Black and White Cinematography

[Andrew Rieger]

It might just be me eyes or personal taste but I think that filming in black and white is a great way to increase the cinematic nature of digital footage. For example, Francis Ford Coppola's new film, Tetro is a 2/3" chip film that was either shot in black and white or converted to it in post.

Trailer: http://www.apple.com/trailers/independent/tetro/

Now looking closely at the footage itself, we can see prominent examples of deep focus, HD sharpness and in general, very video like footage (might be just my opinion since I knew it was shot digitally before I watched the trailer so this may have influenced the way I analyzed the footage). Anyways, the black and white seems to make the footage much more elegant. Back in high school, I shot some projects on a Sony FX1 which was a 30p cam only and the very "video" looking footage seemed to look quite good when converted to black and white.

Im not saying that color 2/3 does not look cinematic enough. Coppola's previous film was shot in color on the same cam and it looks quite good.
Trailer: http://www.apple.com/trailers/sony/youthwithoutyouth/hd/

There is just something special about black and white. What do you all think?

 

[Mike Hadfield]

I love B&W photography and would enjoy seeing more of it films. I think you're right Andrew, that there's just something 'special' about it.

I haven't had chance to see 'Tetro' yet but look forward to it.

I've often wondered why digital footage (especially smaller chip cameras) can look better as black and white. It also tends to look better desaturated. I always thought it was just my personal taste.

Perhaps it's something to do with colour sampling, as when you drop out the colour you're perceiving a sharper image, less aliasing?

All those smudged out 4:2:2 samples matter less.

Maybe it's that B&W imagery has more of a magical, hyper-real quality to it, as we see in colour? So we're instantly transported to somewhere more fantastical.

It can be a difficult beast though.

Colour has such emotional impact, the right colour scheme gets straight into the emotional areas of your brain and can quickly set tone, feeling and even tell part of the story.

Not to mention the number of people who just won't watch a B&W film (or one with subtitles!)

You need a strong command of light and composition, you can't seperate things by colour alone and need to think in terms of tone, light and shapes.

Although alot can be achieved with the correct lighting, it's a big tool set to lay to one side.

I think it would be beneficial to start working in monochrome, so you can focus on a subset of cinematography. You can look more deeply into lighting and composition and then fold in the colour on later projects.

Most of the time with art direction on set we're trying to get rid of messy colours, and half my time in post is spent changing the colour of things in the background or boosting certain colours.

Darren Aronofsky's 'Pi' is amazing I think, although it was shot on s16mm. '13 (Tzameti)' was interesting too.

Lynch's 'Inland Empire' was also great to see, as it's shot on PD150's, although it wouuld definately not be to everyone's taste. But when has Lynch ever been about pleasing people?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wKiIroiCvZ0 (PROFANITY WARNING)

Anybody know of any other good, recent B&W films?

M

 

[Andrew Rieger]

You are right about the foreign language thing. Talk about hard to market. This film is in German as well as B/W: http://www.apple.com/trailers/sony/thewhiteribbon/

I hate how modern audiences do not appreciate black and white films. In high school, I watched Days of Wine and Roses for a class and the first thing out of everyone's mouth was "Oh God, I hate black and white". They ended up enjoying the film and most forgot about the lack of color once they got into it but the problem is, they never would have given it a chance if they had not been made to watch it.

Anyways, I feel that there is something powerful about black and white cinematography that is missing in color. It is the lighting. I notice lighting composition so much more in b/w. Film noir is actually my favorite genre. I may be the only 19 yo who actually prefers b/w over color. My father raised me on film noir and I find it to be so beautiful. I wish next gen filmmakers showed more appreciation for it.

Here is a list of more "modern" b/w films that are quite good (some are better than others but overall, they will teach more about lighting than any color film will, In my opinion)

Schindler's List: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TAH3RTRlCHY

Raging Bull: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YiVOwxsa4OM

The Last Picture Show: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L1DRB9RqOss

La Haine: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yk77VrkxL88

The Man Who Wasn't There: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xUoRUdjn_Qg

Rumble Fish: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7voEoWRKbAE I Love the first comment displayed BTW

The Good German: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0O6YPAv1Hx8

Pi: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQYYGwYTPuY&feature=related

Sin City: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YKFLrTYKIXk

Half of Memento: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MbTMAffb0CA

Half of American History X: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jXaZENPQrsw

Good Night and Good Luck: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aNq8LoYjG2E

All the films of Bela Tarr:

Werckmeister Harmonies: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nSY7rxr0n04

Man From London: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qLAF94jPyk&feature=related

Satantango: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q8DOQFccj00&feature=related

Just to name a few. These are post 1960's b/w films I have seen but there are many more. Here is a complete list: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_post-1960s_films_in_black-and-white

 

[A. Clint Litton]

Just saw La Haine for the first time not too long ago, was pretty blown away by it. Really well done all the way through.

Interesting side note on it: I heard that they shot on color negative because they had to for distribution purposes (something along the lines of television wouldn't take it in B&W, which was the backup in the event it had flopped), but Kassovitz always intended it to be a B&W film...he even said something to the effect that it wouldn't have had nearly the effect in color, that it would have been a crap film. Don't know that I agree, but found that approximate statement very interesting considering everyone's musings on B&W vs color in this thread.

 

[Andrew Rieger]

There are actually a lot of films on this list that were shot in color and converted in post. Those films include The Man Who Wasn't There, Good Night and Good Luck, The Good German, Sin City and I am pretty sure that the b/w portions of Memento were converted in post. I could be wrong.

 

[Pietro Impagliazzo]

B&W also asks for richer blacks and a cinematography more based on contrast.

Look at a beautiful color image and desaturate it completely. It looks bland. Color information was playing a huge role on visual impact, and when you take it off, you have to play with tonal range.

B&W has a special feel, no matter the medium. Perhaps it has something to do with the color information being thrown away, focusing our minds on the subject and lights?

I'd love to hear some DPs on this.

 

[Andrew Rieger]

I think that many more directors would attempt b/w films if they did not think that the lack of color would kill chances of financial success. I wonder, you could shoot a film in color, convert to black and white for a limited initial theatrical release so those who care could see the film as intended, create a color version for a widespread release and then offer a DVD or Blu-Ray with both versions. The power of RED raw footage would allow for strong versions either way. I don't think anyone has done a theatrical release with both a color and a b/w version. The problem is, would you market it as a b/w or a color film?

All of these problems could be avoided if modern audiences could warm up to b/w again. Most of the films above a great but only a couple (2 or 3) were actually financially successful and as you are aware, there is a BIG difference between financial success and critical acclaim. Most of the films above were popular with critics but failed to attract audiences. Some found success on DVD but still, b/w seems to be such a handicap these days.

 

[Milan Spasic]

The opening scene in 8 1/2 and the closing sequence in l'eclisse are some of the most memorable B&W images that stayed with me forever.

And La Haine was awesome.

 

[Andrew Rieger]

Ya, La Haine is one of my favorites on that list. Great ending and a couple of camera tricks in there that are quite memorable.

 

[Dan Hudgins]

Swap Bayer sensor for monochrome

Swap Bayer sensor for monochrome

It might be possable to swap out the Bayer sensor in the Acam dII for a monochrome chip, since Kodak makes their chips with and without the Bayer filter, that would give you a sharper smoother lower noise and higher EI/ISO camera with great Black and White results.

The DNG file format is about the same for monochrome and Bayer sensors the data size is the same, they would just need to make a few adjustments to the header, or you could overwrite some of the bytes in the header your self (or ask me for some help).

I would love to have a uncompressed Digital Cinema with a monochrome chip, it would look better than using the interpolated data, about twice as sharp since there would be less need for the OLPF, you could use one with about half the radius of blur.

Maybe Acam dII can be offered with that as an option, you can ask on their forum. I'm working on cinematic DNG to TIF conversion de-Bayer now and have an option for monochrome processing of 12bit data as well, if you get a monochrome Digital Cinema camera send me some sample files so I can check to see how well it turns out.

Acam saves the data 2048x1092 so there is some extra info than the cropped 1920x1080, they overscan for the Adobe Bayer so it has extra pixels, my code does the edges well so it does not need overscan in particular. In monochrome you do not need to deal with de-Bayer artifacts, so you can use all the valid pixels on the sensor.

 

[Andrew Rieger]

A dedicated b/w cam sounds like a good idea for a rental house but i cant see any individual owning one, just not flexible or practical, unless you are dedicated to shooting b/w only.

 

[Dan Hudgins]

Socket

Socket

A dedicated b/w cam sounds like a good idea for a rental house but i cant see any individual owning one, just not flexible or practical, unless you are dedicated to shooting b/w only.

The Bayer and monochrome chips have the same pinout, so if the camera has a socket you can just swap the chip in and out to convert from monochrome to Bayer filter chip.