The steps I need to take....

[Trevor Trombley]

So I own a Sony TRV 950.

And I plan to make myself a DOF adapter.

I have a shoot that's coming up, a ten minute short, supernatural thriller.

I'm planning to do my best with lighting, and when it comes to composition I feel as though I have a good eye for what I'm doing.

As for the camera. Should I film in 16X9 mode? Or should I film in 4:3 and just add clips in post to give it a 16X9 look?

The shoot takes place in a house, I plan to have night lighting, gels etc.....casting light into the house to simulate moonlight, while at the same time have primary light sources inside, but i don't want to overlight the room, I still want a fair bit of shadows, to give it that creepy almost film noir look....Should I White balance with an orange card? Purple? I could always play with varying colors, but what have you guys used in the past to give it a nice atmospheric look? Or should I white balance with white and just change the colors in post?

After the footage has been shot. What steps do i take in post?

Dienterlace Blend before I cut the footage? Or after? What should I do to maintain the best mage quality, while at the same time do color correction etc....

I'm new to this, and have done a few shorts in the past, but nothing that was truly fantastic.....I'm a piece of clay, mold me.

Trevor T

[Rob Lohman]

That's a lot of questions and guidance you seek there, Trevor.
In my honoust opinion I don't think your ready do this. Why?
Because we can't give you a blueprint for all of this (otherwise
everybody would be making fantastic movies, now wouldn't they?).
It totally depends on the subject matter, the equipment, the
experience and the specific look / feeling you are after. In my
personal opinion this can only come through experience or if
you have someone experienced with you to take you through
it. Which we can't do virtually (due to time etc.).

Some persons prefer to shoot in 16x9. I prefer to add letterboxing
in post to be able to re-frame my footage vertically. It IS a personal
PREFERENCE. I'm assuming your camera does not have native
16:9 chips (99.99% sure on that) so you won't gain any resolution
increase anyway. Some people even prefer to shoot in 4:3 and
leave it at that. It all depends.

A question like "after the footage has been shot, what steps do
I take in post?" is really un-answerable. It totally depends on
what steps you need and what works or doesn't work. For
example: some footage may require color correction and some
doesn't. Or what I would color correct you wouldn't, perhaps.
You see where I'm getting at? It all boils down to experience,
personality (that's what sets movies apart!) and looks.

You can have as many as:

1) capture the footage (if you shoot with a harddisk recorder you can skip this already)

2) check each take and mark whats good and bad (if you only shot one take you can't do this)

3) edit your footage

4) do color correction (some might not want to do this)

5) add special effects (some might not have those)

6) do your music scoring (some might not want to or know how to do this)

7) make audio effects and mix those in (same as above)

8) blow it up to film (not everyone will do this)

So someone might have all of these steps and some might have
less. Some people might even need to add subtitles and credits
and others don't.

With everything, there is NO ONE RIGHT WAY!

The best piece of advice I can give you is to experiment yourself
to see what works and doesn't.

To take the 16:9 example. Shoot a very small short of how your
cat goes to the john for example or whatever simple. Take a few
different angles and shoot one piece in 16:9 and the other in 4:3.
Then capture the footage and load it up in your editor to see
what works for you. Easy test, easy to find out what you like!

Night shooting is a whole different animal that seems very difficult
to do according to what I've read. I have never done this myself.
Please do a search on "night" in the lighting forum and you well
get a lot of hits on this subject matter. Night shooting or day for
night shooting is something some people might help you with
because it is a more technological question. BUT, you will still
need to EXPERIMENT with it BEFORE actually shooting your movie.

DO NOT experiment while you are making the movie (ofcourse there
is always room for some small experimenting or improvisation!)
with such things because it will take tons and tons of time and
everybody waiting will get sick of it pretty fast.

Deinterlace Blend is one of those things that is personal as well.
You can do it before the editing or after. Personally I think I would
do it before any color or effects work. But again, practice and
testing this yourself in an actual workflow (even if it is for a 1
minute movie!) will tell you what works for you and how it looks
to you. Keep in mind that you really do need to test this with
some (fast) moving footage to really see the effects of the
deinterlace blend.

I hope this is all of some help to you. I cannot stress the test
yourself factor enough. It is all personal. In the end the look is
only there to make a GOOD STORY STRONGER. It can't make a
bad story / acting good! Work on your basics and proceed from
there.

All the best with your movie!

[Boyd Ostroff]

Regarding 16:9 on the TRV-950, you might find this thread interesting...