i am am film student and this may seem like a silly question but, when you start watching an amatuer film you instantly can tell its amatuer compared to high end hollywood.
what are some of the main things an amatuer film maker can do to make a film look more proffesional so it doesnt scream amatuerism to a viewer. this is refering to DV
i understand that there are a lot of budgetary restraints but here are some of the main things i do:
-propper sound recording (boom + studio recording)
-changing iris size on camera to change field of depth so target stands out more.
-profesional looking costumes + props
-give the film its own idependant feel (cinematography, post production tints)
if anyone can give advice of technical improvments (particularly in post production via FCP) to make it look more proffesional. because when viewers watch mainstream films, they often forget its a film and empathise etc, but when somone instantly sees amatuer film its hard to forget, all they notice is how amatuer it is. if that makes any sense!
1) Sound. Sounds like you already know that.
2) Lighting. Proper lighting can make digital video look a lot like film. Poor lighting can make film look like digital video. I'm not talking about light and dark lighting here, but about using the lights to create depth. Sitcoms, news, and soap operas tend to just light everything so that actors don't have shadows on their faces and so they don't have to spend time moving and setting up lighting. This creates a flat, bland look you really want to avoid.
Those are the two main things. Than we get:
3) Acting. A viewer will note bad sound instantly. Poor lighting takes a bit longer to sink in. Bad acting can take even longer to sink in. The three are the keys.
RJSchwarz
San Diego, CA
RJSchwarz
In addition to lighting, good locations with a lot of depth, color, production design and good composition can really improve footage.
On FCP, one thing you could do in post is to bring the contrast out more. It will deepen the shadows, and make the colors stand out more, giving you a richer looking image. However if you do it too much, video quality can noticeably decline. And also during production, make sure the lighting is good, I put a light behind the character ("halo" light), to make him/her stand out more from the rest of the image. And also, I don't know if you're trying to make it look like actual 35mm footage, but you could diffuse the image by using a diffusion filter on the camera, as digital video is much sharper and less soft than film. And frame rate, I believe that most soap operas and consumer equipment use 30 fps, where as film cameras and many prosumer DV cameras use 24 fps, that could have something to do with it, as 24 fps gives it a "film" flicker.
