• Wondering which camera, gear, computer, or software to buy? Ask in our Gear Guide.

How can I get this Collateral (2004) look?

The kind of lighting at 0:07 into the video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pwrq3O6XDPs

The orange sodium lights are balanced around 5500 kelvin it looks like. But the flourescent lights which are green, suggest that they are balanced around 3200 kelvin. It's not just that shot but there are several shots of the city overview that are like that. Did they go around Los Angeles and gel that many lights, or was one of the type of lights, corrected in post, to be such a different color, than the original white balance, when they shot the movie? When it comes to close up shots, I can use gelled lights of course, but when it comes to downtown overviews, what should I do?

Thanks for the input!
 
Last edited:
The kind of lighting at 0:07 into the video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pwrq3O6XDPs

The orange sodium lights are balanced around 5500 kelvin it looks like. But the flourescent lights which are green, suggest that they are balanced around 3200 kelvin. It's not just that shot but there are several shots of the city overview that are like that. Did they go around Los Angeles and gel that many lights, or was one of the type of lights, corrected in post, to be such a different color, than the original white balance, when they shot the movie? When it comes to close up shots, I can use gelled lights of course, but when it comes to downtown overviews, what should I do?

Thanks for the input!

Set your camera's WB to either 3200 or 3600 (you'll have to do some testing). Then you may have to desaturate the image a bit in post to get the look you're after.
 
Okay thanks. But I already tried that and the orange sodium lights come out too yellow at that temperature and are not orange enough. But if I go any higher than the fluorescents are not green enough, so I wonder how did they do it. Did they perhaps rotoscope out one of the light sources, and change the color temperature on that one, frame by frame?
 
My first question:
did you already calibrate your screen with a calibration tool like a Spyder?
If not: your yellow-orange perception might be off.

Second:
With proper grading tools one can treat orange differently than green without rotoscoping.
If that was needed in the first place.
 
Okay thanks. But I already tried that and the orange sodium lights come out too yellow at that temperature and are not orange enough. But if I go any higher than the fluorescents are not green enough, so I wonder how did they do it. Did they perhaps rotoscope out one of the light sources, and change the color temperature on that one, frame by frame?

That would be the difference between the Vipers color science and your cameras. They didn't roto anything for Collateral. The look was captured in camera. Every camera manufacturer has a different color science they use for their cameras. Famous examples would be the red tones in Canon cameras (giving you a beautiful skin color) or the sickly greens of the RED cameras (giving you dead looking flesh tones).

Here's a great article on the cameras they used and how they shot everything:

https://www.theasc.com/magazine/aug04/collateral/page1.html
 
Okay thanks, that's really fascinating. I was thinking of renting the RED for a future project, but now I am not so sure, since I actually wanted the pink skin look, you see in older movies.

Right now I am using the Canon T2i though. Is their a picture style I can download into the camera that will give me a more red orange sodium look? Right now I have been using 'landscape', and that look I red pushes the blue channel by two notches it says, which looks great in daylight in my opinion, but could be the reason why the orange sodium lights are coming out an ugly yellow.

I didn't use a spyder yet. I spent my money on other things, but I guess I should get one. I just calibrated compared to what other filmmakers say to calibrate your monitor too. However, I have also compared on other monitors to be sure, and they are all yellow on all of them, but within varying degrees. But when you watch a movie like Collateral, those lights look red on multiple screens, and I tested that out too. So it seems that my camera would be yellow on multiple screens as well, in varying degrees, but still not close to orange.
 
Last edited:
My suggestion would be to shoot in either Technicolor's Cinestyle or ProLost Flat, then taking the log-like image into a good color grading program and find the look you are going for. My personal favorite is a combo of DaVinci Resolve and FilmConvert :)
 
Okay thanks. I have cinestyle on my camera. I am guessing Pro Los flat is a flat style? Do you think I should shoot flat? I tried that too before, but I find it difficult in post to get some of the saturation back, unless I am doing it wrong? I mean you can still increase the saturation in post, it just doesn't look as good as shooting with it already in like in landscape. What do you think?
 
Last edited:
I only shoot in either a log or flat profile, but I'm also a colorist so I enjoy having a neutral of an image as possible to play with later. That said, with CineStyle you can definitely get your saturation up to whatever level you prefer. I would recommend doing some test shoots where you shoot on say, a standard profile that you're used to and then shoot on CineStyle. Then grade the CS shot to match the standard in post so you can see what has to be done to get that look.

The big thing to remember with digital is that you're trying to preserve your highlights, which is the opposite of film where you're trying to preserve your blacks. So shooting in a log or flat profile will help you greatly in preserving your highlights, then it's a simple process to add back in the contrast and saturation to whatever level you want, whilst keeping those highlights from blowing out. Even in Collateral there are only a few points where the highlights are blown out and that was shot in sort of the early-mid years of digital, when the cameras sucked. On the Blackmagic cameras, for example, if you're in RAW mode and properly exposed, it's almost impossible to blow out the highlights, which is lovely.
 
Okay thanks. That is true, I don't like blown out highlights :). However, if I shoot with the contrast turned all the way down, and try to add it back in later, with my Canon T2i footage, I find that the eyes go too black or too dark. I like to add some contrast in post, but when I do, I can get everything to look right, accept for the eyes which are too dark where as the rest of the image is where I want it.

I find that on a standard profile, or landscape profile, which I like better, if I turn the contrast down to -2, it's not too high while shooting, but at the same time, it doesn't give me those dark eyes in post, that I get while shooting with it turned down to -4. Is it worth shooting at -4 even if the eyes are too dark after grading, do you think?
 
That is a common issue with the DSLR footage, but you can always either add a nice little light whilst shooting to help pop out the eyes a bit, add a power window to your grade to do the same or adjust the contrast settings in camera to get it how you want it :)
 
Back
Top