How to achieve this scene?

R

RPLace

Carbonite Member
So I read in an interview that this particular scene of The Tree Of Life was filmed without any electric lighting sources, using only the sunlight and the right time of day:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_ePEq-ZMec

Questions:

1. What time of day would this be? During my usual indoor texts, if the sun is shining on one side of a house, the light coming through the windows will be about 4 stops brighter than that of the other side of the house, though the scene above is relatively the same throughout. My thoughts are that morning, down, and possibly a cloudy day come into this.

2. How do you white balance to ensure the windows have the perfect, realistic color tone in both the windows and the skin tones the final product (after editing)? Does a white card take care of this, or is there more precision involved? I've noticed that in this scene, the skin tons are a tad red where underexposed, but that it seems the most attention was put on making the windows look nice and color-tone less/perfectly exposed.

3. How is the 'flat but realistic' image achieved? Is this achieved by merely shooting flat + adding a touch of contrast and saturation, or by shooting contrasty and saturation-y and dialing down, or a combination of both? Or are there more complex technologies involved, like blending a flat and contrasty picture together (I read in the interviews something about [possibly digital] film negatives that I didn't understand but hear of a lot)

If it helps, I know The Tree Of Life was filmed on an Arri (not sure if film or digital) and that the interview also mentioned that different housing locations were used for different times of the day (that Malick didn't care much for interior continuity beyond getting the right exposure), but in this above particular scene, I think the shots are in the same location + the bedroom shot and indoor/outdoor transition shots (kids running through the door) are what I'm most curious about the most anyway.
 
It wasn't "three different housing locations" but three exact replicas of the same house positioned at three different angles to the sun.

As for exposure: look at how big the windows are and how sunny it is outside for most shots. This was not shot at dusk or dawn.

As for "How to achieve this scene?" I really don't where to start to answer that. I do know that white balance is probably the least of your troubles in replicating the quality of this scene.
 
RPLace said:
So I read in an interview that this particular scene of The Tree Of Life was filmed without any electric lighting sources, using only the sunlight and the right time of day:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_ePEq-ZMec

Questions:

1. What time of day would this be? During my usual indoor texts, if the sun is shining on one side of a house, the light coming through the windows will be about 4 stops brighter than that of the other side of the house, though the scene above is relatively the same throughout. My thoughts are that morning, down, and possibly a cloudy day come into this.
Click to expand...

The shots with views of the exterior, show that some shots were done in 'bright sun', perhaps about noon-early afternoon, or just before noon-morning. Other shots, like when the group goes to the back yard, it is clearly 'not clear'... but overcast. Other interior shots, show the sun streaming through the windows.

Often when there is a shot of the group and a window, the group is 'near' the window. so the light has not fallen off as much as deep inside the house.

2. How do you white balance to ensure the windows have the perfect, realistic color tone in both the windows and the skin tones the final product (after editing)? Does a white card take care of this, or is there more precision involved? I've noticed that in this scene, the skin tons are a tad red where underexposed, but that it seems the most attention was put on making the windows look nice and color-tone less/perfectly exposed.
Click to expand...

This could have been done in post with 'selective' color management. Since there is no 'mixing' of tungsten, sun, and north light, but mostly sun or north/overcast light, the colors to deal with are in the higher K range, and so a 'daylight' balance would be suggested. In post the 'bluishness' of the north/overcast could be dialed down.


3. How is the 'flat but realistic' image achieved? Is this achieved by merely shooting flat + adding a touch of contrast and saturation, or by shooting contrasty and saturation-y and dialing down, or a combination of both? Or are there more complex technologies involved, like blending a flat and contrasty picture together (I read in the interviews something about [possibly digital] film negatives that I didn't understand but hear of a lot)
Click to expand...

While there may be some 'in camera' adjustment, many times, especially these days, color shifts will be done in post production, while the film is shot as 'neutral' as possible. But then again, there may be reasons for say shooting tungsten in daylight, without correction to give a 'blue fringing' to everything even with some post adjustments... for example, keep shadows 'blue' but warm up skin tones...
 
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