editing Finally I think I might have it..."cinematic feel"

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I've been working forever it seems like on how to do post production editing to get that "look" and it has eluded me. Sometimes I feel like i'm close and other times not. Anyway something finally "clicked" tonight as I started to use tons of still shots as practice so I didn't have to render a whole movie and be disappointed. That allowed me to do tons of them until I finally started realizing after a ton of research and trial and error what works well and what doesn't. I stopped relying on "effects" that were built in and just started playing with the color correction (mainly exposure, brightness, contrast and saturation) and white balance to warm the temperature and tweak the tint. I was hoping you guys that are really good achieving the cinematic effect could look at them and let me know what you think. Looking forward to your comments.

Still shot from USS Bowfin in Hawaii:



After Correcting:



Shot of the shoreline:



After Correcting:

 
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Too dark and too much green is my honest opinion.

The best is the shot from submarine, but I think it has too much green color as well.

I think that even in outside, if you could use a filter in front of the camera, you could limit the light and get a nice shallow focus to your images.

Those images looks like you have been using aperture 16-21 in those images. If you would use filter, you could use lower aperture values and get good results with shallow focus.

May I ask, what camera and objective do you use?
 
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Ahhh, the elusive 'cinematic' thang....

I can hear the IT crown shaking thier heads already. :D Don't worry Doc, you're in good company.

Here's the trick.... it doesn't really exist.... :O The production and technical side of the cinematic thing is so intertwined with the narrative and composition that it becomes a very expansive topic.

So many factors go into composing a quality image/film, and many aspiring photographers/DP's mistake professional for 'cinematic'. There's a lot to learn about even the most basic compositional and narrative tricks, let alone grading and editing etc, and there are so many different approaches and methods of which all of them can be part of a cinematic/professional look.

If there are any particular looks that you are going for, then show us some examples and people here could reverse engineer the shot for you, but there is no hard and fast rule.


Or....just shoot everything at huge apertures, and put it in a widescreen aspect ratio. Crush the contrast, split/duo tone the shadows blue and highs yellow... :lol: :no:

Even this amount of insti-win wont make a crap shot look cinematic though. It all starts with developing your eye.
 
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Being "cinematic" is more about what's in the image (art direction, location, costumes etc.) and how those elements are composed and lit than it is the about the contrast properties of the image.
 
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itarumaa said:
Too dark and too much green is my honest opinion.

The best is the shot from submarine, but I think it has too much green color as well.

I think that even in outside, if you could use a filter in front of the camera, you could limit the light and get a nice shallow focus to your images.

Those images looks like you have been using aperture 16-21 in those images. If you would use filter, you could use lower aperture values and get good results with shallow focus.

May I ask, what camera and objective do you use?
Click to expand...

I agree, I like that one best too. These were just still images that my wife took on a trip to Hawaii, I think she used a point and shoot, don't remember. I just used them b/c I got tired of doing it to actual video b/c of how long it took even for a short clip, this was a faster way to "practice".

A.D. said:
Ahhh, the elusive 'cinematic' thang....

I can hear the IT crown shaking thier heads already. :D Don't worry Doc, you're in good company.

Here's the trick.... it doesn't really exist.... :O The production and technical side of the cinematic thing is so intertwined with the narrative and composition that it becomes a very expansive topic.

So many factors go into composing a quality image/film, and many aspiring photographers/DP's mistake professional for 'cinematic'. There's a lot to learn about even the most basic compositional and narrative tricks, let alone grading and editing etc, and there are so many different approaches and methods of which all of them can be part of a cinematic/professional look.

If there are any particular looks that you are going for, then show us some examples and people here could reverse engineer the shot for you, but there is no hard and fast rule.


Or....just shoot everything at huge apertures, and put it in a widescreen aspect ratio. Crush the contrast, split/duo tone the shadows blue and highs yellow... :lol: :no:

Even this amount of insti-win wont make a crap shot look cinematic though. It all starts with developing your eye.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the information. Yeah there is something I'm going for and that is just a less "video" feel, it is hard to explain, but I agree about all the other factors being important. I'll try to post something I'm talking about.

AnonWriter said:
Being "cinematic" is more about what's in the image (art direction, location, costumes etc.) and how those elements are composed and lit than it is the about the contrast properties of the image.
Click to expand...

Couldn't agree more, I just watched a long video where a guy used a "red epic" camera and a "5D" I think, and he said almost the exact same thing you just did, but also showed it in a video. And definitely the way the shot was "framed" and lit made a MASSIVE difference, much more than any other factor IMO. The color correction above is just something I've been struggling with which is why I posted, it is just one more "piece" to give it that something extra that I feel I've been missing by leaving it in its raw form if that makes sense. The images above I feel like I've finally achieved a.......hmmmmm, well.......can't really explain it I don't have the vocabulary, but it just looks much better to me and ads that little bit extra. The one of the Sub like itarumaa said seems to be the most dramatic in my opinion as well.
 
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Cinematic feel is heavily in relation to the content you are putting out. The Matrix-y grading you have might not come off well in a comedy. Warm, soft images might look good in a romantic comedy. Though warm, easy to look at imagery might not be the best thing in a science-fiction action flick. Recognize what tone and style you are going for, and employ techniques that enhance that. By creating this correspondence between the look and the content of the film, you create a look that develops a mood and becomes one with the other parts of the film... and you have a cinematic look.

As far as the graded images go... they're not bad. The blacks look a bit crushed, and the whole image looks slightly muddled. It looks like a cross between Saving Private Ryan and The Matrix... a bit too synthetic to me. But with the right story it could work.
 
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Auto_Doc said:
Finally I think I might have it..."cinematic feel"
Click to expand...

No, you really haven't! Because, you are confusing a "cinematic feel" with a "cinematic look". A "look" is a single sense while a "feel" is a perception created from a combination of senses. In other words, a "cinematic look" is only one of the ingredients in a "cinematic feel" and it doesn't matter how good that one ingredient is, if the other ingredients don't match up, the balance and mixture of all the ingredients is not correct or the mixture is not cooked correctly, you're not going to end up with a cinematic cake or one which tastes anything like a cinematic cake...

Auto_Doc said:
...there is something I'm going for and that is just a less "video" feel...
Click to expand...

It's like trying to build a Formula 1 racing car; If you build an F1 car shaped body but with a scooter engine, it might "look" at first glance like an F1 car but as soon as you start it up and drive it, it's not going to "feel" even distantly related to an F1 car. Worse still, even if you succeed, what you'll end up with is a useless monstrosity; it's useless as an F1 car, it's useless as a scooter and it's useless as anything else. Maybe it would be better to just try to make a scooter in the first place, then at least you may end up with an interesting and usable scooter?

Now, exchange the "cinematic feel" and "video feel" for the F1 car and the scooter. Maybe it would be better to try and create a decent "video feel" than try to create something which has a "cinematic look" but neither a "cinematic feel" nor a "video feel"?

ChimpPhobiaFilms said:
It looks like a cross between Saving Private Ryan and The Matrix...
Click to expand...

But unless the script, acting, sound, music, editing/pacing, etc., are also a cross between SPR and The Matrix what one is going to end up with is not something which "feels" anything like a cross between SPR and The Matrix!

I see this type of thread here on IT reasonably often. For someone wanting to be a cinematographer there maybe some validity/benefit to a thread like this, providing of course the aspiring cinematographer realises the difference between "look" and "feel" AND therefore, the difference between cinematographer and filmmaker. However, Youtube and low tier film festivals overflow with cinematographers who think they are filmmakers and this approach is a filmmaking cul-de-sac, even as far as amateur filmmaking is concerned!

I don't mean to come across as being too harsh on the OP but IMHO "working forever" to try and achieve a "cinematic look" seems like a particularly futile waste of time if the ultimate aim is a "cinematic feel" or indeed any type of "feel" at all.

G
 
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