Shooting DV for film

[Carlos E. Martinez]

These days I have been researching the web extensively on most DV issues for quality jobs. Particularly when planning projects you may blow to film.

Even considering other alternatives to low cost cameras was tried just to keep the matter on a more objective perspective. That is at least to have a reference in the video world.

Several things are coming out: some good, some not so good.

First of all I must say it was a great thing to have found this Forum. I just wish it were more active, as sometimes there are only two or three mails a day. Maybe that's because people are too busy (which is great) or it is not too known to people that might share their DV experiences (which is not good).

The best thing, the more positive one, is that more people are striving to improve on the quality of their DV projects. This means looking at the problems and imperfections head on and trying ways to solve it. This is evident on this Forum and other other places I've been in.

In a way this is very much like my old days as a film student, where I looked into all the stuff I could to improve on 16mm shooting, so as no one could perceive it was shot in anything but 35mm. Interestingly, most things that applied there also does for DV blown to film.

That doesn’t mean you can’t break these “rules”, just be aware you will quite probably be showing eventual problems that are not a “part” of the look you want. In documentaries this is usually not a problem, as viewers are used to a more “rough” or “grainy” look. Anyone who saw “Bowling for Columbine” will know what I mean. My bet is it was shot with anything that was available at the moment, though someone may know better about it.

In any case I am an advocate that the medium should be invisible and should not call any attention to itself. Whoever does not think this way will probably find the rest of my mail uninteresting. But anyone who shares my point of view should also be aware that defects can be better used to one’s advantage if the rest of the time you do things “right”.

As this mail may probably be divided in several matters in the near future, let’s start with the problems I was surprised to read on about the Panasonic AG-DVX100P, probably the most talked about and desired DV camera of the moment:

1) The audio / video sync questions raised by Adam Wilt on his site seem unacceptable to me:

http://www.adamwilt.com/24p/index.html

2) Color fringing on sharp detail, as reported and shown by John Beale looks like a serious problem that will empoverish a film blow-up:

http://www.bealecorner.com/dvx100/index.html

3) Not providing an interchangeable lens to properly deal with not having native 16:9 CCDs. In the lens area, sounds inconceivable to me that you can’t clean the lens properly (by removing the reflection plate) or you will invalidate your warranty. All 16:9 adapters seem to impair the original Leica lens, which is probably quite good.

For an appetizer, these issues sound quite impressive to me to know how people are dealing with such problems on their units.


Carlos

[Rob Lohman]

I've never seen or used the DVX camera, so I cannot comment
on your thoughts there.

I agree with your basic thought. It is good to strive for a better
picture and generaly it doesn't really matter on what we shoot.

The reason most people are probably so focussed on which
camera was used to shoot something is because it acknowledges
to them that their camera can deliver the kind of image they
hope to be able to create one day. This might set a goal for
someone to reach for example (perhaps even uncontionally).

[Martin Munthe]

To bad the knowledge is not in the camera :)

[Jeff Donald]

Carlos, the DV Info community is actually very busy averaging several hundred posts per day. Your questions concerning the Panasonic DVX100 would be better addressed in the DVX100 forum. You might want to post your general DV production questions in the Open DV forum. Posting in the DV film look forum will not get much response to your issues at hand. So, to better address your comments and concerns I'm moving this to the DVX100 forum.