Arthur Cravan

Hi, guys... I watched The Veil (2015) by Phil Joanu with cinematography by Steeven Petitteville and I really enjoy their work. It was a huge time I didn't see a mystery-horror film that could not bore. I was impressed too by the Arri grading; really good look. Anyone knows the colorists? I attach some pictures but not found enough pretty ones... I apologize. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rOUHGzoP0fw

Yeah, I know this was a challenge to match some oil paintings by Turner and the muddy mood of whale's tales but to me the challenge is a failure. I like a lot experimental grading and the work of Dod Mantle but this time it is a bummer.

Hi, everyone.... I was wondering if someone saw In the Heart of the Sea by Howard, with cinematography by Dod Mantle? I was really shocked by the grading... it's freaking yellowish with those saturated green-saffron yellow hues and luminances... To me it looks quiet a bit out of target... the Alexa stares at 'video' creepy outward look, while the stuff could be stunning... What do you think about? I apologize for the medium quality of the pics

Apocalypse Now Don't Look Back by Roeg Performance by Roeg Nostra signora dei turchi Dog Star Man Solaris Stalker Antonio das mortes Macunaima Hitler ein film aus der Deutschland Zabriskie Point Blow Up Aguirre by Herzog General Line by Ejzenstejn Satyricon by Fellini Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid Easy rider Days of Heaven Altered States by Russell The Deer Hunter by Cimino Blade Runner

Well, Freya, there's probably a misunderstanding. Reading this thread I was irritated a lot. This querelle between digital and film has slithered to a political and commercial side in my opinion: and it's something I hate because here we should speak of cinema tout court. Personally I think the last digital cinema camera generation is a 'dream' that comes true, then someone can safely argue otherwise, but I challenge anyone to recognize a digital movie by a film movie, even those who support nostalgically and even with a hint of little 'naïveté that the film is' emotion'. I prefer definitely the ARRI to RED; for the record. About that ARRI yellowish hue, well, I think it is a choice in grading, since the ARRIRAW certainly has a lot of softness etc. That distinctive Alexa yellow is a ARRI prerogative but in this occurrence I guess it’s the result of a light mixing… I don’t know… maybe the open gate of the Alexa got to do something with that special lighting… In my opinion that Yellow is not certainly exciting, you're right about it; but in the rest of the film, there are glimpses of amazing colors. In all likelihood that still was made for 'expressionist' and 'threatening' look in the economy of the narrative plot. The Alexa for sure can behave very well 'within the context of open flames'. All in all I would not be so analytical. That look will be a zeitgeist for sure, as you pointed up! We cannot know exactly how they shot some scenes, so to rely on individual frames in my opinion is quite misleading. The Revenant works very well: rumours claim it was shot almost entirely with natural light and that in my unpretentious way of seeing is an extraordinary achievement for the digital (but I will not lapse back into that controversy). Some pretext have branded the film to be 'flat' only because it is almost completely cloudy or overcast but I cannot really understand how one can argue this way. I just meant 'drowned in the shadows': the lost of shadowy details may be a stylistic choice and personally I really love the dark and low key images. As indeed it seems to me that you too agree. I think many DOP do not appreciate this way of understanding the shadow, but it's their problem. Greetings.

Here we are: "to see into the shadows"... it's an artistic challenge, you will agree. Maybe for some reason you ignore there's someone who would like to hide what's drowned by the shade. I like the way low key match with digital and I guess I'm in good company about that taste... be aware i don't refuse film (it looks great) but this 'querelle': it's too factious and I'm really sick of that

The stills you posted about The Revenant and its supposed creepy low lighting are the results of an aesthetic vision, probably based on the excessive glow of the fire. I believe that what you call cinematographic look is just a layering of mental habitus, openly standardized on the basis of a reception overall film years. Neither you explain why they should be considered 'ugly'. It is merely an aesthetic vision. For me, some cases of Technicolor are massively lower than the digital results and here we are again to digital vs. film debate, as it turned.

This is absolutely wrong to me. Mad Max for example was a great collaboration between DP e colorist, To program a look as early as profilmic, from lighting, exposure, knowing the prerogatives of the LUT dynamics, the possibilities for stops and their manipulation in grading and post-production, well I think it's a good example of working for the cinema of the future. Concerning The Revenant, I really cannot understand what do you mean about 'flat': that's a mood of the film... so you're criticizing a poetics and honestly this is out of topic to me. The Hateful Eight for example to me is a bad, wrong, unacceptable film in a 'weltanschauung' point of view and this is not affected by the use of photochemical process (beyond the fact that I think Tarantino used the Panavision format for marketing reasons and for his citationist postmodern slant and not for real aesthetic needs). I guess this 'angst' - 'cause it's just about that we're talkin' here -, this dreadful fear about the digital is really stupid, especially for those who should have the historical task of experiment and look for 'other', innovative ways.

Well I guess this debate is really embarrassing and obnoxious in a forum of this technique stature. The main reasons for this long-standing dispute I believe are now commercial and political order. The digital far from being a graph of perfect devices has now attained a standard way comparable to the film. I read that some feature and some trick in digital are creepy; right, but I can't enumerate how many horrible lighting and awful color timing or unwatchable flat skin tones I saw throughout the cinema years... This is a tapestry of bad faith lingering here and I think it's a shame. I would like to praise to stop with this anachronistic 'querelle' between film and digital cinema.

John Alcott Emanuel Lubezky Benoit Debie Georgi Rerberg Nestor Almendros Nicolas Roeg Aleksandr Knyazhinskij Raoul Coutard Anthony Dod Mantle Sergej Urusevskij Sven Nykvist