What will this look like?

[Andrew White]

Hey all,

 

I'm wondering if anyone has done something like this and if they could tell me what it looks like, maybe post a still if possible: I'm thinking of shooting 5217, overexposing it by 3 stops and pulling it back 2. I'm hoping to shoot up the contrast with the overexposure while also blowing out the color. There is not enough money for any form of post treatment (bb, enr, etc). So I'm looking for high contrast, deep blacks, and weak, unsaturated colors. I know this sounds like a wish list, but if I can get some feedback I'll atleast know where I stand.

 

Thanks

 

Andrew

[David Mullen ASC]

"Courage Under Fire" did this for the Gulf War flashbacks scenes in the desert.

 

You'll get the opposite of high-contrast -- you'd get a low-contrast pastel image with greyed whites. The blacks might be OK, though, since you have a stop excess density to print down, but the overall impression would be somewhat flattened.

 

Extreme over and underexposure puts a lot of important detail in the flatter parts of the characteristic curve (the shoulder and toe) and flatter means lower contrast. Pull-processing also lowers contrast, so extreme overexposure and pull-processing would create a rather soft, pastel image with low contrast.

 

The simplest way of getting high contrast and low color saturation is to use a skip-bleach process. If you do it to a print instead of the negative, you also get super dense blacks. If you do it to the negative, you get hotter whites. You also get more grain.

 

Otherwise, most other processes either give you more contrast but more color saturation, or less contrast and less color saturation (contrast & black levels affecting perception of color saturation.) Only leaving the silver in the film gives you less saturation but more contrast.

 

You say that there isn't any money for a post treatment, but pull-processing is a post treatment that you get charged for too, just not as much as skip-bleach.

 

Personally, the closest you could hope if you couldn't do a skip-bleach is to overexpose a low-con stock like Expression or Fuji 400T by one stop, develop normally, and print down. This would get you solid blacks and more snap to begin with, and the stocks are somewhat more pastel already. Or, if you don't mind some grain, expose them normally but push them by one stop and print down. Either way, the extra density will get you better blacks once you print down. I will add that none of this will probably be as interesting as what you are describing, which is really a skip-bleach look.

 

If you are transferring to video, you can do this in digital color-correcting, pull the color down and increase the contrast and deepen the blacks.

[Satsuki Murashige]

You could also try shooting exteriors without an 85 filter and light interiors with HMI's, then time out some of the blue tint when you go to print. This would help desaturate fleshtones, which are primarily red. Use it in conjunction with 2/3 - 1 stop overexposure for more contrast and richer blacks, along with monochromatic art direction.