Slumdog Millionaire "look" achievable on BMCC 2.5k raw?

[Robbie Fatt]

My question might be somewhat naive considering every camera is different but, could the "look" of Slumdog Millionaire be achieved on Blackmagic cinema cameras?

How much of the "look" of Slumdog Millionaire was created in the grade and could this look be replicated with the BMCC?

Silicon Imaging cameras just seem to have a nicer filmic quality to a lot of other digital cameras, in particular a very pleasing highlight roll off. Can the silicon imaging look be replicated on BM cameras?

 

Any information would be helpful.

[Tyler Purcell]

Actually slumdog was mostly shot on film. There are many digital shots but most of them are hand-held running stuff when they're children and of course the night stuff. So that's why the film looks great! It's film! :)

 

So can a Blackmagic 2.5k do this? Maybe I mean it's down to the cinematographer, shot composition, lighting and color correction.

[Kenny N Suleimanagich]

Something I do find curious: the triangular bokeh indicates that the second shot was taken with either S16 Super Speeds or early, Mk 1 Super Speeds or "B-Speeds". This is what the IMDB technical data indicate:

 

Arricam LT, Zeiss Ultra Prime and Angenieux Optimo Lenses

Arricam ST, Zeiss Ultra Prime and Angenieux Optimo Lenses
Arriflex 235, Zeiss Ultra Prime and Angenieux Optimo Lenses
Arriflex 35 BL4, Zeiss Ultra Prime and Angenieux Optimo Lenses
Canon EOS-1D Mark III
Silicon Imaging SI-2K MINI, Zeiss Ultra Prime, Angenieux Optimo, Century, Canon, Cooke and Linos Lenses

[Mark Dunn]

every camera is different

As Tyler says, the stock has some influence, but if it's working properly the camera has no influence at all.

You're asking the wrong question. What you see there is down to lighting and art direction in the main.

[Robbie Fatt]

Ok thanks guys!

I read that about 80% of the film was shot digitally and that's why its credited as the first digitally shot film to win best cinematography at the oscars so I assumed these shots were from the SI2k cameras.

 

Haha this is such a classic DP answer:

As Tyler says, the stock has some influence, but if it's working properly the camera has no influence at all.

You're asking the wrong question. What you see there is down to lighting and art direction in the main.

 

In all honesty I really do think cameras do have a "look". If this was not so everyone would be using 5D's for their feature films claiming that all they need is "lighting and art direction" (I'm not trying to be offensive to your comment I'm just trying to highlight a point). Obviously lighting and art direction are central to a particular "look" of a film but different cameras do carry different "looks" and i think the Si2k is a good example of that.

Does everyone else seriously think these shots were done on 35mm film?

[Tyler Purcell]

I've shot a lot with the blackmagic cinema cameras, the 2.5k, 4k and I own two pocket cameras I use for documentary work.

 

I personally like how the camera's look. I'm absolutely not in love, nor would I consider them a replacement for film in any way shape or form. Personally, having shot and worked with MANY of the D cinema camera's, the Alexa is the only one which has fooled me. Every camera has it's issues, just like every film stock can usually be pointed out. So in the past where the stock and lenses generated the look, today the camera head's do which means people need to shoot with many different camera's to get different looks, if they want that.

 

Slumdog was mostly shot on film. If you watch it, you can tell what shots are digital and which one's are not, with the BluRay, it's night and day. All of the fast moving stuff in the slum's, the tv show material and mostly all of the night stuff, was digital. When you re-watch, look for motion blur… the film material won't have it. If I had the time to get my home theater up and check those shot's, I would… maybe someday in the near future.

[Justin Lovell]

I have been a long advocate of the image quality and look that the si2k delivers. Built in texture that no other camera has. I own 2 Bmpcc and a bmcc also. I have shot side by side comparisons of the same scene and setting.

 

No matter what anyone says, the sensor on the si2k has an emotional quality to it that the bm sensors do not carry.

 

I love the pocket cams for documentary and ease for travel, but if I want to really feel something from my subjects/characters, the si2k is the camera I will go to first.

 

That said, I have 3 si2ks and will be selling one of them as now 2 is enough for what I need.

 

Message me through my website if interested. WWW.JUSTINLOVELL.COM

 

All the best!

[Justin Lovell]

 

In slumdog, it's pretty easy to pick out the shots done on the 5d dslrs, they have a very plasticy feel, and they also did some longer exposure techniques to create a certain different feeling such as flashbacks.

 

The si2k also has some interesting high speed options. I helped them develop new frame rates for the sidvr 3.0 recording software. Instead of locking you in at 720p 85fps or 2k 30fps, we built in between frame resolution /rates.

 

Because the height of the image actually dictates the speed the sensor can record at, we added at 60fps 1440p and 48fps 1660p. Which is plenty for some of the cinema and broadcast work I've been using it for.

 

Most of the work on my site was shot on the si2k.