cinematography Film Look Comparison

B

Boxclever Films

So, here are two pictures of the same frame of video from a test I did.
Which one (in terms of colour) looks most cinematic? Give me your thoughts on this.

The first is the original and the second I have graded to give a bleach bypass effect.

filmlook1.jpg
filmlook2.jpg
 
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The second doesn't look at all like bleach bypass, except for the slight desaturation. It should be far more contrasty.

The first one looks fine, but I don't know what is more cinematic as that's a matter of opinion.
 
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I guess to answer your question, neither one looks more film-like than the other, it looks like two shots from the same camera with different color correction settings.
 
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I'm with indie... neither... film looks like film, DV looks like DV

Oh and you might want to check your scopes when you're grading, because it looks like you've got no black in your images...crunching your blacks is going to help a lot.
 
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It's hard to tell with still photographs, but I would guess that you're trying to mimic the film look with DV. It's impossible to do with moving images, but there are some things you can do to make the look slightly more similar. Your second shot is less saturated which is usually associated with film, You also have a shallow depth of field which is also associated with film. But at the end of the day, it's finding a way to make your DV look its best (not necessarily look like film).

some filmmakers take this too far by using effects that have film grain, or other cheap tricks that just look terrible.

I too, like low saturation, soft looks, with depth of field control to isolate my subjects, digital video looks like digital video. It's best to enjoy and celebrate the technology your working with and optimize for what your camera is capable of doing that suits your artistic style.
 
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Shouldn't you decide which look works best for the film? What's the movie about?
They both look good. If I was making a comedy or light feel-good movie I would go for the first;in case of a darker theme(drama, horror, etc)I would go for the second one with darker tones as it would influence the feeling of the audience.

I don't know much about this but it seems important given the different feeling you get from looking at those 2 pictures.
 
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clive said:
I'm with indie... neither... film looks like film, DV looks like DV

Oh and you might want to check your scopes when you're grading, because it looks like you've got no black in your images...crunching your blacks is going to help a lot.
Click to expand...

Yes that´s true. And even if you get a single pic looking simular to film the motions are always different. I don´t know what that is but nothing compares to 35. But in the real world you nearly never get the budget for it.
 
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Xylofonic said:
Yes that´s true. And even if you get a single pic looking simular to film the motions are always different. I don´t know what that is but nothing compares to 35. But in the real world you nearly never get the budget for it.
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One of the best tricks I learned so far for making dv look more like film is using a 1/25 shutter instead of a 1/50 which most consumer camcorders use. Also filming progressiv instead of interlaced seems to help a lot for giving it a more film-like feel.
I don't think there's nothing that compares to Film. The new RED camcorders offer a great resolution and so the common argument that you get more detail with film is obsolete, I think. Also editing digital footage is always way easier than cutting film.
 
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