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Getting that "Cinema" look in FCE

ghking

ghking

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jul 21, 2007
245
0
hey everyone

me and a few of my friends are making a movie and we're trying to make it look as professional as possible. My friend just got a Panasonic AG-DVX100b which we will be using with Final Cut Express. My question is what settings do i use on both the camera and in FCE to achieve that "cinema" look, like how a movie or TV show looks?

i hope i described this right

thanks
 
shoot 24p and then light the scene properly... to get as shallow a DOF as possible, open up the iris as much as you can and drop the camera back and zoom in as much as possible.
 
Well, shooting in 24p helps and the other stuff that was mentioned above.

What always works for me is applying the 2 way color corrector to your clip, then bring it up in the viewer. Your next step would be to use the saturation slider and desaturate it a bit, not so that its black and white, but you will know when your at the right place. Then you can just move balance around and you will just have to experiment with it. Magenta gives a nice touch. That will give you some results. You mite also want to try playing with the curves, rgb balance, etc.

Notice the image on the left, this is unedited. It really looks "home video" like. Whereas the one on the right, with widescreen filter applied, a nice vignette, and the color corrector, looks more "cinematic" Notice how the image on the right isnt as saturated as the one on the left, this really helps.

FinalCutExpressScreenSnapz002.jpg
 
thanks guys this is a huge help ill let you know how i do
 
bigbossbmb said:
shoot 24p and then light the scene properly... to get as shallow a DOF as possible, open up the iris as much as you can and drop the camera back and zoom in as much as possible.
Click to expand...

good tips. it starts off with good camera work and good lighting. then it is further enhanced in post with good color grading. I like using magic bullet for color enhancement.
 
heron88 said:
Well, shooting in 24p helps and the other stuff that was mentioned above.

What always works for me is applying the 2 way color corrector to your clip, then bring it up in the viewer. Your next step would be to use the saturation slider and desaturate it a bit, not so that its black and white, but you will know when your at the right place. Then you can just move balance around and you will just have to experiment with it. Magenta gives a nice touch. That will give you some results. You mite also want to try playing with the curves, rgb balance, etc.

Notice the image on the left, this is unedited. It really looks "home video" like. Whereas the one on the right, with widescreen filter applied, a nice vignette, and the color corrector, looks more "cinematic" Notice how the image on the right isnt as saturated as the one on the left, this really helps.

FinalCutExpressScreenSnapz002.jpg
Click to expand...

don't DON'T do this!!! forget the "cinema" look. there's more things you have to worry about when making a film. all this s**t they're talking about is in post and takes no more than two clicks away with a mouse. concentrate on your film. everything else will come into place.
 
the goal of color correction is not to reduce contrast with video. You are shooting VIDEO my friend, not film. This isn't a bad thing...

The low contrast looks bad, it looks too dark and seems as if it is underexposed. Just shoot 24p and light it properly like Boss said.

Take a step back. Look at the original image of the phone for example. One's eye tends to pop right to the phone (I'm ignoring the blowout in the upper left part of the frame). With the low contrast image, I just see a frame, nothing pops.

Don't make good video look bad by trying to emulate film.
 
I'm sorry but you're wrong. He didnt ask how he could get the "digital" look, he asked for the cinema look. Look at any movie that plays in theatres, no matter what it was shot on, the contrast on almost all of them is lower(it varies of course depending on whether its an action/comedy/horror etc.) then non-professional videos that were done poorly.

Example:

This is professional footage, notice the very low contrast
196s.jpg


Compared to this, home video
Picture1-2.png


Obviously adjusting contrast has to do with getting a cinema like look. Of course everything starts in the camera, you have to have steady footage, proper lighting, etc. But post plays a big role as well.
 
ChemiosMurphy said:
*sigh*

I wonder what Lethal or BigBoss would say about this one...
Click to expand...

I wonder too... I think that ChemiosMurphy is right about everything. But, if he really wants the cinema looks some members have provided the instrustions to do that and we are not ones to tell him what to do with his projects. I think both are appealing to the eye and it depends on what look you want to achieve. I think that Lethal and BigBoss would both say that color correction is not to make video look bad or reduce contrast. I think it depends on the type of mood your are trying to achieve. If you are making a suspense/action "movie" then use the reduced contrast. If you are making a comedy then don't.

Regards,
David
 
heron88 is mistaking the low latitude of video cameras for high contrast (even though it only covers about 4-5 stops of light)...

please go watch Sin City and tell me that it's "low contrast".

The proper way to get video to look more like film is to light the scene properly (like I said before) and take into account video's lower latitude. It is not a good idea to just shoot it and lower the contrast in post.
 
Want a quick film look get a copy of Magic Bullet Looks and use a preset. Still not going to look like film for the key reason that it's not! But for what you want to achieve it'll do the basics.

Also a key point to remember, when you say 'film look' you could be referring to any number of things. The Bourne trilogy has a completely different 'look' to Pulp Fiction for example - and compare that to other films and they all have distinctively different 'looks' to them. This is partly down to the type of film they were shot on as well as the film development and the digital post.

Personally I love the film versus video battle! Essentially digital video is better quality in almost every aspect, however we have all grown up with the understanding that the cinema is the real thing and therefore is better. It's kind of nostalgia in many respects. While video may be more true to life, film just has that feel to it!!
 
heron88 said:
Well, shooting in 24p helps and the other stuff that was mentioned above.

What always works for me is applying the 2 way color corrector to your clip, then bring it up in the viewer. Your next step would be to use the saturation slider and desaturate it a bit, not so that its black and white, but you will know when your at the right place. Then you can just move balance around and you will just have to experiment with it. Magenta gives a nice touch. That will give you some results. You mite also want to try playing with the curves, rgb balance, etc.

Notice the image on the left, this is unedited. It really looks "home video" like. Whereas the one on the right, with widescreen filter applied, a nice vignette, and the color corrector, looks more "cinematic" Notice how the image on the right isnt as saturated as the one on the left, this really helps.

FinalCutExpressScreenSnapz002.jpg
Click to expand...

woah! how did you get .mpg's to work? whenever i try, there's no audio.
 
slieu92 said:
woah! how did you get .mpg's to work? whenever i try, there's no audio.
Click to expand...

My audio doesn't work either.

As for the other previous posts, I agree with chemios as far as lighting the scene properly and shooting in 24p goes. These are probably 2 of the biggest steps towards getting the cinema look. Alot of other things come into play too though, and it all depends on the actual look your trying to get. You cant make up for crappy shooting in post, your not gonna get professional results from crappy footage. Getting professional results starts with you and the camera. Post (no matter how you decide to edit your footage, and everyone has their own style) comes after wards.
 
Isn't it tough to work with 24p with Final Cut Express? I remember when I had my Canon XH-A1 (Before it died in a recent house fire), I had read somewhere that it would be hard to work with 24p footage so I just started working with regular 1080i. But I never got far with the camera because of the housefire.
 
2 non post tips:

I'm no Pro but one tip is to make your own steady cam. Shaky shots (even with a stabilizer) will kill the "cinema" feel. Even shows that use the shaky cam look (ex. Battlestar Galactica) do so professionally (usually no up and down movement) so the viewer doesn't get sick watching it.

Also, Storyboard it. Make sure you know how you want every scene to look and then recreate it.
 
Rizvi1 said:
Isn't it tough to work with 24p with Final Cut Express? I remember when I had my Canon XH-A1 (Before it died in a recent house fire), I had read somewhere that it would be hard to work with 24p footage so I just started working with regular 1080i. But I never got far with the camera because of the housefire.
Click to expand...

FCE won't edit 23.98 material. However, the A1 (along with anything else that writes to tape, sans HDCAM) will write 24p as a 60i stream on the tape. So you can edit it the same way you would regular 29.97 material.
 
bigbossbmb said:
FCE won't edit 23.98 material. However, the A1 (along with anything else that writes to tape, sans HDCAM) will write 24p as a 60i stream on the tape. So you can edit it the same way you would regular 29.97 material.
Click to expand...

ah ok, I should just record to 24p then once I replace my XH-A1 (hopefully with a XH-A1s)
 
Rizvi1 said:
Isn't it tough to work with 24p with Final Cut Express? I remember when I had my Canon XH-A1 (Before it died in a recent house fire), I had read somewhere that it would be hard to work with 24p footage so I just started working with regular 1080i. But I never got far with the camera because of the housefire.
Click to expand...

wait whats this about?
if i record in 24p will FCE be able to edit the dvx100b 's footage? what settings should i use and how do i export it so i can put it on a dvd with the best quality?
 
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