theprestige
Active member
I made a quick and dirty film noir shoot in a couple of hours called 'La Belle Femme'
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SHORT: Film noir short
- Thread starter theprestige
- Start date
Cary Knoop
Veteran
The problem is there is no 'noir' in your video.
You got your black levels wrong.
You got your black levels wrong.
theprestige
Active member
What's wrong with the black levels?
Cary Knoop
Veteran
It is easy to see on a well-calibrated monitor, but inspection of the waveform readily shows the problem:
Also, while obviously a personal choice, I find the gamma too high for the film noir look, something like this would, in my view, work better:
as opposed to the original:
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Good point. If it were me, I would take the blacks of the doctored still above but pull the midtones up (drive them apart from the blacks) if possible, otherwise whole thing just gets muddy. When you're not using actual lighting you run into these things. I have been grading some available light stuff for a very long time now and with things like DaVinci Resolve there is an astounding amount possible even with "unlit" material.
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Cary Knoop
Veteran
Nice jcs, it's got a kind of Eraserhead gloom to it!
Another thing one can do to increase the 'film noir' effect is create artificial light for more drama, like so:
After:
Before:
Another thing one can do to increase the 'film noir' effect is create artificial light for more drama, like so:
After:
Before:
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Haha thanks, they don't make 'em like they used to. Wasn't really a fan of Eraserhead (content/"story"), however everything else Lynch has done is pretty excellent! Lived in Seattle around the time of Twin Peaks- used to drive out to the Salish Lodge for hiking. https://www.salishlodge.com/twinpeaks.php
Cool lighting effect- even with PP CC it's possible to do tracked lighting/corrections for all sorts of lighting in post (Resolve is currently easier/faster for masked+tracked edits (Power Windows)).
theprestige
Active member
Some interesting approaches, guys. Suddenly the image feels very flat, lol. I might replace the video..
Just remember, eyes and monitors (unless theyre pro quality and calibrated) can lie to you, scopes won’t (unless something’s set up incorrectly). Usually you want a true black and a true highlight in each shot (always exceptions of course, but usually). So even if you cant trust your monitor, you can pull the darkest parts of each shot (if they’re supposed to be dark) down to just kiss that 0 line and your highlights to kiss 100% if they’re something that should be pure white/blown out.
Good tips if going for the video look. For a film look, whites never get super white. When pulling down blacks, sometimes a lot more than just kissing is appropriate. I adjust both based on feeling/emotion of the shot for the intended story, trying a few variations and seeing how they feel while checking for anything odd before moving on. Using curves to adjust gamma also has an effect (I did all these steps for the example frame earlier in this thread).
Using calibrated monitors and checking results on YouTube, HDTVs, phones, etc. also helpful.
I think specular highlights, light sources and maybe a few other things can be pure white. I wouldnt crush blacks or clip whites too much in the name of artistry without a calibrated pro monitor because you simply dont know what youre really looking at. There’s every chance in the world what youve done in reality looks spectacularly s*%tty everywhere but on your own monitor. So if you go the route most of us do and have an uncalibrated computer monitor I think you have to go by your scopes and play it kinda safe to guarantee other people see something that isnt repugnant to the eyes.
I use calibrated 4K Dell monitors (32 and 27” consumer grade factory calibrated + manually calibrated (i1Display))- how did the example I posted turn out on your display(s)?
Again, good to test on other devices such as phones, tablets, HDTVs. Apple products tend to have fairly consistent calibration.
Study film and film response WRT whites if you’re into the film look.
Cary Knoop
Veteran
Pretty cool- now it's more of a laugh response vs. WTF?! haha. I appreciate what he was going for after understanding his intent regarding fear of becoming a father, unusual/challenging in-laws, relationships, etc.
This is a tough crowd. I liked it the way it is.The prestige puts up a film and instead of looking at the story shot selection it's all slag on him/her for minor items that can be corrected in a few minutes or really don't add or take away from the enjoyment of the story one iota.
Another perspective is constructive feedback to improve the work for the intended goal (Noir), right?
This is primarily a camera forum and that means it is primarily videographers, DPs, cinematographers, camera people who dedicate themselves to the image. So the focus of commentary will be about the image, not the story. If this was posted on a writing forum, the focus would be there. It's not a tough crowd. It is a talented and thoughtful crowd that was nice enough to provide some really good feedback with examples about the image. The author claimed film noir. Film noir has an image and a story component to it. The story could be considered fitting within the film noir genre, but the image clearly does not. Had no one commented on the image, theprestige could have gone on blissfully ignorant of the fact that the image does not fit within the film noir genre. But with the kind efforts here, some education has been provided that can be taken or ignored.