Public Enemies article: 1920x800 to the big screen

[pix2pixels]

Interesting article in the ASC magazine, about 'Public Enemies' showing that cropping the 1920x1080 image to 1920x800, can make it to the big screen with good results:
http://www.theasc.com/magazine_dynamic/July2009/PublicEnemies/page1.php

[JJ_HomeFri]

that was a really interesting article! its pretty cool that they used an ex1, even if it was only a d-camera. that says a lot for the camera though, if it matched up well with the cinealta f23

[Ben_B]

They only used the ex-1 for a few shots inside cars during chases, etc, as you mentioned....I haven't seen the movie but I heard the digital look wasn't entirely successful, although it is, of course, subjective.

[Aaron Neal Trout]

Public Enemies looked like crap. It's the only time I've ever heard my wife make a comment on the cinematography of the film. Normally she's telling me to shut up about the camera/focus/lighting/handheld/ect, but this time she was the one to say how annoying it was. "Why does this scene look so much worse then the last?" LOL!

[Eddy Robinson]

I have to agree with Aaron. I went to see it on the big screen specifically to see how this would turn out, and quizzed Mrs. R about how she thought it looked afterwards (she is technical but not into cameras particularly). With no prompting, she identified really bad noise in low light, shared my dislike of the endless handheld camera work, and noticed the ghosting on fast movement in multiple scenes, probably the result of an incorrect frame rate conversion. Also, the soundtrack was dreadful. I really wonder if they ran out of cash in post, it just didn't feel finished or properly mixed at all. I also hated the lighting in multiple scenes. Don't even get me started on the pathetic excuse for a color grade.

I don't blame the EX-1 (whose scenes did look just fine), but I do blame the team behind the camera. It's a good story, there's some fine acting, and the script is pretty decent too even if it takes a few liberties with the historical record. But as a viewing experience, it was painful.

[Rakesh Jacob]

Great story, good actors, good direction.... cinematography.... even my wife, who's a nurse, asked me why it looked like a home movie in a bunch of shots.

[Raster]

Interesting article p2p, thanks for the heads up.

I saw it on one of those Hoyts super cinema screens. The sound system was top notch and the music had a superb holographic depth to it, I could count the horns in the brass.

After reading that Michael Mann asks for loud syllables in speech to be pulled back, yeah the mix was disappointing. Twice I heard an actors lines get loudly bumped, says 'times up' in the mix to me.

The first 15mins of handheld took some getting used too and some grading was unusual in the action. Interesting comments about the differences to 35mm film. It says 'things to come'.

Cheers.