Creamy Look

Shot on Kodak Vision3 500T 5219 film stock with Arriflex motion picture cameras and Cooke S4 lenses by a great cinematographer who supervised the DI!

I just got this months issue of American Cinematographer and this movie is the cover story. I haven't had time to read the whole issue yet though. If you want the inside scoop on the look, pick up a copy of AC.
 
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From the few scenes I had seen about this, it looks at first, like heavy handed magic bullets look. But now I am curious to see how it supports the story. I'll check out that AC article too. thanks.
 
That's a very popular kind of color grade lately: low contrast, milky blacks, a sound statement of the DR they had available. I actually like it quite a lot, and it looks particularly nice in this example, but I think we'll be somewhat tired of it in a couple of years.
 
I just finished reading the article. It is outstanding. Bruno Delbonnel is one of the great cinematographers working today. He did work closely with a colorist at Technicolor to achieve the look, but the DI was just a continuation of his meticulous lighting and exposure of the original negative. From the colorist, "I graded to Bruno's lighting and Bruno lit to the grade."
 
There's a lot going on here. The lighting is big sources, bounced then diffused, up close with little fill. He said he wanted everything to fall off to black. There is that blooming that happened in post but also they pulled the blues out and went with magnenta/cyan for skin tones, another pretty different choice. It's tremendous art and craft here.

One thing I found extremely instructive was that Delbonnel was meticulously consistent with his exposures so that the colorist didn't have to jerk around with gammas on every shot. Another interesting aspect to the work is the large range of grays, "firm grasp on contrast ratios" that were intentionally low, "maybe 5 stops from the whites to the blacks."

I think his artistry in maintaining those contrast ratios allowed for such a bold look, that after a very short while, did not draw attention to itself but rather drew you into that mood and that world. It really is something.
 
Cmon, OP, geez....post??

Were talking seasoned professionals here, not amateurs with a copy of Magic Bullet Looks. Doesnt everything start with decisions made in pre-production carried through to post? Example: My first feature will be an italo-horror ripoff, mostly--- Ill be testing colored gels on set, desaturating the image in post, for a colored/desaturated gridhouse look. Cant do it all in post. Cant do ANYthing all in post, or it will look exactly like that- like you pressed a few buttons in post.

Each stage effects the next stage. Im a babe with movie making but I know that much (now)-- Learned it hardcore when I shot a lil comedy with my pals and turned down the saturation in my cam because i "liked the look" of it, then in post every person I worked with wanted more saturation for a more cartoony, fun feel. COuldnt just turn up the saturation knoball the way in my NLE to compensate for the loss- made bizzarro artificacts!!! See the lesson? Shouldve reminded myself ---early--- I was shooting a comedy- looks do not exist for their own sake. Dont get enamored by a look unless youre sure it serves the mood of the story.

Clearly the Cohens wanted a "dreamy, period" feel.

The look should serve the (mood of the) story, and those decisions cant be all left to post, because in order to get the final look you need to do ceartin things at every stage so it all "adds up" at the end.

QUICK CAVEAT: My fave cinematography of the year was on "Dredd" where Anthony Dod Mantle and crew created a candy colored psychedelic nightmare MOTIVATED BY THE COMIC BOOK ORIGINS OF THE STORY AND ITS DRUG-RELATED SUBJECT MATTER (the crazy super slo-mo, etc). A lazier-thinking group woudlve just de-saturated the whole thing for an obvious post-apoc feel. Theres no one look for every genre, but again, you make the decisions early rite? The set on Dredd (production design) may not have been as colorful as the final output (which was likeley saturation-upped at some stage) , but it sure as hell wasnt colored like the set of Batman 89 or the first Total Recall (gosh Im old)...,

Post!?!?!?

:D
 
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