 60i, i.e. turn "frame mode" off. And for the record, frame mode isn't a true 30p, but a digital simulation thereof.

[Meryem Ersoz]

steve, you should do a search on film look. i'm not sure you're asking the right questions....asking how to use the manual controls to create a film look is kind of like asking how to steer a bus using the brake. i mean, there are some things which you can do to control the depth of field, zooming into your subject as closely as possible to pop the object in the foreground and blur the background, for instance. and open the aperture. but mostly, you create the film look in post-production. for this, shoot 60i, not 30p (which, as jarrod mentioned, the GL2 does not shoot in true 30p anyway).

you probably should run some experiments, because people achieve film looks using a variety of means to that end.

for the gl2, try some filters on the front end. soft fx-1 is nice. black pro-mist 1/4 or 1/2 filters are popular. these may not give you a film look, exactly, but they can give you a more unique, signature look which distinguishes your video from the pack. i wouldn't call it film look, but it's definitely less video-ish.

also, here's a thread that might be helpful....

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthrea...ht=gl2+trailer

[Steve Maisch]

Than you both, this does point me in the right direction.

Question:

Why should I shoot in 60i over 30P?

[Jarrod Whaley]

Originally Posted by Steve Maisch

Why should I shoot in 60i over 30P?

Because 30p (and again, the GL2 doesn't do 30p, but I digress) just doesn't convert well to 24p. There are too many frame-blending and flickering issues. 60i converted to 24p isn't perfect either, but it's better. Magic Bullet is designed to be used with 60i, so you'll just get better results. You're providing more visual information with which to make the conversion.

On top of that, the frame mode on the GL2 is already in most respects a compromised version of your video signal, and the extra step of converting to 24p will bring about an even greater loss of signal quality. Frame mode has already done some amount of field blending, and Magic Bullet will do more. It's kind of like making copies of analog copies in that respect.

[Steve Maisch]

I read the other post you two mentioned, and read what Jim Cole said. Great stuff.

Question:

If I want a darker, sinister feel to the trailer I am filming, should I white balance to a pink card for the orange effect Jim spoke about, or maybe a different color?

Dont worry I will experiment whent he camera arrives, I am just trying to get a head start.

[Jarrod Whaley]

Yeah, try your hand at white balancing to various colors. You can really get some interesting effects. The overall color cast will be something like the opposite of the WB'ed color on the color wheel--think complementary colors. It doesn't always work out exactly as you'd expect because it's a little more complicated than basic complementary color theory, but thinking this way ought to give you some idea.

Find a lot of colored pieces of cardboard or something (like paint sample cards from the hardware store) and play around with them a bit.

[Tim Johnson]

Don't forget that if you use a wider aperture, zooming in will help shallow the depth of field. Not really practical ofcourse. As said I NEVER use gain, it just makes the video look absolutely nasty! set sharpness to just a bit more than the lowest (i find that at minimum sharpness looks a bit to soft on details, so i preffer to work on softness in post).

Maybe u should build a 35mm adapter- im working on one for my xm2 with a nikon mount

Btw i just use a grey piece of card for wb... works perfectly