Public Enemies (Michael Mann & Dante Spinotti)

[Trevor Whelan]

Had those films been re-done shot by shot, substituting film....would they be as "disgusting?" This strikes me as a hatred of the medium and not the cinematography. If the medium itself made the cinematographer, a porn shot on 35 would be higher art than Benjamin button or Slumdog or any other digitally acquired film. And camera choice really would be the only thing holding backyard filmmakers from hollywood...(meaning RED's marketing campaign would be true).

 

This actually brings up a very interesting and timely debate about cinematography. With Slumdog winning the Oscar, there's been a lot of discussion here about how it didn't deserve to win because some shots were grainy or obviously lifted in post. Many people on this forum felt that Dark Night was more technically perfect and more technically daring, and therefore deserved to win. To justify the merits of either film, I think we need to really think about the definition of cinematography. For some people, it's art. For others, its craft. And for others still, it's a craft that in collaboration with other talented craftspeople and artists can help to raise the project as a whole to an art. And unfortunately, for some, the entirety of cinematography comes down to capture medium alone.

 

These discussions that demerit certain films based on the medium are kind of ridiculous. Some of us may hate the look of digital thus far, and others may love it. Regardless, at that budget and talent level, it is clearly a purposeful choice. Would you whip-pan during a love scene? Probably not. But if you did, it would certainly stand out and make people say "why the hell did they just whip pan in a love scene?" It would be a very visible choice, perhaps more visible than film stock choices or gamma curves.

 

There are so many conventions in filmmaking that we follow or respect because "that's how it's done." Why is night blue? Have you ever seen a blue night? Why do we match on action? Why do we do many of the things that we do in cinema? Because they are conventions developed to help the audience understand the story on screen. Especially now that literally everyone and their mother has seen enough movies in their lifetimes to just go along with these conventions, breaking the rules has a marked effect on the audience. Someone here said (and I'll paraphrase), "digital for a period piece doesn't fit." Maybe it doesn't fit the conventions we are used to but that doesn't make it wrong, unwatchable or even less artistic. We like to see old things look old, but realistically when living in a "period," everything looks new! For whatever reason, the film was shot digitally, so we'll have to watch it to see if that choice served the story. On Miami Vice, the digital capture didn't look like the show, but it was VERY much in the spirit of the original - innovative. At the time, Miami Vice was hot, new and pushed boundaries using pop music, wild colors, crazy locations, and styles than most shows. Digital served the story, whether it was clean enough for most peoples' liking or not.

 

Without asking him personally or being him, I can't tell you why Mann chose the camera systems he did on that film or Public Enemies. I can tell you the trailer looks fun and involving and that while certainly different, the cinematography is well-done.

 

 

you raise some excellent points many of which i agree with, well said

[Justin Hayward]

This "film clip" looks purposely muddy, like they're un-crushing the blacks trying to make it look as video-ish as possible. Maybe this is the first anti-film-look, look?

 

http://www.apple.com/trailers/universal/publicenemies/

[Daniel Carruthers]

This "film clip" looks purposely muddy, like they're un-crushing the blacks trying to make it look as video-ish as possible. Maybe this is the first anti-film-look, look?

 

http://www.apple.com/trailers/universal/publicenemies/

 

I was thinking the same thing

Im so glad to see a period piece not take the typical overdone root

[outlawyer]

I haven't posted here for a long time. But I just saw the trailer and thought it look brilliant! In fact, I think it is more interesting as a period piece because it is in HD.

 

Finally saw it and it was nothing like Miami Vice; like it was way lower ISO. It was beautiful. Clear as crystal.

[David Mullen ASC]

"outlawyer", you need to go to My Controls and change your User Name to a real first and last name, as per the forum rules listed when you registered. Thanks.

[Frank Glencairn]

Ouch - open shutter, that´s an absolute NoGo imho.

 

Frank