Going VERY old school! Black and white, high key with nets...fun stuff...

[Eric M Hurt]

I'm on the board of a theater that's producing the play The Philadelphia Story. Shot the commercial that will run for the play yesterday using nets and good old throwback lighting. Everything (besides desaturation) was done in-camera. They will most likely be cropped to 4:3.

 

[Chris Henze]

Wow, that's really cool. I'd love to know more specifics about the nets etc.

 

[David Mullen ASC]

Looks nice, it's always fun to recreate that old style.

 

[Phil Holland]

You nailed that look Eric. Great stuff.

 

[Eric M Hurt]

Wow, that's really cool. I'd love to know more specifics about the nets etc.

Thanks much.
I used nets in front of the lens, all of them black stockings. Stretching them at various degrees of tightness will create more or less halation. Was shot on my MX with Cooke S4s... I didn't really feel like taking the risk of nets on the back of the lenses for this one... I'll add some jitter and such in post.

The lighting is pretty traditional high key, approximately 2:1 key to fill in most cases, then a bit hotter that the key on the back light or kicker. A few midgets here and there for specials. I figure it was partly due to the lenses of the day, but also because of the very directional light used, but the scenes from that time period generally had some vignette as well.

 

[Eric M Hurt]

Looks nice, it's always fun to recreate that old style.

Thank you sir!

 

[Keith_D]

Great job!!!

 

[David Mullen ASC]

Here's an example of adding some grain and vignetting, plus cropping to something closer to Academy:

 

[Steve Das]

Here's an example of adding some grain and vignetting, plus cropping to something closer to Academy:

Very nice go at it David. Couldn't resist..could you..hehe...That is really pretty authentic looking there.

 

[Eric M Hurt]

Here's an example of adding some grain and vignetting, plus cropping to something closer to Academy:

That's pretty much dead on what I'm going for with the end product! Appreciate the time David!

 

[Marc Wielage]

That's a great look, Eric -- looks very convincing to me. The mist/blur in the highlights is very reminiscent of 1930s nitrate film.

 

[Louis Maddalena]

In order to completely nail the style, you need to go with that old school audio. Visually looks awesome, actually feels like I'm looking at noiseless stills of old films.

 

[Rick Augustus]

Very well done Eric...

 

[Mark K.]

Love the look. There's something magical about that high-key studio style. Lovely work Eric.

 

[Andreas Mendritzki]

That's some great work Eric. Very nice rich B&W

 

[Les Hillis]

Excellent re-creation of that old-style look. Is interesting to see how stylized and contrived it is though, compared to the more naturalistic looks that dominate today. I love that old-style, pictorialist kind of imagery, but I imagine it would take a very disciplined and deliberate approach to create. So, yeah, well done. Would like to see more of it.