What filters should I use?

[Kentertainment]

I'm currently in the process of editing a 30 minute 1980's buddy cop film and was trying to find a certain look to it in picture quality. Well I came across the trailer for the new David Fincher film, "Zodiac" and immediately said to myself, "That's the look!"

Have a look here

Anyway, What do you think would be the best way to achieving this look?

1. Yes I know it is desaturated, but there is evidentally more to it than just that.

2. Yes I also know that this took place in the 60's and 70's and not 80's.

Thanks for your help...

 

[David Jimerson]

It didn't look all THAT desaturated. The black levels are pushed down; it looks like yellows/oranges are punched up a little.

 

[USLatin]

hey, I wanna see that movie though!

so you both agree the Zodiac trailer seemed to be desaturated (at least a little)?

 

[Lawsuit_Boy]

I can't wait for Zodiac. I love the Finch. That new Viper cam (viper, correct?) seems to make some pretty images (along with finch and the DP's help of course!)

Sidenote: cast looks good too.

 

[epicedium]

To my eyes, the blue is dipped.

Add a colour curves, go to blue channel, add a point and lower the higher blues (i.e. the top-right of the graph).

Play with rising and dipping the different channels at different parts of the curve. For example, you might have the green raised in the lows, flat in the mids, then raised in the highs. Red might be flat. Blue might be raised in the lows, lowered in the highs.

Grading with curves in this way is fairly difficult, it is startlingly easy to mess up your image, especially if you don't have a good idea for tones and colour ... but it's very powerful.

All of the vids on my page were graded in this way. I basically do:-

[[[Each individual clip - Colour curve to make consistant]]] ------> [[[Chroma Blur, 1-3px]]] ---------> [[[ 1 or more secondary colour correctors, for specific fixes]]] -----> [[[Colour Curve, to grade my colours]]] -------> [[[Colour Curve, rgb linked, to define my tone e.g. crush blacks, raise lower mids, flatten upper mids, peak to burn in the near-white highlights]]] ------> [[[ Black and white, set by eye ]]]

That sort of thing. Make sure that you do your secondaries and colour manipulation before you do your tone/contrast/gamma correction .... cuz obviously if you're tweaking your tones then your "input" values into your colour grade and secondaries will shift and change your colour profile.