Kim Segel
Northridge, California
Acquiring Like Film:
Film Look Is More Than 24 fps, Grain, ‘S’ Curve Gamma or Dust & Scratches
Y ou’ve tried all the tech basics of getting that
elusive “film look:” shooting 24 fps, adding
grain, using an ‘S’ curve gamma, even adding a tiny bit
of dust and scratches. But your project still lacks that
certain “something,” that “big-budget feature” look.
It’s easy to focus on the “film” part of film making,
but a lot of the differences between the look of video
vs. film are not in the actual media. They’re in the tech-
niques and tools used to acquire the content.
When telling your story, the goal isn’t to make
something that looks like “a film,” but to completely
involve the audience in a different world. Think of it as
creating virtual reality for your audience
Most of the great film conventions are based sim-
ply on organic human experience. We fade to black in-
stead of green or plaid, because black is what we see
when we close our eyes.
A dolly move always feels more organic than a
zoom move because, after all, our eyeballs don’t zoom.
Our eyes are essentially spherical, prime lenses, and if
we want to change our view of the world we can tilt
or pan our neck (separate muscles, like a gear head) or
walk towards or away from something (like a dolly).
Here are some tips to getting that “big movie” film
look.
FILM-STYLE SHOOTING
So, what’s so great about film-style shooting? Shallow
depth-of-field? Dolly moves? It’s all about mind control!
Making the viewer look where you want, and feel the
way you want.
With a shallow depth-of-field — and a good fol-
low-focus operator — you can rack focus through the
shot and force viewers to look exactly where you want,
12 September / October 2007 — Creative COW Magazine
Kim has been creating television shows, films and computer ani-
mation since the 1980s. He’s worked on everything from music
videos to computer games. He’s held a Pyro Technician Special Ef-
fects 1st Class Permit for 15 years. He currently works full-time in
Hollywood, doing digital effects for two television networks, and
recently gave an 8-week University lecture series on creating digi-
tal visual effects for feature films.
exactly when you want.
One common saying is that: “Film is a medium
of the long shot and video is the medium of the close
up.”
If you’re shooting HD, just forget that old saying.
Think of every big feature you’ve ever seen: starting
with that gigantic long shot that magnificently sets the
scene.
Even try framing your CUs a little looser than you’re
used to. Imagine you’re filling a 60 foot screen.
Kim frames a shot using chiaroscuro lighting for this
dream sequence. See wikipedia for chiaroscuro details.
September / October 2007 — Creative COW Magazine
THE 3D WORLD
One of the tasks of the director and DP (or you) is to take
a three dimensional world that has been flattened out
onto a two dimensional movie screen, and re-imbue it
with a sense of depth.
It’s common in video shooting to keep the lighting
bright and flat. This gives you a deep depth-of-field and
lets you see everything in the shot. However, this isn’t
the always the best way to involve your audience.
Avoid flat lighting. Create pools of light and dark,
with the light patches where you want the audience to
look. (It’s called “chiaroscuro” when Rembrandt does it.)
It pulls the viewers’ eyes to the bright parts of the shot.
If your shot is mostly dark, try to include just a cou-
ple of bright point of light (candles, distant streetlights)
so the viewers can retain their orientation.
SMOOTH MOVE
By keeping your moves smooth, you take your viewer’s
attention off the camera work and keep is focused on
your subject.
Avoid hand-held camera if possible, unless it’s ex-
plicitly part of the story’s visual style. Stay on your sticks.
Use a gear head instead of a tilt-pan head. Leave the
zoom ring alone, pretend you’re shooting a prime lens,
even if you’re not.
Here’s your new mantra: “Slow down.” Everyone
has seen the MTV jerky-cam moves. They’re so 1995. The
trick is to use moves judiciously.
The dolly is one of my favorite mind control tricks!
In real life, if you’re in a conversation, you tend to physi-
cally lean in when things get interesting, and lean out
when you lose interest.
With the camera on a dolly you can actually force
13

the viewer to be interested. As you slowly dolly in, you Pauper’s Tip: Until extremely recently, only film
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Avoid compound moves, i.e. tilting while panning crank. Sony’s new HVR-V1 HD camcorder will overcrank
while zooming. Try to simplify moves, like a slow pan to all the way to 240fps (though for a limited duration.)
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 Acquiring Like Film: continued from page 14

linear polarizers make the sky deep blue, make all your
colors pop, and cut glare on surfaces like water and glass
“Hey look, you can actually see through that windshield!”
It does stuff you can’t do in post.
• Graduated blue. In case your ‘sunny’ shoot day re-
ally turns out to be overcast, this one will turn your
skies blue again. “Bluebird of Happiness” optional.)
ed (ADR) in a sound studio. If you can’t afford all that ses-
sion time, try this “Pauper’s ADR:”
1) Copy off your field dialog as one-sentence .mp3
files.
2) Download them into a regular .mp3 music player set
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• Graduated green. Just like the above, but makes
the grass green. It’s this, or use 200 cans of green
spray paint.
• Tiffen Black Pro-Mist® gives a rich misty quality to
the shot, but without elevating your black levels.
• Neutral Density, aka ND. These let you reduce the
TM
light coming into the camera without closing the iris
and losing that shallow depth-of-field that you’ve
now came to love! Graduated NDs let you knock
down that bright sky and not affect the rest of your
shot.
• Star filters Remember that dark shot with the can-
dles (above)? This will kick cool stars off all those
points of light. A single-line star filter is called a
‘streak’ filter.
• Split-Field. Technically a lens, not a filter, but these
are used just like filters. These let you keep half your
frame in focus on a very near object and the other
half in focus at infinity.
Imagine that tight shot of the lawman’s holster on
his hip, and the bad guy at the end of the street reaching
for his gun. Use this one when there is simultaneous ac-
3) Have your talent listen on headphones.
4) Record them under sound-controlled conditions
while they listen to their looping, original dialog.
They don’t need to see their performance. All they
need to do is speak in unison with the loop.
If you have limited access to your talent, you can
even do this in the field by making a little sound booth
out of sound blankets.
Foley sound and room tone are also often over-
looked in production. It adds depth and dimension to
any production to add foley sound, not just the obvious
SFX like gunshots and car engines, but the tiny, subtle
sounds: birds twittering outside a bedroom window, the
complex layers of sounds inside an office.
“Room tone” is simply the sound of your set with
no talent speaking. Record 30 seconds of it at the end
of each setup. Don’t let people leave. They’re all part of
that sound environment. Record 30 seconds of ambient
sound when you shoot outdoors as well.
When you’re editing, instead of leaving silence be-
tween lines, cut a chunk of the matching tone into that
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tion at two different focal distances.
IN YOUR EAR
Sound, especially dialog quality, is another major factor
that give your work that “big movie” feel.
In a feature film about 80% of the dialog is re-record-
BIG MOVIE FEELING
Try not to get too caught up in the technical aspects. Re-
member: at the end of the day, it’s the strength of your
subject, story, or actors’ performances, that touch your
audience and create your reality.
n

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