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Increasing Contrast on Fuji 8682


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Hey Everybody,

 

I'm shooting a s16 film in March on on Fuji 8682 which will finish in Telecine. The director and I like the fact that the 82 has subtle colors with its low saturation. I do however, want to bring up the contrast more than the film by itself would provide under normal conditions. If I overexpose by a stop and have the colorist adjust for a gray card. Will that bring up the contrast and possibly reduce saturation even more? I'm going to be doing some testing in the next couple of weeks so any help on this would be great.

 

Thanks,

Chris Garland

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It's very easy to add contrast in telecine, so my advice is not to build it in to the negative. Shoot as it is. Overexposure adds a little bit of contrast, but for 16mm it can be a good idea to create a fuller negative. Most film benefits from a little overexposure if you want good definition and low grain.

 

I wouldn't bother with the grey card at all. Haven't shot it for years and isn't really needed for telecine.

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I wouldn't bother with the grey card at all. Haven't shot it for years and isn't really needed for telecine.

 

Not to argue with Adam but grey cards are good for speeding things up in telecine, however they're certainly not necessary. If the colorist has a good eye for middle grey you can move really fast. When my colorist sees a chip chart it's like 'bam' she's done in 2 seconds.

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II wouldn't bother with the grey card at all. Haven't shot it for years and isn't really needed for telecine.

 

I can't disagree more strongly. When shooting features and getting back unsupervised video dailies, a gray scale is an absolute must to give the colorist! Even if he ignores your gray scale, THAT tells you something when watching the dailies. Of all the pieces of info you can send the colorist about your intentions for the scene, a gray scale (shot correctly) is probably the most effective.

 

I'd only agree if you're talking about supervised transfers where you will be in attendance to tell the colorist things like "oh, this is supposed to be a very blue-ish dusk scene... that's an orangey late-afternoon shot, etc."

 

I agree that he should just shoot normally and add more contrast in the transfer color-correction, unless he wants to do something extreme like a skip-bleach process.

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I can't disagree more strongly. When shooting features and getting back unsupervised video dailies, a gray scale is an absolute must to give the colorist!  Even if he ignores your gray scale, THAT tells you something when watching the dailies.  Of all the pieces of info you can send the colorist about your intentions for the scene, a gray scale (shot correctly) is probably the most effective.

 

I'd only agree if you're talking about supervised transfers where you will be in attendance to tell the colorist things like "oh, this is supposed to be a very blue-ish dusk scene... that's an orangey late-afternoon shot, etc."

 

I agree that he should just shoot normally and add more contrast in the transfer color-correction, unless he wants to do something extreme like a skip-bleach process.

 

I come from such a small country where for a regular music video we shot about 40mins of film or 10 cans in 35mm at the most. Now that doesn't make sense to one light, edit and the go back to do the final grading because it so little material and you're probably going to use snippets from every single shot. It turns out cheaper to do the final grading from the get go. Which means I've always done final grades.

 

Now, here in London, they of course work the more internationally accepted way. That means that on the last commercial I did (we had less than 8 cans of 35mm film) they do a one light, edit, get approval and then final grade. I'm sure this will turn out be more expensive for the prod.co on such low film use, but that's the way they've come to accept. And it makes a lot of sense when you shoot a lot of film, so the routine is a good idea.

 

And yes a grey scale will probably speed up any matching in an unsupervised transfer. But only if

you 1) expose for moods and filter for color, and 2) have people watch the dailies that don't know that this is not the final look or are not familiar with the process. For me, neither is a very common occurence. I often don't filter for color and I often light normally and print down for certain scenes and so on. I'm very inprecise in my exposure - I'm not precious about it all, in fact. So for me greyscales have less use. They also tend to signal that normality and balance is the goal, which is just something I have a problem with on a personal level - I can't tell you how many times we've come to grow fond of a look on shorts etc, where the one light was taken maybe in the wrong direction as to one's intentions.

 

But you are of course right - a greyscale IS a good practice and I was wrong in recommending not to use it. It doesn't hurt.

Edited by AdamFrisch
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Kodak has the "Gray Card Plus" as part of the Telecine Tool Kit:

 

http://www.kodak.com/US/en/motion/products/tools/

 

http://www.kodak.com/US/plugins/acrobat/en...og/access04.pdf

 

A standard reference for exposure evaluation and grading. The card is comprised of a large 18% neutral grey area bordered by 3% and 90% black and white patches to provide further reference for grading. The surface is specially treated to minimize glare.

 

 

 

 

The Kodak Gray Card Plus with black and white patches is used to:

 

Determine telecine transfer points

Provide exposure information

Help the Colorist and Film Timer preserve what the Cinematographer created on film

Features:

 

In Neutral gray center field, 18% reflectance

Black side patches, 3% reflectance

White side patches, 90% reflectance

Available in two sizes: 9 x 12 inches, 18 x 24 inches

Durable matte finish

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