martinsoniii

Thanks man! This helps a ton! Going to try some of those techniques on the next project I'm working, particularly the overhead shot diagrams.

Just out of curiosity, which film stock was this?

Nick, You could get close to this look by anyone or all of the following: - adding grain to taste - crushing your blacks - desaturation - adding green tones into your image to taste - Bleach bypass the image (in effect higher contrast, lower saturation) with a filter, then use curves and gamma to readjust the image's exposure

First a little bit about myself: I have been DPing and directing on my own and friend's projects for about a year. I'm by no means professional, but am constantly trying to push myself, both in attitude and skill in that direction. When directing, alot of my DP friends will seemingly come up with ideas on the fly that make my projects immensely better (primarily very interesting camera angles). When preparing to shoot a friend's project, I spend hours preparing, and by preparing I mean I read the script over and over, draw some crappy story boards, throw together a shot lost off the rough cut in my mind, and then toss the script across the room in frustration. Ironically, it seems that on the shoots I prepare less for, things end up looking better, but I generally feel overwhelmed on set. While I've gorged myself on technical books, I have yet to come across a section in any of them that describes a definitive break-down process for cinematographers (yes I'm self-taught) which helps you plan camera angles in advance. My question then is how do you, the working, professional cinematographers on this board, prepare for a shoot? What types of conversations do you have with the director (other than, what mood are you going for)? What kind of homework do you do? I'm looking for both specifics and general principles that can help guide my creative process. I'd definitely appreciate any help that I could get!