Preparing for Looks
There is a wealth of information—and just as much misinformation—on the web and in print about how to shoot DV/HDV for the best results. Here, straight from Stu Maschwitz's accumulated knowledge, is the short version of how you can shoot the best footage in preparation for Looks. If you want even more information on shooting and color processing, check out Stu Maschwitz's DV Rebel's Guide book from Peachpit Press.
Turn Down the Sharpening
If your camera has the option, reduce the internal sharpening control to almost none. The harsh, over-sharpened edges that appear on high-contrast images are a signature giveaway of video. It’s worth experimenting with your camera’s settings to find the best sharpening amount, but it will almost certainly be less than the default setting.
Shoot in 16:9 Mode
Especially if you plan on going out to film, but also if a nice, letterboxed video output is your desire. Electronic "16:9 mode" is not as good as shooting with a native 16:9 chip, but it’s better than not shooting with it. Be careful though: if a full-frame version of your project is ever needed, it could be a lot of extra work to create it. 16:9 mode is for projects which are primarily intended for widescreen presentation.
Don’t Overexpose
DV and HDV do not react well to blown-out areas of the frame. If a hot or overexposed look is your desire, it’s far better to shoot at a normal exposure and use Magic Bullet Looks to burn it out later.
Many cameras have an option to display a zebra pattern in the viewfinder over areas that are blown out to 100% white. This is a very helpful option when shooting for Looks. A ND Grad filter can help keep sunny skies from blowing out, and putting one on the camera will even do a better job than Look’s built-in Grad and Exposure tools!
Don’t Underexpose
DV doesn't react well to dark areas either! Brightening up a dark DV shot will bring out all the compression and noise that you never knew was there.
Shoot it Plain
As an owner of Magic Bullet Looks, you have the most powerful image adjustment tools in the world at your fingertips. Shoot your footage as “normal” looking as possible, and wait until you get it into a Magic Bullet project to create those crazy looks you have in mind. This gives you the power and control to change your mind about how you want it to look. This means avoiding color filters or diffusion filters on the camera (with the exception of the ND Grad mentioned above), and setting the white balance to the correct camera preset for the type of light you’re using.
Shoot it Consistent
The best favor you can do for yourself is to ensure that shots in the same sequence look similar to one another. Watch not only the lighting on your foreground subject, but that of your backgrounds as well. Use presets for white balance, so that even if your battery goes dead and you lose your camera settings, you can still return to the same color balance you were using before. Use a color monitor on the set to compare playback of your last setup to the feed from the current one. Try to keep all of your similar skin tones in the same exposure range from one shot to the next—some cameras have zebra patterns in their viewfinders that help you do this. Finally, create a pre-flight checklist for your camera that combines these guidelines with your own experiences, and run through it before beginning every new shot.
As with any advice, please take the above into consideration and make your own decisions. These guidelines have worked well for Stu while working at his post-production company, The Orphanage, but there could be any number of reasons that you may need to do something different. Magic Bullet Looks should be flexible enough to handle whatever you throw at it, but if you follow the above guidelines, you are on the road to superior results.