what are your thoughts on finishing with a flat log look?

Mathew Rudenberg · November 8, 2012

I've noticed this becoming increasingly common in commercials, take a look at the Samsung S3 spots for example - http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&v=wHmYIYe3BcE&NR=1

- it looks pretty close to Alexa log to me.

I used to worry that directors wouldn't understand the 'log' look but lately I've heard them asking for it as it's a hot new style.

If this does become prevalent what does it mean for the future of lighting and color correction?

Mike Lary · November 9, 2012

It's already become popular and it will wear out like most trends. A way to gently push them away from it might be to use LUTs on set to alter their preview. After all, they like log because they've seen it so much. Give them something new to look at. Just be careful or they might fall in love with your LUT!

Phil Rhodes · November 9, 2012

Isn't that what quite a lot of modern film stocks look like, too?

I've noticed that trend and disliked it almost instinctively.

Francesco Bonomo · November 9, 2012

I've noticed that trend and disliked it almost instinctively.

same here. There are at least 4 commercials on high rotation here in Italy with the same "problem", and I know for a fact (knowing people who were involved in the making of them) that at least 3 of them where done that way because, simply put, some of the people involved didn't have a clue of what they were doing and simply took the most rented camera, i.e. Alexa, and chose LogC because they "heard" it's better (and at least one of those commercials didn't even have a DIT, just an AC who doesn't know anything about LUTs, Log, or Rec709). Only in 1 situation that look was chosen for "creative" reasons, and it actually works pretty well for that one commercial.

Freya Black · November 9, 2012

Glad it's not just me! :)

Well this is hardly new but I've absolutely HATED it from the beginning. It seems especially prevelant in commercials. I've seen a number of adverts for laundry powder that looked all "washed out" like this. ;) They were even more ghastly to sit through than they might normally be. At best these productions look unfinished. Often, if I was to be polite, I might suggest that they look like a dogs breakfast, to be honest tho, they look more like a dogs breakfast a bit further down the line.

I do feel sort of offended by this stuff, because although I try hard not to these days, I do care about cinematography.

Like Francesco I did once see a short where the director said he had decided to leave it in log or similar, and at first my back was instantly up, but when I saw the work I did think it actually worked. This has only ever happened once tho.

Theres also a trend for lower contrast looks generally alongside this, which isn't quite as bad but which I'm also not keen on.

I actually own, low con and soft con filters that I'm presently loathed to use because of the recent overuse of this stuff.

I think this stuff is also being driven by the whole thing of "stuff that used to be hard to do on video" which tends to get people excited. It's another example of people not wanting to shoot on film but trying to slavishly copy certain aspects of what film could do. Ironically you rarely see these kind of looks from film shoots IMHO. It's a weird mentality of being hostile to film but then at the same time wanting to be more like it. I can't explain really.

Anyway, bottom line is that I think it looks awful to the point of being almost unwatchable.

love

Freya

Edited November 9, 2012 by Freya Black

Chris Millar · November 9, 2012

A rather blunt application of the look...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WL4t_1FLq1k

Paul Bartok · November 10, 2012

Im so happy someone else has noticed this, in Australia I swear every single commercial expect for the low budget ones has this flat look to it, I hate it,

Its terrible.