I'd like to ask a rather obvious question - so excuse me if you're sick to death of it - but what do people think the best DV option is for achiving a filmish look? What are the pros and cons of DVC Pro vs. XL1 for instance, or something like a PD150 even?

Please note, I'm not talking about getting some kind of 'grain' look or doing those kind of effects in Post. I'm shooting a short film that needs to be very rich and lush in terms of colour and with strong blacks and quite dynamic. As opposed to the sort of gritty, rough documentary style that people often use DV for - when the subject matter suits this kind of treatment. My subject matter is the exact opposit to this - sort of a modern day fairy tale and quite stylised.

I'm also wondering which camera has the best facility for achieving film style depth of field (or has a lense attachment perhaps?) and intersting lenses generally...

Or can all this largely be achieved in *how* you shoot, using little tricks (such as often putting objects in the foreground of shots etc.)? And obviously lighting it really well, as if for film. Perhaps the cameras themselves don't make that much difference?

But certainly I suppose the tape format will make an enormous difference and I hope someone can offer advice...

I will be able to work a fair bit on grading in post-production so I obviously that will help. Someone advised me to shoot quite "flat" on something like DVC Pro so that blacks can be crushed and more contrast achieved in Post. Does this sound reasonable? I'm not sure that I understand it.

Any comments deeply appreciated. Briony

-- Briony (bkidd_3@yahoo.com), November 02, 2002

Answers

XL1. it is the only camera that can obtain a decent 16:9 wide angle. use good lighting and 24 fps and you'll be looking at somthing pretty close to 35mm.

-- daniel (daniel_jarvis@email.com), November 03, 2002.