Grabs from New Short Film (UPDATED!)

P

Policar

Carbonite Member
Color corrected.  Wheee!!

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A "dramatic" scene in a dark room. The shadows are too heavy, but they're motivated at least by the light sources in the room.

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Color timed version of the image above.

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Terrible shooting conditions; the highlights are horribly blown out.

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Color timed; it's not perfect but I think it's a pretty decent improvement. Also it's broadcast legal now which helps.
 
Re: Grabs from New Short Film (Some Advice Needed)

Re: Grabs from New Short Film (Some Advice Needed)

The lighting is good. They look great to me.

Curious what this thing is about.
 
Re: Grabs from New Short Film (Some Advice Needed)

Re: Grabs from New Short Film (Some Advice Needed)

It appears to me that you are very close to the subject matter; have you tried backing away and then zooming in to frame? I think this might help with the imagery.
 
Re: Grabs from New Short Film (Some Advice Needed)

Re: Grabs from New Short Film (Some Advice Needed)

Haven't we seen this talent before on a previous infamous post? :D

Are you white balancing before you shoot? Doesn't look like it to me. The color palette seems to be all over the place. Don't rely on post to fix all of this or you will have a gargantuan task on your hands.

I would seriously consider using ND filters to get some shallower depth of field, there's a lot of background conflict in some of the shots.

In the last shot, I would recommend using soft lights. The shadow is a little harsh on his face.

Hope this is not too harsh.
 
Re: Grabs from New Short Film (Some Advice Needed)

Re: Grabs from New Short Film (Some Advice Needed)

Yes, it's the infamous David. And yes, I did have something to do with those previous posts, although not as much as some may suspect (well, almost as much.) Sorry if I offended anyone with any of that.

The lighting set ups were all done in five minutes or less and the rooms weren't big enough to back up to back up to shrink the DOF. If I'd had a crew and a boom mic, I'd have shot differently, but after watching Citizen Kane, I've become fond of a wide DOF. Wide angle lenses and low key lighting seem to add a great sense of depth, and I wanted to try a stab at that style. The problem is that Orson Welles was a genius and had complete control of mis-en-scene. I just shot in Messy rooms. Looking back, I wish I had cleaned up the backgrounds for the talking heads, shot slightly less extreme close ups, shot with a shallower DOF, and used more pronounced back lights to make the characters "pop" out.

The white balance issue is worse than anyone could imagine. I did white balance, but I wanted a little more orange in the night time interiors than in the day time interiors (which were shot minutes apart.) I went overboard with adjustments in camera (which I prefer to adjusting in post since the 12 bit DSP is purer than manipulating an 8 bit image. I think I'll stick to tinting in post after this messy experience, though.) Also, I accidentally hit the scene file setting knob to some bizarre 30p preset towards the very end of the shoot and had to do the most painful frame rate conversion of all and deal with bizarre shifts in color temperature.

Disjecta, no worries. I agree with what you wrote and I'll definitely keep it in mind during future shoots. This was a really messy shoot and done just for fun and practice. I appreciate the feedback, since I'm trying to improve before starting my next serious project.
 
Re: Grabs from New Short Film (Some Advice Needed)

Re: Grabs from New Short Film (Some Advice Needed)

Yea, the colors don't seem consistent at all. i.e. the beanie goes from pink to red.
 
Re: Grabs from New Short Film (Some Advice Needed)

Re: Grabs from New Short Film (Some Advice Needed)

Unfortunately, that's just the nature of shooting with different color temperatures (daylight versus artificial light). If I white balanced everything to pure white, it would look even more off. Shot to shot, everything looks perfect, but in different scenes the white point changes. I'll color correct it so it's a less drastic change, though.

Nonetheless, indoor scenes typically are warmer than outdoor ones. Many directors even use filters to tint on a scene-by-scene basis. Nevertheless, I'll tone it down. I think I went way overboard with the idea and I appreciate the advice.
 
Re: Grabs from New Short Film (UPDATED!)

Hard to rely on nature for lighting but it looks good to me.
 
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