Professional Sheen

daire

I have so many questions... eager to learn...

I've made a short video with my 1CCD camera. It's in widescreen. The result when played on a television looks decent but it lacks some sort of quality that normal television broadcasts have. Be it too sharp, too flickery or not enough frames per second... I'm not sure. It just seems alot edgier or, whats the word, poorer.

I know my camera isn't broadcast quality but I'v applied effects to the footage so it's now sort of a cartoon, shapes rather than pixels.

Are there any plug-ins or effects that I can apply to my footage to give it a professional MTV look?

(I'm using Premiere)

Owenw

I'm in the same boat (just starting out using a single chip camcorder and a copy of premiere pro).

I just found this site yesterday and it is a pretty comprehensive look at mini DV camcorders and problems with the video images in general:
http://www.ferrario.com/ruether/vid_pict_characts.htm

Bottom line is if you want it to look like MTV you need a 3-chip camera with manual controls for frame rate, shutter speed, white balance etc. Even Jackass is shot on 3ccd camcorders. Single chip as you have discovered is pretty poor compared to broadcast material. Most consumer camcorders use edge enhancement which gives that cartoon like edge to your footage.

I am trying to save up for a sony dcr-vx2000 at the moment which supposed to be the best dv camcorder for the money - better sound and image quality than the Canon XL-1(s)
http://www.ferrario.com/ruether/sony_dcr-vx2000.htm

They are commonly used for electronic news gathering and the BBC uses several hundred for this.

VX-2000's go for around €4000 new over here, but I've been reliably informed there is a shop called Alliance Electric on Georges St in Dublin getting in some second hand models for about €2500. I'm going into town soon to check this rumour out for myself. Some online stores still sell this model and I've seen them for as little as £1600 (~€2600).

The more recent sony vx-2100's aren't much of an improvement but the price has been hiked considerably. There is likely to be a updated model released in the near future so hopefully the older ones will drop in price and the 2nd hand market will be flooded with cheap cameras in good condition.

hth

Thetotodger

Try a plug in called magic bullet. It costs a bit, but im sure you could find one to "Demo" On e-donkey or the like. It de-interlaces and adds film look to your project. Ive used it on a good few things shot with Beta SP and they turn out Very Very Film like! Only disadvantage, you need to install it as an After Effects Plugin, so u need that tooQ!