Blue and Green Hues (Eight Mile)

[Marquette Trishaun]

Hey out there,

 

I have a question pertaining to the overall color balance of a film image. One of the cinematographers I am most impressed with is the work of Rodrigo Prieto in films like Frida and Eight Mile.

 

My question is how does one obtain the blue and green hues etc contained in his images. Do you just gel selected lights with the shades of blue and green, or just take care of it in post.

 

I know you can select and control certain areas of an images exposure by power windows, but do you have the same option with colors. Or do you just tell the colorist to mix blue and green and apply a slight sepia to the whole image.

 

thanks in advance,

Marquette

[David Mullen ASC]

Just depends, but usually it's lighting if you're talking about a night scene that has to be lit anyway. So if you wanted a blue-green (cyan) mercury-vapor streetlamp look, you'd probably gel your lights for that look. Also gelling (or using mixed sources) is the only way to have mixed colors in the lighting, rather than an overall tint like a camera filter would create.

 

These lighting set-ups are probably further enhanced in color-corrrection later.

[Marquette Trishaun]

Okay David,

 

So the dominant light source (key) would have the gel combination, along with the fill light too.

 

I think I understand what it means to enhance the color in post. I was watching Amelie with the directors commentary and he described pushing the green in the image to make the green from the flourressant lights stand out more.

 

In doing it this way, I don't have to worry about the cheap sepia tone look generated in Aftereffects and Final Cut Pro.

 

-thanks,

Marquette

[Rodrigo Prieto]

Hey out there,

 

I have a question pertaining to the overall color balance of a film image.  One of the cinematographers I am most impressed with is the work of Rodrigo Prieto in films like Frida and Eight Mile.

 

My question is how does one obtain the blue and green hues etc contained in his images.  Do you just gel selected lights with the shades of blue and green, or just take care of it in post.

 

I know you can select and control certain areas of an images exposure by power windows, but do you have the same option with colors.  Or do you just tell the colorist to mix blue and green and apply a slight sepia to the whole image.

 

thanks in advance,

Marquette

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Hi Marquette,

 

For 8 Mile, I went for the cian and green hues in response to Curtis Hanson's description of the film as a "weed growing from the sidewalk". Also, I found a lot of Mercury Vapor (blue green) street lighting in Detroit, mixed with some Sodium Vapor (amber). For night exteriors, we used actual Metal Halide, Mercury Vapor and some Sodium Vapor fixtures to set in frame for backgrounds, as well as to light the foreground. I also used Lee 728 Steel Green on tungsten lighting fixtures to simulate Mercury Vapor, and 013 Straw Tint for Sodium Vapor (mostly for distant backgrounds). For interiors like the bathroom scene in the opening, and the audience in the "Shelter" night club, I used uncorrected Cool White fluorescent bulbs on the practical fixtures, and Kinoflos off camera. So, overall, the cian coloration was achieved in camera. The Digital Intermediate was used mostly like traditional grading, with very few windows or secondary color correction applied. It was very useful to do interactive color grading at Efilm to get the exact tone of green or cian, but I mostly adjusted that with digital "printer lights".

 

Rodrigo Prieto

[Tenolian Bell]

A response right from the source.

 

That's really cool.

[David Sweetman]

hah awesome, thanks Mr Prieto for the personal response

 

I have a question about blue light; I read a book called "film lighting" which was written in (i think) the 80's, and was essentially a series of transcribed interviews. Invariably, the cinematographers said they disliked blue light in movies because it was very distracting. However, it seems that nowadays blue light is very common. Has there been a change in thinking? What are the thoughts on the visual aesthetics of blue light?

 

Thanks

Dave Sweetman