Comments

Chienworks wrote on 11/22/2005, 5:08 PM
Light it very well.
Shoot it very well.

These two things will make far far more difference than anything you can do with the video after the fact no matter what software you use.
shmulb wrote on 11/23/2005, 4:36 AM
Here is a forum dedicated to that subject
http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/forumdisplay.php?f=34 , As you will see you are entering a whole new world here.
Tim L wrote on 11/23/2005, 5:55 PM
Another thing that separates "real" movies from home videos, and something that is probably rather difficult to achieve with consumer level videocameras, is "selective focus". That is, using a limited depth of field in order to blur out the background.

Movies use this a lot -- sharp focus on what they want you to look at, with soft focus or blur on the background (or sometimes the foreground).

Many home video cameras (in the under-$1000 range) don't let you control aperture settings directly (though I guess the Panasonics in general are better about giving you this kind of control -- I have a Sony HC-85, which has very, very limited manual exposure control).

Limited depth of field is something most any 35mm photographer can appreciate and can accomplish with the turn of a few knobs or aperture rings, but I think is probably much tougher to manage with a low-end video cam. (Probably straighforward with a GS-400, or a GL-2 or VX-2100, etc.) Even so, to go wide-open aperture, you probably have to add neutral density filters, to avoid having the camera jumping to a really fast shutter speed, which would give you a kind of strobed motion.

Tim L