Dude, it might be easier if you understood about lighting. Essentially you're shooting against a bright background with your subjects' faces in shadow. Unless you properly light your scenes, say with a reflector, it won't matter what camera you use or what settings it's on. I couldn't even finish your video, because I was so disgusted with the lack of proper lighting. I suggest that you actually take a class on basic photography and that you pay attention to understanding lighting and balancing exposure between the natural background light and the light used to enhance the image. In this case, the problem isn't the camera.

@producer People don't like... ambiguous questions that have no answer. You are just spinning wheel. I had asked about film look & feel a year ago. Maybe no answer is the true answer. I don't care about film look anymore. Nobody knows :)

>>I believe you've seen many documentaries, serials and motion pictures with shooting against the light, but the result is simply very different, I guarantee.

Yes, because those people actually know what they're doing, actually understand their equipment, understand proper lighting, etc. Please read my replies again, very carefully. You are asking for settings to replace your brain. Everything you want to accomplish can be done, but YOU will have to do it. There are no magic settings. If you truly believe another camera is better, perhaps you should get it, get the patch that gives you that crappy look, and move along. I suspect your problem isn't the camera.

@producer
Stay on topic and do not make it personal, ok?
People said good and useful things, you just need to hear them :-)

@producer
Again, read that people told you. I am 100% agree with them.
As for contrast settings - I do not know that you mean.

@producer
please don't take all this personally, but trust me when I say this, you'll be a happier man when you start worrying less about settings and superflat curves and more on other aspects of image-making. If you really really are so interested in superflat and want to worry, first grab some real books on color correction, forget about cheesy plugins, learn about individual controls, understand that one of the main jobs of a colorist is to spread an image, within legal levels, from 0 to 100 IRE because that's what looks best for the magority of images. Having a superflat image of a scene( that in real life contains both hot highlights and shadows) whose entire IRE is in the middle, and looking at a Luma Waveform graph reaches from let's say 20 to 80 will probably be of no use in that state. Also, unless you know very, and I mean very carefully what u are doing, for the love of God do NOT underexpose your image by 2-3 stops just to get flat. especially with 8-bit avchd camers! that's crazy, and even more so with known banding issues. If you do so, good luck lifting the shadows.

@producer Set all settings you need and save it as Customs setting 1. Usually Customs mode persists all my settings including film mode settings. At least it worked for me in GH1. No I don't have G2.

Believe it or not, I like some of the comments in this thread. We all can agree to disagree, but this is good thread to keep and digest.

@ Producer: Quit trolling. Try reading and listening for a change. Even in the link you cited, there's a whole section you ignored on the post-processing to get those images as well as the huge financial investment to get those images. Sheesh.

And yes, I think it's a crappy look, that flat-look you keep pushing. One need only look at the marvelous film technicolor images, beautifully saturated and photographed, to see why that flat look isn't the only way to make something "film-like." Look at Gone with the Wind, the Wizard of Oz, and The Adventures of Robin Hood, for example. They do not have that flat look at all.

Again: learn about lighting, metering, and how to use your equipment. I guarantee that those things will pay off more than any hack. If you take a good class in photography and lighting, you will be a better photographer.

As for your rants citing "House" and other shows, remember that they have a ton of money and a ton of people using lots of expensive software to do all the post-processing they want. When those places achieve their final images straight out of the camera, then come here and cite them.

Otherwise, please stop wasting everyone's time asking for some kind of magic hack to replace basic exposure and lighting skills. If you properly lit your subjects and exposed correctly (and properly selected the correct settings on your equipment, which you clearly don't know how to use), you would achieve the initial look you seek which you could post-process to your heart's desire. If, on the other hand, you insist on exposing incorrectly and refuse to properly light your subjects, then nothing will help.

I think 5dtoRGB is stunning, as it reveals a ton of detail in the shadows, which i would have sworn, is not there in the first place. What I think is missed here- is that the FLAT look is not to be kept in the picture, but is a good starting point for color-correcting the footage, as it keeps more detail in the shadows aswell as in the light areas, for me flat would be superb- but to colorgrade it afterwards!

Here is small video with recent interview about Technicolor

this video should really clear up the mess in this thread, he explains it all, and nothing to argue ;) vitaliy: is there a possibility of something like this in GH2?

A movie maker friend of mine told me once that you can't effectively work on colors in post with GHx or DSLRs, I presume the "problem" is to not have RAW format out of our cameras. He also told me that the point in shooting with post in mind was because shooting in professional productions is far more expensive than fixing in post. For cheap independent works, it looks a better idea to keep the files as they are, and re-do shooting if necessary.

stonebat, youre right surely, but i think we established that better dr and 10 bit is not going to come to gh2, so flat picture style is really all we have, right?

vitaliy- is a flatter picture profile a possibility with hack?