another bunch of newbie questions...

[Stephen Gibson]

Hello to all....

I have just purchased a dvx100 and I am so stoked.
I have made a few films with a borrowed canon optura 20 ran it through imovie and produced a dvd with idvd. it took alot of tweaking but managed to get really cool results...but now it's onto the big leagues...

here are the questions...
1. most movies that you see that are visually stylized such as lord of the rings...saw...etc etc..do they achieve a part of that look through the settings on the cameras they use and then revamp it in post or do they shoot for best exposure etc and then redo the look of the footage in post?

( i am trying to get a look where the footage is bleached out for example)

2. Like i said i have imovie 4 and idvd4 running on an emac 1.25 512 ram.
I have final cut pro 4 and no other dvd authoring software. I have tried to pull footage into imovie and noticed that even though i shot it in 24pa that the footage looked interlaced when it was outputted. I assume that is the result of imovie.
Final cut pro...is it the choice of all in the mac world...
And as far as dvd is concerned what is the best program?

As a side note I am shooting shorts with the intention of possibly blowing them up to film....

Thanx for the ear....and this forum is awesome...
steve

[David Jimerson]

Originally Posted by Stephen Gibson

1. most movies that you see that are visually stylized such as lord of the rings...saw...etc etc..do they achieve a part of that look through the settings on the cameras they use and then revamp it in post or do they shoot for best exposure etc and then redo the look of the footage in post?

Both. Lighting is key, and filters are used during filming. The film stock matters, too.

But color correction and color grading are done in post, too. Check out the LOTR box sets for examples.

( i am trying to get a look where the footage is bleached out for example)

It's called "bleach bypass." In *simplest* terms, it can be done in post by increasing contrast and fading out the color.

2. Like i said i have imovie 4 and idvd4 running on an emac 1.25 512 ram.
I have final cut pro 4 and no other dvd authoring software. I have tried to pull footage into imovie and noticed that even though i shot it in 24pa that the footage looked interlaced when it was outputted. I assume that is the result of imovie.

iMovie does not support native 24p editing, so don't use 24p Advanced if you're going to edit with it. Use 24p.

Both 24p and 24pA are recorded to tape as interlaced, but 24pA isn't meant to be edited in anything but native 24p. It has a "judder" frame where the interlacing will be obvious, and that's every five frames. You CAN edit it in iMovie, obviously, but you won't get the best results.

In any case, using iMovie, you're dealing with ALL interlaced footage. Advanced programs like Final Cut Pro can edit in native 24p, and there will be no interlacing.

[Stephen Gibson]

hey David

thanx for the quick response....

Finally i get a great camera and then sat there dumbfounded thinking holy cow where do i start. Funny when you have virtually no control over a basic camera you strive to find ways to make it do what you want it to do...

I will stick with final cut pro to edit the footage....

as far as dvd any info on that matter..

and also after all the shots are said and done i am thinking i want to get a cheap camera as a deck to import footage....am i right in assuming that even though the footage is shot in 24padv the cheap camera will not affect that as all i am using is the tape mechanism to load in the footage...

thanx again
steve

[David Jimerson]

Most Mini-DV cameras/decks will work. A few won't. Don't go super-cheap (like $200), and you'll probably be OK.