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Early 80's Cinematography


Daniel J Callahan

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...I hope that digital one day will reach that sort of natural organic look.

 

I seriously doubt it will ever look anything like that simply due to the fact that digital has been going in the other direction since its inception. It's all about higher resolution, a cleaner look and a piercing sharpness. Everything that the films of that period are not.

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I seriously doubt it will ever look anything like that simply due to the fact that digital has been going in the other direction since its inception. It's all about higher resolution, a cleaner look and a piercing sharpness. Everything that the films of that period are not.

Well, at least we can emulate the more natural "rounded" look with software plugins. I do wish that Film Convert had older EXR stocks like 5293. That'd be fun to bring back. but much of the look of any film now is up to colorists. Who may or may not have the same nostalgia for the older sort of look. I recently saw This is Where I Leave You and noticed that it appeared to have a much more natural 80's/90's sort of look and feel to it. It was kind of refreshing.

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How does that happen?! Doesn't the cinematographer still sit with the timer and direct him or her?...

If they are available I'm sure. Often they aren't, there are multiple cameras and sources, units shooting in different locations and it's a matter of creating LUT's and working remotely etc. So a lot of trust is often placed in a colorist.

 

I had the good fortune of sitting in with a colorist on 2 features I shot. But on many shorts and commercials I was not involved cause I was unavailable and or not asked for my input.

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Hi Michael,

That sounds very strange to me.

 

Even in the second units that I work on everything is really controlled by the main cinematographer and the 2nd unit cinematographer and almost everything is done in camera and if it cannot be done in camera the cinematographer makes himself available for the grading.

 

I was fortunate enough to create the look of the dailies / rushes for Mr. Prieto when working on Biutiful via color corrected photos that I took on set and then printed and sent to the lab with the footage which came back exactly as he wanted and from there to the final movie it was just a matter of tweaking the grading a bit.

 

Of course I can see that if you are lucky enough to be working 11 months a year, being in the grading suite when the project is going to be graded might be tough but as long as the communication with the colorist is clear and everyone understands each other then working remotely shouldn't be a problem (unless you don't trust the colorist or you haven't worked with that person before, etc, etc)

 

I have not shot many projects myself but one thing I make clear is that we have to find the look in camera and that one person I have been working for years now takes the chair of colorist. I also shoot an awful lot of tests and a grey card and a colour card before each shoot so my colorist knows what I am after :)

 

Maybe it is a matter of finding the right person to work with Michael :)?

 

Have a lovely day!

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I was fortunate enough to create the look of the dailies / rushes for Mr. Prieto when working on Biutiful via color corrected photos that I took on set and then printed and sent to the lab with the footage which came back exactly as he wanted and from there to the final movie it was just a matter of tweaking the grading a bit.

 

That's awesome, Miguel! I just had that on the other night and I loved the look. Nice job!

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Hi Michael,

That sounds very strange to me. Maybe it is a matter of finding the right person to work with Michael :)?

 

Have a lovely day!

It's not that strange to do it remotely. I often grade stills of footage and send them in for reference. Cause yeah, these days if you don't provide any input, who knows what'll happen. Haha.

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Bill, that's all Rodrigo's work! (and the fantastic production designer that I loved a lot, Brigitte Broch) I had a lot of fun and learnt a lot by working on that movie, good 9 months! :)

 

Michael, chances are that you would end up with a "log / raw look" commercial haha.

Hopefully they will stop doing that at some stage although nowadays it is not as bad as the time when the Redone was released, everybody leaving everything super milky and without any colours!

 

Have a good day all.

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