i was wondering how to make a movie shot on dv film look like a actually hollywood movie. There is that little difference that sets a homemade movie apart from a high budget film.. What is it. How do you achive this on a xl-1 s.I know that if you light it right it will look more like a "movie" but if the is that case then how come when sopmeone makes a documentary of a film, the footage of the actors acting look homemade even with the proper lighting. This would make me one of the happiest people on earth if you could tell me what to do.

-- nick wilson codega (nick_wc@hotmail.com), December 04, 2002

Answers

Although I haven't worked with them myself, the Canon GL1, GL2 and XL-1s all have a feature to changet the frames per second from 29 to 24 when shooting--giving it more of a film "feel".

-- Anthony Cupaiuolo (anthony@firsttracksproductions.com), December 13, 2002.

On all the latest 3 chip cameras there is a new feature called the "hollywood" button. switch it to on. hope this helps.

-- justin daniels (mysteryawaits@email.com), December 28, 2002.

There's an adaptor (price $13000 or so new) that you can buy to attach film lenses to the front of your XL-1. Assuming you don't have this money, you can rent it....

Toronto area folks, contact Kingsway films - it's $450 a day for big budget stuff, but I know you can haggle them down.

HOWEVER.... Personally, i just shot a short on DVCAM on a Sony DSR500 which is a much better camera (3/4 chip) than the XL1 with film adaptor converter on it and it was quite cheap. Rented it from Joe Sutherlands in Toronto, footage looks great. I rented the ENTIRE CAMERA and ADAPTOR for the week, and paid much less than renting that Kingsway adaptor for a week by itsself at Joe Sutherlands. www.joesutherland.com

Anyway, film lenses look like film, and have less depth of field, while video lenses tend to look flatter, more in focus. Personally I find that makes a lot of difference in how your film will look, especially the ability to rack focus.

-- rick rose (rickrose1@yahoo.com), January 21, 2003.

hey, shoot your DV film and then go to this website. www.dvfilm.com This application which costs $95 (u.s.) will enhance your DV footage to look like 35mm film. it's great. there is also a demo on the site to download to check to see if you like it. best of luck.

-- Josh Pickering (jr_pickering@hotmail.com), March 16, 2003.

Look into using Cinelook. You can find more info. here: http://www.polar-graphics.com/cinelook.html.

The program uses settings to match your video to various types of film, to add grain, adjust contrast, etc. The results are very good when done properly.

Hope this helps!

-- Chris (diveguy@wave.net), March 18, 2003.

The mini 35mm film lense adapter mentioned before is definatley the way to go. It will fit 35mm prime lenses to your XL1. rent it, and some lenses.

Mentioned also was the XL1 and 24 fps mode.. not true.. it is still 30fps, just progressive scan. i.e. no fields.

Shoot with fields and use Magic Bullet from the orphanage. its a bunch of ex- ILM guys who wrote this amazing AE plug-in that simulates tons of film stocks, and also uses interlaced footage to interpret perfect 24p masters to send out fort 35mm tansfer.

you're shooting on video, it will never look as good as film

-- chris reddick (chris@rocketfactory.com), September 18, 2003.