I'm currently working on a film which recquires shots of the screen of an Arcade game; but as you all know you can't film straight off the screen because you'll get the "moving lines" or whatever. How should I go about doing this?
--Steve--

"Don't be that guy who doesn't film stuff!"

you should be able to change the shutter speed on your camera to fix it, im pretty sure that worked when my camera used to give me that problem. btw, whats your movie about? all my movies are game/nerd related basically so I dont want to start work on a movie if its gonna end up looking like someone elses. anyway hope the shutter speeds fix it

My movie is about Dance Dance Revolution: quite the fun game. Basically in it an introverted loner finds his confidence and his niche playing DDR. Fun stuff.
--Steve--

"Don't be that guy who doesn't film stuff!"

Shooting screens are tough, unless you have the right camera. My gl-1 doen't have the fine adjustments, but I know GL-2 and XL-1s both have it. The problem is TVs refresh at funky rates (i.e. 59.94 Hz), so you're standard 1/3 stop shutter speed adjustments won't cut it.

Depending on how ambitious you are, it's often a good idea to shoot the screen off, then corner pin the TV/arcade source with a screen composite mode in post. Personally, I think it looks better. I wouldn't know how you'd get the source footage for an arcade game, however.

Hope it works for ya.
joren

HOw do you change the shutter speeds on an GL2 ?
I was browsing thru the manual and didn't see it?

If you don't look I'll force you to _=_

hey cool thing you're doing there movie about DDR not afraid of the ethnic jokes huh?

if you want the video of the game only, you can use an analogue capture card (or heck load it straight into your video camera input, and then out into the comp)... you dont necessarily need the arcade, just borrow the PSX game from someone.. (im SURE if you're doing a movie about it you'll have friends who have it, right?)

as for filming a screen, I think a polarizing filter will help with glare. dont shoot w/ florescent lights around, and try that trick with the shutter speed.. gluck!

-Soj89

Your idea is pretty cool. I personally have seen a nerdy teen fit that description at a DDR dancing type thing. He was getting perfect scores and everyone was around him clapping, (even the girls) ect.. Not my friends though, we were at a birthday party at dave and busters, and I had originally bought a callender with puppies on the front as a joke gift for my friend. We all thought the kid was so gay, and I walked up to him like "Congratulations on your high score, here is your reward" And he responded like a robot, like he was still in the video game,(as I ran away laughing) and we all saw him open the thing up, and then try to keep cool. Halarious, (I'm such an ass..)

Yeah, I came up with it based on my own experiences with DDR. Basically I started playing it about three weeks ago seriously. I originally saw DDR before then, and thought it looked "so cool" so I had to get into it. Unlike other activities, where the "n00b" so to speak is dissed and not treated well, the DDR crowd that I met was very receptive. Whenever I'd play against a "hardcore" DDR player instead of being like, "behold my skills and cower!" they would offer me tips to improve my method and help me find good practice songs. A nice bunch of guys. From that point, I decided to make a movie about it.
As for the ethnic jokes, one or two might worm their way in, but racial humor isn't my style lately.
I appreciate all the interest, and I hope to get it up on the site here soon, it'd be my first submission.
--Steve--

"Don't be that guy who doesn't film stuff!"

On to your question though, to film a tv or any kind of screen, weird enough when I turn OFF the image stabalization on my sony digital-8, the scan lines are off. Try it, and if it works be sure to use a tripod.