Bleach Bypass or ENR using HD

ALLISON · April 7, 2009

After doing some lengthy research I discovered exactly what I want to do on

this next film of mine.

I really enjoyed the choices of Oliver Stapleton on THE GRIFTERS and I'm trying to incorporate them on my next film (a short).

For the initial scenes of the film I would like to replicate the look of

the 1989 film THE GRIFTERS, in it they used a bleach bypass, yet it wasn't

as grainy (as the film SEVEN where they did skip bleach), and the whites

were white and blacks black, but the colors in between were pastel and

muted, unless primary and in that case they were darkened by the contrast.

I would like to achieve a B&W and color mixing

I would like to start out with the image very desaturated and muted colors,

but with high contrast almost to a virtual black and white.

Then gradually I would like to begin re-saturating the colors and adjusting

the contrast from scene to scene until basically at the end and in the

final scene the image is heavily saturated in color and luminance.

My major problem is that I will not be shooting on film! I will be

shooting HD P2 so trying to simulate this process in post is a bit of a

mystery to me because all the research discusses this process being applied

to either the negative or the print.

The only mention of simulating this on a digital format is through various

Editing Programs such as Adobe After Effects and Final Cut Pro, but I am wondering if I can do anything during production (with gels or lenses) to make sure I can achieve the same "look" to help flexibility in post. I'm sure the ranges of these programs are not what is available through a post house.

Am I right there?

Has anyone tried to do this using HD? Sorry for the long message.

tks,

Allison

Edited April 7, 2009 by ALLISON

Phil Connolly · April 7, 2009

Hi, a bleach bypass type look is pretty easy to do in HD- you can quite easily crush the blacks and de-saturate even with the basic tools in FCP or Avid.

It doens't totally look like film - as the grain doesn't behave in the same way, but if you want a cleaner look HD is good.

I went for a sort of bleach bypass look in a recent project that I directed, it was shot in HD on the EX1 and the shot below was graded using FCP (not colour). With better post tools it could have looked a bit better - but the result was ok - this was for a stylised montarge - that why i didn't mind it looking a bit unsubtle, eg clipping some of the whites on the bins in the back for shot.

The only filter used was a classic soft - either 1/8 or 1/4 - i wasn't the DOP, so not sure which strength was on the lens.

Keith Mottram · April 7, 2009

very easy to do if you know a decent colourist or if you have some time to learn FCP color. there is a preset in the color fx room which will mash your colours up completely and provide a good starting point. btw you need to change your name to first and last.

Keith

ALLISON · April 7, 2009

Hi, a bleach bypass type look is pretty easy to do in HD- you can quite easily crush the blacks and de-saturate even with the basic tools in FCP or Avid.

It doens't totally look like film - as the grain doesn't behave in the same way, but if you want a cleaner look HD is good.

I went for a sort of bleach bypass look in a recent project that I directed, it was shot in HD on the EX1 and the shot below was graded using FCP (not colour). With better post tools it could have looked a bit better - but the result was ok - this was for a stylised montarge - that why i didn't mind it looking a bit unsubtle, eg clipping some of the whites on the bins in the back for shot.

The only filter used was a classic soft - either 1/8 or 1/4 - i wasn't the DOP, so not sure which strength was on the lens.

Thanks Phil. This is more along the lines of what I'm after. The Black and white contrast is not too grainy if at all and the colors are def muted and pastel looking. When you say "clipping some of the whites on the bins" what were the original colors? Pink? Does this mean you can isolate an object and affect it's color while not affecting the overall image? If so I would want this felixibility.

I am trying to do what they diid in Pleasantville by making the use of color sympbolic but I don't want the image totaly black and white cause when I bring in the color in that case it tends to look cheesy.

Edited April 7, 2009 by ALLISON

ALLISON · April 7, 2009

very easy to do if you know a decent colourist or if you have some time to learn FCP color. there is a preset in the color fx room which will mash your colours up completely and provide a good starting point. btw you need to change your name to first and last.

Keith

BTW How do I do that? I actually tried to add my full name but it wouldn't allow me to proceed. Guess it doesn't like that I have two last names!

Phil Connolly · April 7, 2009

Thanks Phil. This is more along the lines of what I'm after. The Black and white contrast is not too grainy if at all and the colors are def muted and pastel looking. When you say "clipping some of the whites on the bins" what were the original colors? Pink? Does this mean you can isolate an object and affect it's color while not affecting the overall image? If so I would want this felixibility.

I am trying to do what they diid in Pleasantville by making the use of color sympbolic but I don't want the image totaly black and white cause when I bring in the color in that case it tends to look cheesy.

Yes you can isolate areas of the image and just tweek the colours in that section - most proper colour correction tools allow you to do this eg: Apples Color, IQ, Pogle, DS, Nucoda, Smoke etc...

But to isolate an area you have to draw a shape on the screen to apply the colour effect too. So if theres movement it can be very time consuming to create a moving mask to isolate the colour. On something like pleasentville - a lot of the shots would have involved lots of hand roto - to cut the objects out.

The colour correction tools in more basic versions of Avid and FCP are more simple and just allow global changes of colour to the whole image.

Thats what caused the problems in the image I posted - in pushing the brightness to get the skintones looking right, I made the bins too bright, as I couldn't isolate them. 'Clipping the whites' just means that the whites get too bright and burn't out, on video it tends make a shot look a bit electronic and digital.

So what your trying to do is totally doable in post - as long as you have access to the equipment and an operator who knows what they are doing. The high end stuff can get very expesive - but you can do it yourself with products like after effects or colour, if you can throw lots of time at it - but it may not be as polished a result as you would get in a dedicated grading suite.

Chris Burke · April 7, 2009

After doing some lengthy research I discovered exactly what I want to do on
this next film of mine.

I really enjoyed the choices of Oliver Stapleton on THE GRIFTERS and I'm trying to incorporate them on my next film (a short).

For the initial scenes of the film I would like to replicate the look of

the 1989 film THE GRIFTERS, in it they used a bleach bypass, yet it wasn't

as grainy (as the film SEVEN where they did skip bleach), and the whites

were white and blacks black, but the colors in between were pastel and

muted, unless primary and in that case they were darkened by the contrast.

I would like to achieve a B&W and color mixing

I would like to start out with the image very desaturated and muted colors,

but with high contrast almost to a virtual black and white.

Then gradually I would like to begin re-saturating the colors and adjusting

the contrast from scene to scene until basically at the end and in the

final scene the image is heavily saturated in color and luminance.

My major problem is that I will not be shooting on film! I will be

shooting HD P2 so trying to simulate this process in post is a bit of a

mystery to me because all the research discusses this process being applied

to either the negative or the print.

The only mention of simulating this on a digital format is through various

Editing Programs such as Adobe After Effects and Final Cut Pro, but I am wondering if I can do anything during production (with gels or lenses) to make sure I can achieve the same "look" to help flexibility in post. I'm sure the ranges of these programs are not what is available through a post house.

Am I right there?

Has anyone tried to do this using HD? Sorry for the long message.

tks,

Allison

One way you can achieve or help to achieve this look is in the production design. Don't leave it for post. get it in camera from the start. You can desaturate by choosing to shoot muted colors to begin with. Also you can control contrast the same way, by choosing deep blacks for what will be black. Take the color out of the shot before you shoot and you may end up right where you need to be or at least very close.

If I may interject my opinion here, this bleach bypass look is very overdone. Especially in the student/indie/just starting out world. So much so, that it borders on cliche'. Perhaps you have something very unique in mind and are just looking for some guidance to help you along the way, but be wary of the hip way of doing things. I kills uniqueness and individualism.