Shutter for best filmic effect
by Wynn Winberg
on
Sep 24, 2007 at 9:12:11 pm
We have a new HDX-900 and I'm fairly new as using it. I'm shooting a low-budget commercial for a retail client tomorrow - I'd like as filmic a look as I can get, but am not planning on editing native 24p. I'm planning on shooting 720/24p. My question is the best shutter setting - would you typically use the "HALF" shutter setting to try and mimic the motion of film?
Sorry for the newbie-esque question, but would appreciate any feedback I could get, as there seems to be a multitude of possible choices.
Re: Shutter for best filmic effect by john sharaf on Sep 24, 2007 at 9:20:05 pm
Wynn,
The simple answer is yes! When you shoot at 24 or even 30fps you want the shutter to be half or 180 degrees as it would normally be in a film camera, especially to mimic the "filmlook" motion. Don't take my word for it, but observe the difference with the shutter on and off. This is the best way to emblaze the correct look in your mind; otherwise if you just do it by rote you'll likely make a mistake by forgeting the "rules" at some future time.
The same applies when you are shooting 60fps for slow mo.
If you leave the shutter off at 24fps you'll be getting a shutter speed of 1/24th of a second, and you'll probably notice too much motion blur; this would really screw you up if you were shooting a chroma key and needed to cleanup the edges in post, you'd find them too blurry to do so.
Of course there will be occasions when you might consider turning the shutter off to regain the stop of exposure, where you won't be hurt by the motion effect, such as a scenic of the city at night, etc.
