Interesting Idea a newbie has to pull off!

[daveyboy]

OK i'm a pretty much newbie to DOP/Cinematography but i'm doing it for one of our student films - i wonna be a Director -

 

We are shooting on 16mm colour film stock. My Director wants me to try and make a part of the short film look Black and White - even though we're shooting on colour stock.

We're gonna make the actor wear grey/white/black type clothes with a dark background. He's gonna wear make up, like they do in olden silent films.

 

Basically i don't have a clue how this is gonna turn out. What do you think???

Also i'm not sure how to light this, as if i give too much light your gonna be able to see the yellows/oranges of the lights.

Also i don't want to underlight so you can't make out the actor and what he's doing.

 

I just wonna really know what experts feel this could turn out like. Will it look rubbish or could it be good.

We're shooting on an old Arri camera, a BL i think. The film stock i believe is Kodak 400 that's the norm right? but honestly i'm not completely sure yet!

 

Is there any special gel, filters i need to use. It's all going to be shot inside.

Will i need to push the F stop or anything like this also.

As you can tell i am pretty much a newbie.

Any advice/help would be great.

Thanks.

David

[Greg Gross]

Hello daveyboy,

I'm a student cinematographer and my shooting experience is only with dv

and low budget indie shoots. However I am a professional photographer. I was

thinking about your post and wondering if you could shoot the actual small seg-

ment in actual b&w film(16mm and then fix post,edit). Maybe this is not econom-

inally feasible. I was thinking about filtration also but no experience with that in movie film. The only other thing I can think of is that with still photography you

can print b&w prints from a color negative. I don't know if you can do that some

how with flashing or not with movie film. I personally shoot real b&w with my sub-

jects when its called for and I do not print from color film. I am well schooled in

the b&w darkroom. A lot of times I carry film backs with color film and b&w film

on a shoot. This sounds like a question for David Mullen ASC to answer,believe

me he will know the answer. Maybe he'll be around and see your post. Best re-

gards and great success with your production.

 

Greg Gross,Professional Photographer

Student Cinematographer

[Morgan Peline]

I would suggest using actual black and white negative or reversal if possible or if going straight to telecine rather than print, removing the colours in post which is very easy.

 

If you shoot with tungsten colour negative and tungsten studio lights, they should come out as white light (3200 Kelvin), what I would advise is to avoid practicals such as 60W or 100W bulbs, as they will look orangy/yellow because of their lower colour temperature.

 

Your most important asset is set and costume design - if you can achieve a monochrome look that is half your battle. Use only darker colours such as greys, browns and blacks along with white. You could also maybe use a colder palette of blues - I think this is what happened in 'Road To Perdition' to create an 'almost' bleach bypass look.

 

A lot of shadow helps as well to add blacks and greys.

 

One other thing you might do is emulate the more contrasty, harder lighting, film-noir style of the old B&W films. This gives the 'feel' of black and white.

 

I did a pseudo horror DV short once where all the 'black and white' sequences were shot in colour but with a very old fashioned, contrasty, hard lighting style; lots of hot backlights and rim lights, dark shadows, flagging and cookies. When we took the colours out in post, and added some vignetting, strobe and fake grain effects, it did look almost as if it was shot in an earlier time.

 

Have fun!

Morgan