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first digital shot film before Episode II: Vidocq: ouch!

673 Views 5 Replies 5 Participants Last post by vruiz, Oct 21, 2001

David600

Discussion Starter · Oct 19, 2001

well, i don't know if the cameras used are the same as those used for EP II but be prepared to be disappointed if the result looks the same as Vidocq, a French movie about a masked serial killer in the 1900th century Paris. VIDOCQ is the first digitally filmed movie (as in motion picture

)with real actors etc.

The only good aspect is that sometimes the images looked very detailed and sharp, perhaps because there is no film grain (but there is video grain!).

other than that,it was artificial colors ( though the movie used color filters it seemed), poor smooth travelings, average and artificial brightness and contrast ( of the film, not the projector, which was a cinema projector I'm pretty convinced, not a 3DLP), poor blacks, sometimes ugly video noise. Unaturalness could best describes it if one word had to be retained.

I could compare my impressions right after since I went to see FAST AND THE FURIOUS, less sharp sometimes but so much more natural and smooth, with beautiful colors and real life brightness and contrast.

So, verdict is: be prepared....

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Chris Williams

· #2 · Oct 19, 2001

That can't be true. That might be trying to spin it with qualifiers, but I've seen a number of films shot in HD. The first film shot in HD was this one (look in the trivia section ). Kathleen Turner qualifies as a major actress.

I believe it was shot with the Ikegami "HD Cinema" camera on Sony's HDVS (1" tape) system back in 1987! There was plenty of analog HD in the years before DTV.

Anyway, a year ago I attended an HD film festival. Yep, there was loads of wretched looking stuff (as well as amateur acting) but there was at least one very good looking film. I talked to the cinematographer, and she told me that most of the bad looking HD is shot and lit by TV people. They had started with TV people and it looked like video. They replaced that crew with film people and produced HD that looked like film.

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mhafner

· #3 · Oct 19, 2001

Quote:

Originally posted by David600
well, i don't know if the cameras used are the same as those used for EP II but be prepared to be disappointed if the result looks the same as Vidocq, a French movie about a masked serial killer in the 1900th century Paris. VIDOCQ is the first digitally filmed movie (as in motion picture )with real actors etc.

The only good aspect is that sometimes the images looked very detailed and sharp, perhaps because there is no film grain (but there is video grain!).

other than that,it was artificial colors ( though the movie used color filters it seemed), poor smooth travelings, average and artificial brightness and contrast ( of the film, not the projector, which was a cinema projector I'm pretty convinced, not a 3DLP), poor blacks, sometimes ugly video noise. Unaturalness could best describes it if one word had to be retained.

I could compare my impressions right after since I went to see FAST AND THE FURIOUS, less sharp sometimes but so much more natural and smooth, with beautiful colors and real life brightness and contrast.

So, verdict is: be prepared....

Some points.

- Vidocq was shot on 24 p HD and low res DV cam

- The colors were manipulated heavily in post

production, don't expect 'natural' color.

- 35mm quality depends on how they transferred

the HD master and how many film copying was

involved.

- The HD master quality can not be judged well

from a 35mm print without more information about

the technical details. Digital projection would

be much more relevant.

Michel Hafner

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Karnis

· #4 · Oct 21, 2001

If I remember correctly Diagnosis: Murder (starting last season)and The Young & The Restless (starting this last summer) on CBS are both shot in HD 24fps.

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Chris Williams

· #5 · Oct 21, 2001

Quote:

Originally posted by Karnis
If I remember correctly Diagnosis: Murder (starting last season)and The Young & The Restless (starting this last summer) on CBS are both shot in HD 24fps.

If this is true, it's one of the stupidest ideas I've ever heard. HD shooting for film at least has the excuse of needing to be shown in theaters on 24 fps film. But TV shows are going to be shown on a 30 fps system. "Diagnosis Murder" will never make it to movie theaters, so there is no excuse for shooting something at one frame rate just to introduce temporal artifacts. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

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vruiz

· #6 · Oct 21, 2001

Add to those "The Education of Max Bickford" and boy, does that one look awful! It's a shame too, good show.

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