Looking for inspiration, that 60's look.

[morten forsberg]

Im shooting my first feature this fall, and its a childrens movie taking place in the early 60's

Does anyone have any tips of modern films portraying this period in a good way?

 

We want to shoot the film in a classical style but havent settled on a format yet, the choices being s16 and Red, so any films set in the 60's shot on a digital format would be especially interesting to watch.

 

cheers

[Satsuki Murashige]

Mr. Morten, if you would please go to "My Controls" and change your user name to your first and last name as per forum rules, we'd appreciate it.

 

This topic has been discussed many, many times already so please do a search first before posting, and I guarantee you'll find a wealth of great info already available. Also, if you'd be more specific about the look you're trying to achieve, you're more likely to get helpful replies.

[morten forsberg]

There, sorry I didnt realize about the name thing. my first post thread you see.

 

well, i have tried to search the forum for similar posts with no luck but now i see that "60s" was an invalid searchterm or something.

 

anyway, to be more presice Im looking to create a rather cosy, romantic version of the period. Its set in the dusty countryside so both interiors and costumes will contain alot of earth-colours (brown, red-brown, dark green etc.)

I would like a warm and sunny look without to many strong colours.

 

Also I would like a slightly soft look to the images. For this S16 will be better suited I know, so part of what I want to investigate is how people have created this look on digital formats.

I guess "mad men" could be a reference, but the images in this show are to crisp and clean for what I am after.

 

Hope you get where Im going and that someone has any ideas of films i could try to watch.

 

cheers

morten

[Adrian Sierkowski]

Shoot wider-open as that'll soften things up and also throw on diffusion filter of your own taste. Perhaps a classic soft.

While not a 60s film, Days of Heaven might be an interesting reference.

[morten forsberg]

thanks, yeah if I go with red im probably going to add some diffusion

 

Days of thunder is a good call,

Im really looking for contemporary films that portray the early 60's. I dont want the film to look like is was shoot in back then in terms of filmstock, but im interested in how cinematographers today interpret the period. (if that makes any sense....)

[David Rakoczy]

A Christmas Story

[David Mullen ASC]

I think "The Right Stuff" got the tone perfectly for that era.

 

I'd also look at "JFK", which is the correct period and has the softened look you are talking about.

 

Basically think of the key events of that era and what movies were made about it, as a starting point. Perhaps the earlier scenes in "The Doors" for example.

[Chris Keth]

Catch Me If You Can

[Satsuki Murashige]

Check out Roman Copolla's "CQ." That had a very naturalistic, slightly desaturated 60s look that I think you're describing. As far as softening, perhaps look into using some older period lenses like Cooke S2/3s or test some net diffusion. Black nets look great on 35mm and Red, but it might be too much for Super16.

[Keith Walters]

Im shooting my first feature this fall, and its a childrens movie taking place in the early 60's

Does anyone have any tips of modern films portraying this period in a good way?

 

We want to shoot the film in a classical style but havent settled on a format yet, the choices being s16 and Red, so any films set in the 60's shot on a digital format would be especially interesting to watch.

 

cheers

 

You don't say how much control you will have over other aspects of the production, but there are two major mistakes people make when trying to recreate the recent past:

 

One is that they try to decorate their sets with period items (60s in this case) but forget that back then all that stuff was new! So you have a house full knick-knacks that should only be a couple of years old at most, but it all looks forty years old!

 

You don't say what sort of budget you have but you really need to find new furniture that either has a timeless design or a retro 60s look, or genuine 60s furnishings that have been restored to look new.

(Of course this can be overdone: you routinely see period films full of cars that look far better now than they ever did when they were new!)

 

Period magazines and newspapers often need to have their covers spruced up by scanning them and re-printing them with an inkjet printer.

 

The other mistake is assuming that in the average '60s household, everything is going to be from the 1960s. Maybe that would be the case if they were well-off newlyweds in a new house, but in reality, there would also have been stuff from the '50s and '40s and even the '30s.

 

(Another thing that always makes me laugh is when they have one off those old-fashioned payphones where you would hold the earphone against your ear and talk into a microphone permanently fixed to the main phone assembly. Younger actors invariably manage to wander away from the microphone and often will be seen talking in a normal voice, even though they're at least three feet from the microphone!)

[Thomas James]

The Sound of Music ws shot in 65mm so maybe 4K Red will emulate that look a lot better than 16mm.

[morten forsberg]

You don't say how much control you will have over other aspects of the production, but there are two major mistakes people make when trying to recreate the recent past:

 

One is that they try to decorate their sets with period items (60s in this case) but forget that back then all that stuff was new! So you have a house full knick-knacks that should only be a couple of years old at most, but it all looks forty years old!

 

You don't say what sort of budget you have but you really need to find new furniture that either has a timeless design or a retro 60s look, or genuine 60s furnishings that have been restored to look new.

(Of course this can be overdone: you routinely see period films full of cars that look far better now than they ever did when they were new!)

 

yeah I know what you mean

Well we have a decent enough budget to get the sets and production design to work, and with very qualified props and setdesigners to make it happen so Im confident that we wont repeat those mistakes.

 

thanks for all the input on films!

 

as far as diffusion goes Im considering something like classic soft or softfx, but the Black Nets might be a good idea too.

 

But heres something that just occurred to me:

has anyone used diffusion or low-con filters on the RedOne in order to lift the shadows and get a high-contrast scene within the range of the camera?

As one might expect, the Red's limited latitude in the highlights is one reason we're considering s16 as we have a lot of exterior scenes.

[Keith Walters]

has anyone used diffusion or low-con filters on the RedOne in order to lift the shadows and get a high-contrast scene within the range of the camera?

As one might expect, the Red's limited latitude in the highlights is one reason we're considering s16 as we have a lot of exterior scenes.

As far as dynamic range goes, the RED isn't all that different to most other high-end video cameras, so if it was just a matter of adding a low-con filter to give a more film-like image, that's what everybody would be doing!

 

"Low-Con" filters don't really reduce the contrast, they just sort of bleed stray light into the darker areas to give a softer, more washed-out effect. There is no way you can then post-produce the resultant image into the bright, clean image you can get from film. Actually, the result is more like what you get shooting video with a 35mm film lens adaptor. The only thing that can really reduce the contrast range to something a silicon sensor will be happy with, is film. Hence - shoot on film, edit on video.

 

If you have to shoot video, the only practical way to reduce the contrast range is to more or less bleed light onto darker areas of your actual subject ie "flatten the lighting", either by shooting in a studio or having lots of people holding up sheets of poly or silver-sprayed cardboard.

 

And then you get back to a perennial same ol' same ol': The money you save by shooting on video tends to get eaten up by the extra expense in the lighting department.

 

And it goes without saying, that if you decide to go RED, you need to get your workflow nailed down before you start shooting anything