CSI miami look - with limitations

[Thomas Worth]

all i said was to overexpose your stock 2/3rds of a stop and then bring it down in telecine (look back, i specifically told you to rate a 250 ASA stock 200ASA). i did also tell you to use bleach bypass

If you're planning on bypassing the bleach step in processing, you don't want to overexpose! The reason is because since the silver is left on the film, it increases the density of the negative which would negate the film's ISO rating (the film is rated under the assumption that it will be exposed and processed normally). Even if the film was exposed normally, the resulting print would still be overexposed.

 

If you want middle gray to fall roughly where it would if the film was processed normally, you'd have to underexpose.

[Peter Sensor]

If you shoot outdoor don´t forget about Pola filter, you archieve more saturated colors (sky) and less reflections. Go to a very wide iris to get shallow deep fied. study your background colors with lot of primary colors.

 

Lav, I agree with David Mullen,ASC and Andres Victorero. But with all this talk of contrast, no one has mentioned negative fill - I would have on hand a good amount of black cloth and try to backlight with the sun as much as possible. Also, on S16, I would suggest a very lite stop and a longer prime lens / the prime, in my opinion will have a better "Bokeh" (out of focus quality) than a zoom. The 250 stock and a good colorist should get you the saturation - best of luck.

[Lav Bodnaruk]

Lav, I agree with David Mullen,ASC and Andres Victorero. But with all this talk of contrast, no one has mentioned negative fill - I would have on hand a good amount of black cloth and try to backlight with the sun as much as possible. Also, on S16, I would suggest a very lite stop and a longer prime lens / the prime, in my opinion will have a better "Bokeh" (out of focus quality) than a zoom. The 250 stock and a good colorist should get you the saturation - best of luck.

 

Thanks Peter!

 

The shoot is scheduled for 15th of December and I cannot wait. :)

I was thinking of using mirrors to backlight with?

The zoom lens I have been offered by the rental company is 8-64mm T2.4 Canon which i dont think will give me the 'shallow depth of field' i wish to achieve, so i am re-considering it for a longer zoom or a large set of primes (incl long primes). this should be nutted out soon tho...

 

Thanks again Peter!

[Patrick Cooper]

I know my maths isn't the best but wouldn't rating a 250asa film as 200asa be overexposing by half a stop rather than 2/3 of a stop? It's just that I'll be rating some 250 neg film as 200 for an upcoming project and I wanted to confirm the exposure details. Hope I don't sound too fussy though. Good luck with your shoot.

[Stephen Williams]

I know my maths isn't the best but wouldn't rating a 250asa film as 200asa be overexposing by half a stop rather than 2/3 of a stop? It's just that I'll be rating some 250 neg film as 200 for an upcoming project and I wanted to confirm the exposure details. Hope I don't sound too fussy though. Good luck with your shoot.

 

Hi,

 

Try 160 asa!

 

Stephen

[David Mullen ASC]

I know my maths isn't the best but wouldn't rating a 250asa film as 200asa be overexposing by half a stop rather than 2/3 of a stop? It's just that I'll be rating some 250 neg film as 200 for an upcoming project and I wanted to confirm the exposure details. Hope I don't sound too fussy though. Good luck with your shoot.

 

That's one-third of a stop. Basically, in one-third stop increments, most meters go:

50...64...80...100...125...160...200...250...320...400...500...640...800

 

(I only started at 50 ASA and I underlined a full-stop up starting at 50).

 

Since most meters are set in one-third stop increments, it is easier to adjust your rating in those increments. 1/3 or 2/3 is most common. A half-stop adjustment usually means just having to remember to open-up a half-stop from your reading rather than setting the meter for it.

[Lav Bodnaruk]

Hey all,

thought i report on what I ended up doing.

basically it was an outdoor shoot for which I hoped I would get a lot of 'yellow/orange' sun light for - as we intended to wait for the sunset. the sunset was going to be the back light for the main action.

 

Of course it was overcast day and it rained (fortunately it wasn't heavy rain and the 8x8 foot silk I had put over the scene acted as an umbrella long enough to allow me to capture it all).

 

I used 250D 7205 Kodak stock and was getting f11 on the meter. I put ND9 in, hoping to reduce the DOF as much as possible.

 

Overall I shot with 'muddy' look in mind which allowed me to do a fair bit in telecine. The exposure for most of it was dead on, which was good to see as I stressed heaps about the clouds that kept moving around during the take... At the telecine we de-saturated and boosted the contrast as well as added some warm tones, taking some cool ones out.

 

I am attaching few stills. Let me know what you think. I wish I could post the whole short movie, but the festival I did this for has funny rules about that, not allowing me to show it on the net before they get to check it out?!

 

Cheers,

 

16mm SRII Canon Zoom Lens 11-165mm T2.5

 

due to the arm shadow this shot was dismissed...

[David Mullen ASC]

Looks nice.

 

One thing "CSI: Miami" would have done in overcast weather would be to add big tungsten lighting for hot orange edges on people.

 

You know, I caught an episode of that show the other night and the look is almost sci-fi comic book, it's so over-the-top.

 

Then an episode of "The Shield" came on and it seems that that show started to go for a similar orange+blue look, just more gritty (in Super-16) but with strongly colored backgrounds -- which seemed odd for a supposedly more "realistic" show.

[Lav Bodnaruk]

Looks nice.

 

One thing "CSI: Miami" would have done in overcast weather would be to add big tungsten lighting for hot orange edges on people.

 

Thanks David!

I so would have done that had I had more lights for the job!

I actually did pull out a 'redhead' and pointed it in the flowers behind the blond guy, merely to add yellow tinge to it, since I wanted that 'yellow/orange' look. It works to a degree where it suggests its late sun coming down, whilst really at that stage (when we were doing shots on the blond guy) it was pouring heaviest rain.

 

Another redhead was used to hit the side of the face on the main actor (brunet guy), which I think could have been stronger but I was afraid to pull it in any closer since 'the sun' was meant to be behind him (hence the shadow in that one shot of him).

 

In reality the sun was meant to set directly behind the brunet guy's head, which here in Oz is really yellow or red, depending on the day... and it gets quite low before it disappears, so it would have been an awesome shot.

 

I was left with 1.2K HMI, 3 redheads, 4x4 Mirror (that was no use since it was raining), 8x8 silk, blacks;

 

this shot shows a bit more redhead on his face: