What am I doing wrong?
 

I just took a look at some film I shot a few days ago. And as I'm looking at it, it just don't look right to me. I wish I can show you guys a sample of it. I judge it based on the porno vids I see on other sites and movies, but mine looks like it was shot some old ass ancient vhs camera. (Not saying because I used a professional camera, it should look professional, but I thought it would of looked a bit better than it did.) I use either a Sony GL-2 or XL-1, anyone with any idea of settings I should use. what I should look out for? distance I should be from subject, amount of light. Tell me something, please.

The model of the camera is not important but what is

Exposure

Colour tempreture of the lights and camera setting

Focus

Amount and quality of light its nature and direction

Sorry for a general answer to a general question

Give us a small sample. Or no one will be able to help you.

Basically think of it as painting with light. 95% comes down to whether the light is right or not.

Easiest place to shoot will be outside on a cloudy day or early morning/late afternoon.

Indoors theres alot to think about. Using multiple light sources will fuck you up because they all have different colour temperatures(quality). Best way is to turn off all the lights and use tungston worklights or better.

And you'll most likely need post production work. Cant help you there :)

Now, give us a sample bitch :)

LOL! at the last comment.

But yeah, thanks for the info. I'll try shooting mainly outdoors for now until I can get me some better lights than the one I have. Tungston lights, are those the ones like what the photographers use for shoots? I'll look it up.

And i'm working on getting the footage edited, should have a sample up in a day or two. Thanks again to everyone for your help. I'm looking forward to when I can get better at this and return the favor to others by giving them help like you guys have done for me.

You mean Canon GL-2 or XL-1!!!
Anyway, if you have a quality camera then the most important thing becomes lighting. The wattage and type of lights will have a great impact on the quality of the footage. For example, no matter how low lux your camera is, if you light the room with a standard 40-60 watt bulb(s) (e.g. cheap hotel room), then you are going to get shitty footage. If lighting is your problem then I would recommend a cheap lighting kit with two stands and fixtures that can handle upto 500 watt bulbs. I typically shoot using two stands with 250 watts in each stand.

Finally, the colors in the room can have a big effect on the quality of light. For example, if the room has yellow walls (or any non-white color) then you will degrade the quality of light.