Shooting for B&W

claxius

claxius

Active member
Hello. I am shooting a film-noir/mystery project and know that it will be black and white. And from what I've been told is that I should shoot it color (it'll be shot with standard 24p minidv) and then b&w it in post.

I was wondering if the scenes and especially the day for night scenes I will shoot need to be lit any differently. In other words, will the lighting look different, be better/worse, will I need to compensate if I shoot color and switch it to b&w in post.

Any opinions/suggestions/thoughts?

Thank you

Mark
 
shooting black and white is a completely different ball game. Where as in in color, the viewers eye is focused on composition of shot and the range in color. Black and white, all the image is about is composition and levels, dynamic range in light, because thats all one sees. Play around with levels, lighting ratios and make things interesting. Black and white is all about textures so see how you can be inventive with that.
 
So if I know that the end result will be b&w...should I shoot it b&w so I can see on the moniter/eye piece what the image will look like in b&w?
 
Over on the cinematography fourms his has been discussed a few times. It seems the consensus is to shoot color. Even know you though the final outcome will be black and white shooting in color gives you the protection to change your mind later on.

If your using a DVX you can turn off the color to the eyepiece to get a better idea on what you are shooting.

Or if your using a different camera, hook up the camera to a tv and turn down the chroma level on it.

Hope that helps.
 
>I was wondering if the scenes and especially the day for night scenes
>I will shoot need to be lit any differently

Aww hell, if you are shooting for BW and doing DFN, I'd try shooting with a deep red filter. You can make the sky go almost completely black. Might do a little wierd things to flesh tones, but it should help sell the the DFN stuff.

Check out:

http://www.fredmiranda.com/BW_filters/index.html
 
if you shoot color you can still color correct based on color, which means you can adjust contrast etc in just the talent without masking based off skintones etc.
 
I say shoot in color and go to b&w in post. It gives you so much more flexibility later in case you need to do any unusual special effects or whatever. Or in the case you decided to do a "Wizard of Oz" type trick and the first part of the movie is in b&w and the second part in color ;-)
 
If you want a Black and White look created via post, you need to remember that there is a very big difference between black and white, and three channel desaturation. Most people mistake deasat for black and white, its not, its technically grayscale. Real black and white film only responds to blue and green light (hence the red light in a dark room).

I recommend shooting some tests and in post desaturate all three channels, then delete one of the channels. You will see some major differences depending on the colors in the scene and what channel(s) you get rid of. Also try shooting tests with various colored filters (ie: red, blue and green are a good start). Lighting will become much more important in black and white as well, so backlighting and careful background selection will be much more important.
 
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