Hey everyone, I just recently bought a brand new Canon XL2. I'm going to be making short films, and maybe a feature (yes I'm brand new to all of this). I'm going for that "film" look and I want to them to look as good as possible. Good films are made of substance, and not the way they look, I realize that, but I still want it to look film like. Now, my question is, should I have gotten an XH-A1. My cousin is also a director and he was the one that pushed me to get the XL2. I won't be branching off into HD for some time to come, but I know the SD on XH-A1 is pretty sharp. I bought the XL2 from buydig.com and I have about 30 days to return it, so let me know asap. If there are any questions, or specifications you guys want feel free to ask. Thanks.
Did I make the right camera choice?
- Thread starter HelloEvo
- Start date
XL2 is a great camera, you can get beautiful footage with it...light properly and use good costume, makeup and set design, great acting and a solid script and you'll get the "film look".
The technical aspects of the film look are: shooting 24P (or F in the canon world), 16x9 (since the XL2 shoots it natively), 1/48th shutter (to emulate the 180 degree shutter used in the film world). Pan slowly, use a dolly and a crane (both cheap to build) to get more dynamic camera moves without sacrificing stability. Expose correctly, then down one click on the iris wheel (I like to just set my zebras at 90 and not let anything hit zebras, you can't recover the whites in digital). Light the scene to make everything else fit within that exposure level. Leave the iris as open as possible (smaller F-stop numbers 1.8-4) to get better control over depth of field.
Record sound on a separate mic (can be linked to the camera, but needs to be a separate mike) close to the talent (either shotgun or lavalier). Sound is 50%+ of your movie.
The technical aspects of the film look are: shooting 24P (or F in the canon world), 16x9 (since the XL2 shoots it natively), 1/48th shutter (to emulate the 180 degree shutter used in the film world). Pan slowly, use a dolly and a crane (both cheap to build) to get more dynamic camera moves without sacrificing stability. Expose correctly, then down one click on the iris wheel (I like to just set my zebras at 90 and not let anything hit zebras, you can't recover the whites in digital). Light the scene to make everything else fit within that exposure level. Leave the iris as open as possible (smaller F-stop numbers 1.8-4) to get better control over depth of field.
Record sound on a separate mic (can be linked to the camera, but needs to be a separate mike) close to the talent (either shotgun or lavalier). Sound is 50%+ of your movie.