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Dopamine


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Just came out on DVD. Unfortunately I missed it in the theater, so I didn't get to see how a filmout of Varicam footage looks. There's precious little widescreen Varicam material on DVD, so here's a chance to see how it looks in a feature context. TV shows like "Arrested Development" and "Oliver Beene" are presented in 4:3, so a little resolution is lost compared to a 16:9 letterbox.

 

IMO, overall it looks pretty good. Not too "video-ish," but not exactly like film. Speaking purely of resolution, it looks markedly better than "28 days later" (SD PAL MiniDV), but not as clean as "Once Upon A Time In Mexico" (Sony 24P HDCAM). Roughly comparable in sharpness, although a tad softer, than Super16 features on DVD like "Monsoon Wedding" and "Thirteen." Given the specs of those formats, it stands to reason. For DVD release, well-done Super 16 has a slight edge over the Varicam, I'd say. But it really comes down to technical details like lenses, transfers (telecines and filmouts) and camera setups and exposure. Either format done badly would lose to the other format done well.

 

Unfortunately the color correction and compression of the DVD introduced a lot of artifacts. The bulk of the movie is color-corrected for a bluish and desaturated look, with the ending more rich and normal in color balance. The ending seemed to suffer much less from artifacts. Skin tones seemed to get a little pasty if overexposed, like the color info was there even though fine detail was lost. Color correction may have removed some of the info that might have otherwise "completed" the picture, though.

 

The AlphaCine Lab logo was all over the DVD, so I don't know if the DVD is a transfer of a film intermediate, or a straight digital transfer from the color-corrected master. I'd be curious to know. The deleted scenes seem to be uncorrected, and look more video-ish than the rest of the film (although still pretty good).

 

The movie overall is decent and worth viewing, although it feels a lot like the first-time independent feature that it is. The slow pacing of scenes, the overuse of masters, and the reluctance to back off and go on a longer lens for close-ups. The lighting could have been a bit more adventurous (too much soft, flat lighting for the story IMHO), although the DP obviously had the skill to light it well. Some of the few impressionistic soft-focus shots were downright pretty. They also made good use of the camera's ability to undercrank, for a few expressionistic illustrations of coffee and amphetimine fueled all-nighters and time-lapse transitions.

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Funny, one of the stars of "Dopamine" also co-starred in "Charlie's Party," which I shot on the Cine Alta last summer. She commented on how (after 10 years and countless features) she's constantly in front of video cameras instead of film cameras now. As an actress she preferred it because of the luxury of "unlimited" takes and high-quality playback.

 

I saw "Dopamine" in the theater and thought it looked "okay." Nothing special and it did certainly suffer in some of the earlier material from over color correction in post. But perhaps not the finest example of what the Varicam can do. I think "Camp," also shot on the Varicam, looked better.

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By the way, a very low-budget feature I shot in Russia is going to be playing at the Arclight in Hollywood in a few weeks. It's called "A Foreign Affair." It was shot with the F900 but with a very limited crew and equipment package. The director also did about 80% of the operating.

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The deleted scenes seem to be uncorrected, and look more video-ish than the rest of the film (although still pretty good).

But this is true with "deleted scenes" from film originals on a number of DVD's I've seen.

They seem to have come right off the Avid.

 

-Sam

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