Any "noir" black and white stuff?

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Guys,

I am so sold on the Panny, I'll probably have mine by the end of the year. One of the first things I want to do once I get my light kit and camera is do some "noir" type lshort in black and white. Anybody have anything like that they can post? Just curious.

- Sam
 
Re: Any "noir" black and white stuff?

I have this. I will post a clip of this when I get home tonight.


0bw1.jpg

0bw2.jpg
 
Re: Any "noir" black and white stuff?

Of course I've seen "Chinatown"! It's one of the ultimate classics.

I love all of those... "The Spy Who Came In From the Cold", "The Maltese Falcon", "Double Indemnity", "Touch of Evil", etc.

I really liked the Coen Brother's "The Man Who Wasn't There", especially due to it's lavish cinematography. Rodger Deakins is a God.

Cool screen caps! Got a link to a video clip?

I think even with a modest three point lighting kit, some good noir stuff is possible.
 
Re: Any "noir" black and white stuff?

Arcburn,

How did you light those shots? Looks like just a key light. Any fill or back?
 
Re: Any "noir" black and white stuff?

Sam

Yeah it was a real basic setup only 1 worklight. Nothing else. It was actually a test of shutter speeds to experiment with slow motion.

Anyway here is the clip as promised.
http://www.allanhayburn.com/bwclip.mov

One thing I'll say is after I bought the DVX, I was never disappointed. The quality of imagery it produces is astounding.
 
Re: Any "noir" black and white stuff?

great clip, any special settings on the dvx or was it more lighting and post?

matthew
 
Re: Any "noir" black and white stuff?

nothing special. I might have put the ped down for a little more contrast. And I upped the contrast a bit in post.
 
Re: Any "noir" black and white stuff?

Nice clip. Man, I'm so wanting this DVX. Cool to see some B&W stuff. I think it can be so dramatic and moody when done right. Cool.
 
Re: Any "noir" black and white stuff?

Not a bad music video, though I caught myself laughing at the bass player more than anything. ;D The music was kind of lackluster, but the video production was great. Reminded me of the recent "Cigarettes and Coffee" look. Cool.

This was shot with the DVX100A, correct? Could you describe the techniques used, i.e. camera settings, lighting techniques, number of camera setups?
 
Re: Any "noir" black and white stuff?

speedbump, I second that: this was shot with a DVX 100a? how'd you get that sooo filmic look -- what were your settings in camera and with editing
 
Re: Any "noir" black and white stuff?

oh, and sampotter the "ped" refers to master ped -- its a setting in the camera which makes the blacks deeper and heightens the contrast.
 
Re: Any "noir" black and white stuff?

sampotter and dillonculp:

Thanks for the kind words.

This was shot with the DVX100. We had three Arri lights, from 50 to 350 watts, plus a little practical light through gritty skylights.

I ripped their CD track onto a laptop, and had a makeshift amp system where I could play portions of their song over and over while we shot different angles and takes. It helps if you have a LOUD sound system, so the band can play and still hear what they are supposed to be synching to. Also, it is better to have something like a laptop and a software editor like Audition, instead of a boom box, because you can quickly and repeatedly set in and out points for the music.

We used a full stop silk to soften the fill light in front, and the light you see in the background is an Arri 150 on a light stand, scrimmed half a stop and pointing right at the camera. Generally speaking, we tried to arrange the lights to always be at a 45% angle from the camera and subject material.

I rented a monster smoke machine for this shoot, which helped a lot with textures. Interestingly, we'd have what looked like (to my eyes) a lot of smoke on set, but the camera would see through it quite well. We had to intentioanlly backlight smoke when we wanted that element to stand out!

We did all our shots with the iris wide open, so occassionally we got some interesting depth of field. Umm, knowing what I know now, I would have closed off the iris about 5% from full; seems to sharpen the image a tad.

We used an anamorphic adapter. And we went with handheld rather than dolly shots, but we did lock the camera down too.

What else? 24PA. We used a variety of f settings, depending on the situation.

One thing that really helped was that we had a high def monitor with 16:9 capability, and I rigged a copy protection removal device (for VHS dubbing) so that the monitor gave us a black and white image. We'd then light or compose the scene so as to get as rich and contrasty picture as we could get, then we'd shoot it. This REALLY gave us a good idea what we'd get in post.

In post, I edited in Vegas, adjusted all clips generally by punching up contrast 15%, crushing blacks, and trying to match the overall temp of each clip to my favorite one. Then it was just a question of slapping the clips together to match the music.

It also really helped that I had a strong vision of how I wanted the video to look, we had a great set, the band was very cooperative, and of course I have a great crew. I was aching to do some sort of noir treatment, and these folks happened along at the right place and time. First rule of lighting: "Expose for contrast, then worry about the colors."
 
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