How to Make Mini DV 24p Look Like 16mm

Here is a cool tip for those of you shooting features in 24p.



Above is a still from our most recent film. During the post production of Uptown, we discovered a peculiar thing after cutting the opening scene. Our under lit original footage, shot on location in the increasingly darkening Mulberry Street Restaurant, immediately resembled 16mm film after contrast was raised using the color correction feature in Final Cut Pro. This then reminded us of a couple of scenes in Cookies & Cream (especially the dance sequence), that resembled available-lit 16mm film.



Here is how to acheive this affect:

Shoot in low, available light. Lights should not be too bright, but not absolutely black either. Try to find a dim light, somewhere in the scene's location, and use it. You will be able to see it through your viewfinder, and it may look fine as is. You will see however, after you have output your film to DVD and watch it on a flatscreen (or even some regular TVs), that it appears really dark - an almost unable dark.

Step two, edit your footage into a scene of your liking. Its okay, trust us. Get it to where you are happy. After color correction, you should be ready to pass on it. Find the color correction feature on Final Cut Pro (or many others including Sony Vegas - which was used in Cookies...). Simply raise the contrast during those scenes or shots where you want the affect, or where the scene appears too dark and underlit for your taste. Raise it up!



Now you have your affect. Again, this works best in your lower lit shots. This may be common sense to some experts, but you would be surprised at how little this is written or talked about. Its a practical trick that we are curious to see explored, possibly into an entire feature film project. It appears that we are only shooting 24p on one more feature, the soon approaching Miranda by Kent Sutton. But if any of you are shooting a short or even a feature with 24p mini DV, I would be anxious to hear how far you are able to take it when it comes to screen time and usage. I would love to see an entire project with this affect. Maybe it could be marketed as "the 16mm feature that was shot on DV."

www.wix.com/onewaytv/uptown
www.wix.com/onewaytv/cookies