Tips for making S8 look more "pro"

[technicolour]

Hi Everyone,

This made sound like a strange thing to say, but id like to know if there are any big tips for making S8 films look more like pro footage and not "home movieish".

i take it a tripod helps? does the qaulity of the camera heavily influence the clarity of the image? As I have two Chinons, and plan to get some more cameras over the summer break to try out

[JIM DUNN]

Please don't think I'm being sarcastic, but the truth is that 'pro' skill level shooters just seem to have better 'luck' than amateurs making their footage look 'pro'. Beginners' footage just shows. The more I shoot a given camera, the more ideas I have about what I do and don't want in the next one. To me, "home movieish" refers more to the shooter than the equipment. Assuming the rawstock is good and the equipment is in proper working order the rest seems to boil down to technique and skill, both of which seem to have the best chances of improving with study and experience. If you think steady shots look pro, then a sturdy tripod, properly set up and leveled, would definitely help. If you think that excessive, random, pointless zooming, panning, and tilting look 'home movieish', avoid them when shooting. If over/under exposed, blurred images remind you of home movies, then learning what causes those to happen and developing and practicing the disciplines necessary to prevent them should result in much more 'pro' looking footage. A thorough understanding of the characteristics of given filmstocks (speed (ASA)latitude, contrast, etc) and their connections to shutter speed to aperture, depth of field, color temperature, learning how to use incident and reflective light meters and lighting techniques, key to fill ratios, etc. If most home movie shots strike you as flat and uninteresting, maybe study and practice of frame composition, triangulation, the characteristics of long vs wide lens usage. If, when watching home movies, you find yourself confused and disoriented as to place, screen direction, story line, maybe some study and practice at writing, storyboarding, and editing would improve that footage. In short, I see 'pro' vs amateur looking footage as much more about learning to use filmmaking tools than collecting them.....except for gaffers' tape, collect all of it you can and if you really wanna be a pro, ALWAYS have lots of it with you. It's magic.......Good luck,
JIM DUNN

[TA152]

Agree with you JIM. There is no limit to how much effort it is possible to put into a S8 film to make it PRO if that is the goal.

Tripods makes a big difference. I remember many years ago when I bought a Libec 30 with fluid head for video production I put my S8 camera on in and made some pans to see how it worked out.

At pan speeds that eliminated the 18 fps strobe effect the "takes" were almost ?too good?. Felt static like video.

However using tripods really rise the level of any film.

Too bad the professional filmmakers adopted the "hand held" style shooting for many TV series like NYPD Blue? etc. Just looks messy to me.

Anyway, tripods makes a big difference, the first major step.

<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ June 17, 2002 02:09 AM: Message edited by: S8 Booster ]</font>

[rollemfilm]

the Canadian Film Board launched their cameraless "pro" films in the 1960's.

[BolexPlusx]

Editing, Editing, Editing.........

If you don't feel good about your last shot, do a second take and sort it out later.

Try to avoid short scenes, especially a whole bunch together. It makes a film feel choppy and confused. (Unless that's what you want of course) Some of my favorites I've ever filmed run about 30 seconds.

Don't concern yourself how much the film is costing when it effects the length of a scene or how merciless you are when editing. If a few bad scenes make the film look awful then your money was wasted anyhow.

Try not to film too many kid's birthday parties....

[technicolour]

JIM thanks for your reply, I agree with you, I didnt want it too see if i was blamming my equipment!
I know Im not a pro or anything, but Id like to learn how to make film look good which I accept comes with practise and an understanding of the technical aspect of actual shooting, I have good technical understanding in terms of the equipment itself which i guess will help.

S8 Booster I know what you mean about the "free hand style" shooting method, they use it sometimes in the "trendy" british drama soaps and it looks as if the cameraman is having a lot of trouble keeping still! I shall heed your advice about the tripod

[Mikko]

and don't forget the lighting. Learn about tungsten and daylight, diffusion and color correction, 3-point lighting, 5-point lighting, light efects and tricks. And when you build your lighting set, plan it well before. Ask yourself why do you put this light here. Is it a key light, fill light or back light, or what is it? Do I need it? How does it look it the picture when the actors are there too and when/if they move in this scene.
I have to admit that all this is so much easier to do with video. Color monitors and all... you see the results before you shoot and process.

Maybe you should get a book about lighting technicues. Or one of those fancy videos you can order from American Cinematographer.

m

[JIM DUNN]

JIM---I just came across a webpage, http://www.cwo.com/~ashlin/ttl/aubrey.htm , containing an article, "FILMMAKING -- THE ORIGINAL DO-IT-YOURSELF FORMAT", by Aubrey Singer and Shane Dana, that originally appeared in a 1998 issue of an indie film magazine in Toronto, Canada. As I started reading it I immediately thought of you, as it's a great, fast paced little article, jampacked with information and ideas that should help improve the looks and sounds of anybody's Super 8 films. Of course, as quickly as technology and prices change in our sport, you'll notice a little outdated data, but all in all, it's pretty accurate stuff, obviously coming from voices of experience. A good quick read, and well worth the price.

[technicolour]

Thanks JIM, I printed that out and read it and its awnsered a lot of my queries. I was particuarly interested in the bit about the light meters in super 8 cameras, and how they dont take the latitude of the film into account. I intened to experiment with the manual exposure setting, which is something id been a bit afraid of using.
How can you work out the shutter speed of a camera operating at 18 fps? I need to know this so I can use a light meter intended for still cameras

[TA152]

Actually there are some very useul tips for film making on Kodak?s S8 site as well.

http://www.kodak.com/US/en/motion/super8/tips.shtml

<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ June 17, 2002 05:49 PM: Message edited by: S8 Booster ]</font>