One of the problems with making a narrative movie on video is the fact that most viewers have subconsiously learned to view video as "reality". Reality shows, documentaries, the news, and talk shows are all shot on video. Most narrative pieces, meaning feature films, drama TV shows, and even sitcoms are shot on film. Although the average viewer has no clue what format they are watching, I can assure you they will identify that something is wrong. One way to make your video look less like video is to use standard photography filters on the lens.

I have used several filters on my Canon GL1, but the main one used for NEW WORLD was the "Enhancing Filter" from Tiffen. That is the name of it. This filter brings out the flesh tones & the gradation of the color of leaves in the fall (oranges & yellows & browns). We also used "Neutral Density" filters to soften the video look, but it darkened the image a lot (so open up your IRIS on the camera).

For other projects, unrelated to "New World", I have used the RED, YELLOW, and BLUE filters to get that "Soderberg/Traffic" look to many shoots. It saves time in post, if you already know what look you want ahead of time. I also extensively use the 80A filter when I know I am going to convert the footage to Black & White. For a title sequence to a short film called "CONCUPISCENCE" I used the HORIZON FILTER, which is what TONY SCOTT and MICHAEL BAY use all the time in their commercials and feature films to make the horizon line look a gradient colored sky.I used it for an effect on titles printed on paper. This saved me hours of Adobe After Effects render time.

Filters may say "For Daylight Use" or "BLACK & WHITE STILL PHOTOGRAPHY USE", but experiment & try them anyway with color video.One filter can yield multiple uses and tons of varying looks. The CIRCULAR POLARIZOR is made to do two things. One, it kills reflection on glass surfaces at an angle. You rotate the lens until the reflections are cancelled out ( which is really cool ). A Polarizor's other use, which is why I bought it, is that it gets the richest, most realistic BLUE SKIES out of whatever camera you use. I used this on my Super 8 film camera on this 30 sec commercial I did. Shooting in July, aiming at the sky, this filter brought out so much BLUE and looked like a perfect sky, without compromising the other colors..

Another tip for similar effect if you cannot afford the $15-50 filters for your lenses, is using your MANUAL WHITE BALANCE to colored sheets of paper. If you white balance to colors or even GRAY sheets of paper, you can get some really wild results and cool looks if you need something more radical. If you want something subtle, try using soft yellow or off white colors to white balance too. Tinker around & find what works and what doesn't.

Too many DV shooters don't study Cinematography in general or learn some basic techniques borrowed from Still Photography. Filters work on a DV lens, and they make them in every size so even the cheapest DV camera can take filters. I learned this from Emmy Award winning D.P. Scott Spears. He taught me tons about filters and affecting the image with LIGHT, which is the cinematographers best friend (even when shooting DV). Too many people take for granted the nearly automated process of video and forget that the use of FOCUS, LIGHT, FILTERS, and ZOOM are brushes in the hands of artists, not buttons on a machine.

Click here to see some of the filters mentioned above at Tiffen.com.