Patrick Cooper Posted May 22, 2023 Share Posted May 22, 2023 A few nights ago, I watched 'Planet Terror' by Robert Rodriquez for the first time. I really enjoyed the retro vibe and it reminded me of some of the 80s films I have watched. It was certainly a visual feast with over the top action, gore, zombie shenanigans and beautiful women with attitude. There's also a cameo by Tarantino. The film has a very retro look about it and I'm wondering how this was achieved. Obviously, the scratches, splices and instances of reddening contribute to that as discussed in this behind the scenes special. Additionally, I'm wondering if they used reversal film at all to help capture that retro look. On 'The Life Aquatic' by Steve Zissou, reversal film was used in a few segments to create a vintage nature documentary look which was very effective. Though I don't think too many filmmakers would shoot an entire feature on reversal film so I guess that wasn't the case with 'Planet Terror.' I couldn't find any information on the film stocks that were used for this production. I don't suppose the release print was struck from another positive print instead of an internegative? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Webster Colcord Posted May 22, 2023 Share Posted May 22, 2023 I worked on the VFX at a company called The Orphanage in San Fran. It was shot digitally, as Robert Rodriguez was one of the first adopters of shooting all-digital. The film look and scratches were added in post. I provided a reel of 35mm from my collection, old exploitation trailers that had gone slightly red. That was scanned and I intentionally scratched about 20 feet of it and it was used in comp. We animated a bunch of elements for shots - missiles, the tow truck flip, helicopters, Quentin Tarantino's melting penis (yes you read that correctly). We also did a bit of work on Quentin Tarantino's companion film, Bullet Proof. I believe that was shot on 35mm. All we did was to replace the underside of the stunt car in the crash scene (to hide some FX rigging) and a few wire removal shots during the car chase. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Patrick Cooper Posted May 22, 2023 Author Share Posted May 22, 2023 Webster, thank you for your reply. Very insightful with details about the VFX. Great job by the way. And my gosh, it looks like I was fooled. I honestly thought that Planet Terror originated on film. I have seen Sin City and that particular Rodriguez film did have a very digital look about it. In the behind the scenes video I linked above, Rodriguez does say that for certain scenes, he does shoot rehearsals on video. So by saying that, it sounded like he uses a different medium when the actual shooting takes place. And I made the assumption that that medium was film. I guess my assumption was wrong. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Webster Colcord Posted May 22, 2023 Share Posted May 22, 2023 I just looked thru my archives, and I have a ton of stuff from Grindhouse... I'll try to find time to post some stuff to Vimeo and share the links here. Here's an example of the film damage wedges that our comp department would do - progressively adding more elements, with the original footage on the left side of frame. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Webster Colcord Posted May 23, 2023 Share Posted May 23, 2023 35mm trailer reel with tail end scratches, scanned as reference for Planet Terror film damage (no audio) Breakdown of film damage using After Effects plugin "Misfire" 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member David Mullen ASC Posted May 23, 2023 Premium Member Share Posted May 23, 2023 I believe Rodriguez used the Panavision Genesis camera for his section of the film. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Patrick Cooper Posted December 24, 2023 Author Share Posted December 24, 2023 (edited) Sorry for the late reply. I must say that you have a very impressive collection of trailer material! That Loch Ness Monster flick was nicely shot and gave me a few laughs as well. And I recognised Countess Dracula. Ive seen that one. To me, it was one of the better Hammer films. And I can see from the other clip that a lot of elements were added to give the film degradation look. Looks like the reference material you supplied gave you quite a few ideas of what you could add in post. Must have been fun analysing all the 'defects.' Edited December 24, 2023 by Patrick Cooper Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Webster Colcord Posted March 15 Share Posted March 15 @Patrick Cooper Yes, we screened the trailer reel I provided then had it scanned. I actually physically scratched a bunch of the black leader at the tail of the roll, about 20 feet of it, and that was comped in for some shots. The film damage is sort of a character in Planet Terror, it increases or decreases depending on the action. In a lot of the more outlandish makeup fx shots, there's a lot more of it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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