Evening night shot effect with the DVX

Stefan Scherperel · December 21st, 2003, 03:06 PM

Ozan biron was pretty close. All you need is a good 35MM slr, good tripod, chalk and a measuring tape. I went down to a street corner at about 7:30pm and took my measuring tape and measured about 15ft across this corner. I then made marks with the chalk starting every 1/4 inch, then 1/2 inch and finally going up to about 2 inches. These marks were basically tripod placements. I wanted it to ease in and out hence starting with teh quarter inch. I had two identical lines for two of the tripod legs, this let me keep the camera pointed in a single direction. I used 100ASA Kodak gold with a 35 sec exposure on each frame. This was kind of a test so next time I want to use a dolly to get a much smoother motion. I'm a digital artist at a local photography store, so I got my film developed for free. I think I used 5 rolls alltogether. I then scanned each frame and imported them into after effects 6. I used the steady move plugin (without zoom) to smooth out the motion. I made each frame about 15% larger than the 720x480 so that the steady move plugin would not lose any resolution when evening out my footage. So that's my secret, I hope this helps. By the way it is a slow and tedious process, so make sure you have lots of time on your hands. It took about 2 1/2 hours to film and about another 1 1/2 for the after effects work, all for a 5 second shot.

Joe Romano · December 21st, 2003, 11:37 PM

Thanks, I appreciate the reply and I appreciate your skill and cleverness in working all that out.

Joan d'Arc · December 23rd, 2003, 12:53 PM

Obtaining this effect in video is impossible. Try using a Nizo super8 camera. It's perfect for this kind of job and gives a superb quality.

Ozan Biron · January 9th, 2004, 09:59 PM

AH HA! Ive done it!!! "It is possbile"

Take a look of my VIDEO test i did with my 100a... still needs a little tweaking but gives the same effect as film!

Take a look...

http://www.illconcepts.com/videotest.mpg

Dan Lahav · January 11th, 2004, 12:56 PM

care to tell us how u did it? can i do that with my dvx100 (no "a")?

Imran Zaidi · January 11th, 2004, 01:46 PM

Wow, that is definitely a nice effect. Do tell!

December 21st, 2003, 03:06 PM	#16
Stefan Scherperel Major Player Join Date: Dec 2003 Location: Seattle WA Posts: 209	Ozan biron was pretty close. All you need is a good 35MM slr, good tripod, chalk and a measuring tape. I went down to a street corner at about 7:30pm and took my measuring tape and measured about 15ft across this corner. I then made marks with the chalk starting every 1/4 inch, then 1/2 inch and finally going up to about 2 inches. These marks were basically tripod placements. I wanted it to ease in and out hence starting with teh quarter inch. I had two identical lines for two of the tripod legs, this let me keep the camera pointed in a single direction. I used 100ASA Kodak gold with a 35 sec exposure on each frame. This was kind of a test so next time I want to use a dolly to get a much smoother motion. I'm a digital artist at a local photography store, so I got my film developed for free. I think I used 5 rolls alltogether. I then scanned each frame and imported them into after effects 6. I used the steady move plugin (without zoom) to smooth out the motion. I made each frame about 15% larger than the 720x480 so that the steady move plugin would not lose any resolution when evening out my footage. So that's my secret, I hope this helps. By the way it is a slow and tedious process, so make sure you have lots of time on your hands. It took about 2 1/2 hours to film and about another 1 1/2 for the after effects work, all for a 5 second shot. __________________ Stefan Scherperel SSE Productions http://www.stefweb.net

December 21st, 2003, 11:37 PM	#17
Joe Romano New Boot Join Date: May 2003 Location: new york Posts: 16	Thanks, I appreciate the reply and I appreciate your skill and cleverness in working all that out. __________________ peace, Joe

December 23rd, 2003, 12:53 PM	#18
Joan d'Arc New Boot Join Date: Aug 2002 Location: Valentian Country (Spain) Posts: 5	Obtaining this effect in video is impossible. Try using a Nizo super8 camera. It's perfect for this kind of job and gives a superb quality.

January 9th, 2004, 09:59 PM	#19
Ozan Biron Regular Crew Join Date: Oct 2003 Location: Vancouver, CANADA Posts: 137	AH HA! Ive done it!!! "It is possbile" Take a look of my VIDEO test i did with my 100a... still needs a little tweaking but gives the same effect as film! Take a look... http://www.illconcepts.com/videotest.mpg

January 11th, 2004, 12:56 PM	#20
Dan Lahav Regular Crew Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: CA Posts: 172	care to tell us how u did it? can i do that with my dvx100 (no "a")?

January 11th, 2004, 01:46 PM	#21
Imran Zaidi Trustee Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Orlando, FL Posts: 1,315	Wow, that is definitely a nice effect. Do tell!