Film Look

[Bakur]

We are working on drama series for TV and our goal is to achieve film look, as close as possible. Can anybody advise, which lenses to use, for the best result? Thanks in advance.

 

[Andrew Ceperley]

It's really more about the lighting, framing, blocking, and camera motion than it is what lenses you use.

That said, older lenses like Standard Speeds and Panchros do seem to have more character than more sterile modern lenses...to me, that added 'character' can help (not create) get closer to a 'film-like' look.

 

[jake blackstone]

We are working on drama series for TV and our goal is to achieve film look, as close as possible. Can anybody advise, which lenses to use, for the best result? Thanks in advance.

Like with any digital cinematography, control the highlights exposure. Once they're overexposed and cut off- it's dead giveaway.

 

[Bakur]

To be honest, most of the shots that I've seen on Red, look for me too flat. Too digital - with whole picture in focus (depth of field). I still feel that camera has much more potential then shots I've seen, and I am trying to figure out mistakes that I have to eliminate. Any tips are appreciated.

 

[Joseph Hutson]

To be honest, most of the shots that I've seen on Red, look for me too flat. Too digital - with whole picture in focus (depth of field). I still feel that camera has much more potential then shots I've seen, and I am trying to figure out mistakes that I have to eliminate. Any tips are appreciated.

You might not have seen this...

http://scarletuser.com/showthread.php?t=2988

All taken by this...

...and these...

 

[jake blackstone]

To be honest, most of the shots that I've seen on Red, look for me too flat. Too digital - with whole picture in focus (depth of field). I still feel that camera has much more potential then shots I've seen, and I am trying to figure out mistakes that I have to eliminate. Any tips are appreciated.

Strange. Both film and Red cameras share the same PL mount lenses and same "negative" size. So, if you're still unhappy with the DOF of Red camera, shoot 4k only, get faster, longer lenses and open up the iris. If you feel, that narrow DOF is what determines the film look, just get the Cannon 5D. Can't get much narrower DOF with FF and fast long lenses. Problem solved:rolleyes5:

 

[Dan Hudgins]

Crossover

Crossover

One "defect" film has is called "Crossover" because the three RGB curves are not parallel.

My CC software has independent curves so that you can introduce crossover before the chroma matrix which works like the masking layer in color negative films, and then in part neutralize the crossover after the chroma matrix.

Film gets printed several "generations" so the masking layer in one affects the crossover from the last. One can run the frames through my CC several times to simulate the 4th generation look of a film print as projected, rather than a negative scan look.

Also with each "generation" you get grain on top of grain, with the large camera negative grain being more blured each time and the higher generation grain being finder and sharper from the dupe and print stocks. The masking layer affects the color of the past grain impressions on each generation.

That can impart a "film like look" to linear digital images, film is anything BUT linear, and my CC have enough curves and adjustments to make any digital camera image VERY non-linear.

Also un-equal blur for the RGB, film does not have the same resolution or grain in all there layers, my Sharp/Soft filter lets you control the noise in the three primary colors much like film, rather than luma-chroma effects done in other "video" oriented software.

Another thing is to output color seperations, grain then blur them separately then fuse them back into RGB images, that way you might control the grain as Yellow, Cyan, and Magenta like film, not the video type grain some software add as dithering just to the luma etc.

If you want to try it is "freeish" just convert your R2D into 16bit 48bpp TIFF REDLOG frames with REDCINE first. If you have questions feel free to PM me or email.