Framegrabs please critique

Starshine Video

Starshine Video

Well-known member
The following are some frame grabs from a short film Project that I DPed in association with the -Iowa Digital Filmmakers Guild-. I would really like some honest feedback. It was shot on a DVX100a and the lighting was mostly KinoFlos and natural. I white balanced for the tungsten kino and let the natural light stay blue. The in the short the actors are trapped in the small house by zombies, so I let the windows and doors blow out to give a feeling of nothingness on the other side of the wall.



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I would really like honest and full bore feedback, I won't get upset if you tell me it sucks :)
 
IMHO I think they look pretty good. I would like to see what comes before and after these shots.
 
Overall I like the compositions, but I think it's very underlit. More contrast between the subjects and the backgrounds (excluding the windows) and as stated above, eyelights. Nice job, though, are you going to have access to the final to post when it's finished?

-DES
 
My thoughts are that they are so under lit that they seem hidden in the shadows and would not make it feel as scary. If they were lit enough to see everything I think it might give a sense of being more vulnerable because they can't hide. Also, harder shadows may give more of a sense of urgency. Right now it seems too calm. Do you see what I'm trying to get at? Hope that helped a little.
 
Everything is very underexposed. You need to avoid windows when you shoot during the day or you're going to have some major exposure issues - the sunlight coming through the window will be a different color temperature and will blow out bigtime.
 
tommyinla said:
Everything is very underexposed. You need to avoid windows when you shoot during the day or you're going to have some major exposure issues - the sunlight coming through the window will be a different color temperature and will blow out bigtime.
Click to expand...

did you even read my post? I wanted to have the windows blown out and the color temp change it was designed that way.
 
Aram Bauman said:
My thoughts are that they are so under lit that they seem hidden in the shadows and would not make it feel as scary. If they were lit enough to see everything I think it might give a sense of being more vulnerable because they can't hide. Also, harder shadows may give more of a sense of urgency. Right now it seems too calm. Do you see what I'm trying to get at? Hope that helped a little.
Click to expand...

Yeah I get want you are saying thanks
 
The mixed color temp (indoor versus sunlight) didn't seem well controlled and managed. Didn't seem like a creative decision, just bad shooting. Certainly underlit. You could still keep lots of shadows, but a little kick at least on one side of the faces would make it much more interesting.
 
this is more useful. your first post seemed like you were trying to school me on light temps, and how they work and what blown out windows are. It just seemed like you hadn't even bothered to read and see that i had intended it.
Now saying it looks amateurish is a decent criticism, it seems the problem is that you were trying to be nice to me and pulled your punches. I want harshness It feels more honest.
 
Oh, didn't mean any insult. A lot of people around here have thin skin, so I guess I'm used to trying to make things seem pleasant.

I think the problem with the blown windows is the fact that, since the other elements are underexposed, you're losing a lot of contrast and the foreground elements are hard to make out. I would say if you added some well-placed fill lights so that the contrast is brought up a bit, I think you'll get the result you're going for.

Are you trying to get a glow from the windows or just the extra exposure?
 
What i was going for was a combination of getting a feeling of "nothingness" and some cool pools of blueish light. I also love soft light and halation so that was in mind mind as well. I'm not happy in the end with the blown out windows because they are very distracting. I had gels and duvateen on set but chose not to use them for effect.

I think my main problem is (other than the windows) that I didn't have enough balls to go with a higher contrast Carrivaggio style of lighting which, in hindsight, is what i wanted and ended up with a flat shot.
 
The first thought that comes to my mind is this... you aren't exposing for the subject matter in the foreground. I'm assuming you're not using any auto settings, right? What I would do is light the scene like you would like to WHILE covering all the windows with cardboard or towels or whatever. Then, when you have the scene lit the way you want (I like the blue in the kids face), then take off any window coverings and you *should* be left with no detail but blown out white coming from the window (i.e. no leaves or screen). I would try it that way and see if that works the way you'd like.
 
it is underlit, it just looks very amateur. I understand all of your thoughts for doing what you did, but its just underexposed.
 
to be quite brutally honest, it looks amateur-ish, underlit, rudimentary composition, not impressive in the slightest.....

how do blown out windows/highlights represent nothing-ness? I'm curious

everytime I hear that over-used excuse of "my blown highlights were an artistic choice" I chuckle....

how bout this.... light it right and compose it properly and if you still want an artistic choice to blow the highlights, do it in post

hope this helps.
 
>Didn't seem like a creative decision, just bad shooting.

I'll second what Josh said. If you're gonna do it, do it. The audience should get it upon viewing, but they didn't. They (us) just thought it was underexposed.

Adding the disclaimer of "I was going for..." doesn't work for the viewer who doesn't read the post mortem.


Composition et al is good, it's just the exposure. Perhaps some radical CC will give it a cool "look" that audience will get. May not be what you set out for, but it may get it to work.

Honestly I'll say that you are not there yet, but on the way.

:-)
 
i like the tone/mood ... the DP stated the use of mix light and intention to blow out windows ( which many Dp's decide to do - could be a stylized decision or economic ) ... looking over the 6 photo's i see the DP was in control of the scene and has created "mood" and a "look"..it seems the DP decided to "underexpose " the scenes and then add in light on subjects to bring them up a little ... i just don't see any composiition problems ... over all i think it is good cinematography ... what i don't know is if the mood/look fits the scene and the project as a whole ....

over & under exposure is a CHOICE ( DP's )... it seems that many here disagree with the choice of exposure or do not like the darkness which is fair ..

" light it right and compose it properly "

could somebody explain light it right ?
compose properly ?

you get 5 DP's to light this scene - you'll end up with 5 different set ups and 5 different exposure's & compositions ...

i would have tested a liitle smoke in the room just to see what would happen around windows - perhaps a little shafting ? or nothing ?
 
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