Black Hawk Down Look

DavidBeier

DavidBeier

Veteran
I was fiddling around with the look of Black Hawk Down and Gladiator. Mixing a high shudder speed with that sandy look. I wanted to see how close I could get in camera. I like the look though I'm not sure how close I came. These are downrezed JPEGs from 1080p and have no CC though are a bit brighter for some reason than their uncompressed counterparts.

I have to say that Cine-Like V is really growing on me. I initally just used D for the dynamic range but V seems prett close and I really like the higher contrast and less noise.

War_AlexCU720p.jpg


War_AlexMS720p.jpg
 
I'd suggest shooting cleaner and striving to get the look in post as much as possible because once you commit in camera; you can't go back.

The BHD look is much cooler than these give it credit for; lots of blues and greens and underexposed a bit. Although there are many variations in the film, this grab seems to sum it up best.

Your grabs appear much warmer overall. I'd aim to inject some blues into the greens a bit

bhdmt7.jpg
 
Depends if you want the grain, obviously. I have found that I rather enjoy crushing the blacks in FCP, highlighting the whites a bit, while desaturating, and you'll get a nice grain effect that isn't otherwise apparent in the original low-gain footage. The HVX, in its original state, seems really smooth to me. This camera is like endless fun...
 
The bleach bypass in the plugin set that I have comes pretty close to that look from BHD.. Like your shots a lot David.. Looks very nice and I think you could get close to what you want in post. Got to love the CC ability with this camera... Can't do the same in DV land.. fo' sho'....
 
I'd suggest a bleach-bypass as well. You can do this easily without a plugin in FCP. Just duplicate the clip on two video tracks. On the clip below, adjust the levels for the high contrast. Then, in the clip on the top track, change the composite mode to "Color." Then, you'll have a nice bleach bypass without color distortion which I think would really help the look you're going for.

JC
 
Dont know if you got the Gladaitor or BHD look, but I definately dig the images. The first one looks really lovely. Shallow DOF, nice warm image, and crisp detailed hair. Wow.
 
The look for BHD isn't a traditional bleach bypass though. It's a contrasty super saturated look with green shadows and an overall cool cast like hudson said.
 
Thanks for your comments guys. I guess when I said Black Hawk Down, I ment a more general Ridley Scott look. I was shooting more for the look of Gladiator, Kingdom of Heaven, and Black Hawk Down when in more direct sunlight and has a kind of a sandy look. John's right in that Black Hawk Down had a lot more blues and particularly greens than what I got but that wasn't quite what I was going for. As I fiddled around with it more, I realized I wasn't really pulling off the look as well as I wanted but I really liked the look I was getting so I continued to push that further. The JPEGs are brighter than the origionals for some reason, losing the richer blacks. Ultimatly, I'm pretty pleased with the look I got. I really like how the highlights and blow outs are handled. It's not the look I was initially going for but I like it and think that's what makes experimenting so rewarding. It think it's cool to find something new when trying to emulate something else.

John_Hudson said:
I'd suggest shooting cleaner and striving to get the look in post as much as possible because once you commit in camera; you can't go back.
Click to expand...

This is actually an interesting internal debate I still have as far as CC goes. I shot DVX100 for a number of years and, 4:1:1, you really can't push the footage too far in post or you'll get a lot of nasty looking breakup. The DVCProHD lets you do A LOT more from the limited testing I've done but my gut is still to get it as close in camera. Part of that I think I'm really not as familiar as I'd like to be with image manipulation in Avid since I had to get it closer in camera with the DVX100.

I'd suggest a bleach-bypass as well. You can do this easily without a plugin in FCP. Just duplicate the clip on two video tracks. On the clip below, adjust the levels for the high contrast. Then, in the clip on the top track, change the composite mode to "Color." Then, you'll have a nice bleach bypass without color distortion which I think would really help the look you're going for.
Click to expand...

Interesting, any idea how one might do it in Avid? What exactly does "color" composite mode do and is there an Avid version (everyone tells me Avid's CC is as powerful if not more than FCP). I guess I could always take it into Combustion or After Effects but that adds a lot to the workflow so I like to try to accomplish everything in the NLEs unless I need some particle effects or compositing.
 
I've never used Avid before, unfortunately. However, I did just find a tutorial on utilizing this exact technique in actually an easier/quicker fashion in After Effects. Look here:
http://forums.creativecow.net/cgi-b....net/articles/kramer_andrew/bleach/index.html

This describes it much better than I did, and specifically for AE. I don't have AE, but the logic transfers to just about any decent program you'll be using. So, you may be able to eliminate AE from the workflow if need be.

JC
 
John_Hudson said:
I'd suggest shooting cleaner and striving to get the look in post as much as possible because once you commit in camera; you can't go back.
Click to expand...

G'day John.

In regard to the picture example you posted (which I love), what camera settings would you recommend when you say "shooting cleaner" to give you the best shot at achieving this look via post manipulation?

Thanks.
 
King Cole said:
I've never used Avid before, unfortunately. However, I did just find a tutorial on utilizing this exact technique in actually an easier/quicker fashion in After Effects. Look here:
http://forums.creativecow.net/cgi-bin/page_wrapper.cgi?forumid=2&page=http://www.creativecow.net/articles/kramer_andrew/bleach/index.html

This describes it much better than I did, and specifically for AE. I don't have AE, but the logic transfers to just about any decent program you'll be using. So, you may be able to eliminate AE from the workflow if need be.

JC
Click to expand...

Interesting. Avid won't do that but I found a similar and even easier way to do it. The tutorial says that you have to duplicate the layer and transfer just the color info is because the colors become over contrasty and makes the look to odd. I find that, to get a similar effect, all you have to do is desaturate the colors untill they look right. Not extra layers or special transfers, just some desaturation (about 25% in the stuff I played with).
 
Hey was just browsing through and thought I'd try some CC on that pic..didn't quite work out but I thought I'd post anyway.

test.jpg



EDIT: and a new one...this one's better IMO

test_2.jpg


-Chris
 
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^
You're kind of handicapped since you are using a very compressed version (800x450 JPEG compression) of 1920x1080 uncompressed origional.
 
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