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  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

Gone Girl Footage (Shot on Dragon)

Fincher and Cronenweth more or less explore mood and scene based palettes both in lighting and in post. More so than what many expect from films.

I'm actually into this look as it's a more graphic effect and painterly.

They are making dramas and mysteries. They aren't making sitcoms. It's good that there's flavor in there. Also there's a couple other shots in that teaser (Rosamund at the 00:04 mark) that show different looks, scenes, and likely different intent.

I know some are critical of this look and approach, but they'll all be studying it in film school 10 years from now :)

These last three films (Social Network, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, and Gone Girl) are well in stride with the tone these guys have been after for a while. Fincher has hit it in a couple of other films too along the way. Fight Club, Zodiac, and Seven come to mind with heavy directed palettes.
 
Phil Holland said:
Fincher and Cronenweth more or less explore mood and scene based palettes both in lighting and in post. More so than what many expect from films.

I'm actually into this look as it's a more graphic effect and painterly.

They are making dramas and mysteries. They aren't making sitcoms. It's good that there's flavor in there. Also there's a couple other shots in that teaser (Rosamund at the 00:04 mark) that show different looks, scenes, and likely different intent.

I know some are critical of this look and approach, but they'll all be studying it in film school 10 years from now :)

These last three films (Social Network, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, and Gone Girl) are well in stride with the tone these guys have been after for a while. Fincher has hit it in a couple of other films too along the way. Fight Club, Zodiac, and Seven come to mind with heavy directed palettes.
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If your talking in terms of color palette and overall look, Seven is far different than the others you mentioned. That film is beautiful and full of muted color while not having a complete tint to the image like Gone Girl. Zodiac is closer to his more recent films in overall palette. To me, Seven is his best looking film to date. The yellow look in Gone Girl doesn't do it for me at all. Others will disagree but that's why film is art.

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Matt Ryan said:
That film is beautiful and full of muted color while not having a complete tint to the image like Gone Girl. Zodiac is closer to his more recent films in overall palette.
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I agree Seven is a gorgeous film, of course different DP. But some of it is along these lines too:

Seven+2.jpg
 
Nick Morrison said:
Trailers/Teases don't always share same color treatment as film itself, so you are right...not sure how much we can gleam from this promo...
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Exactly. Just saw Ian Vertovec do a demo at Quantels booth at NAB and he was discussing the different color treatment for trailers versus the actual film. It made a lot of sense because a trailer is out of context so footage needs to be similarly colored to not be so jarring between shots. Was great to see him work and talk about his process.
 
I'm an extreme Fincher fan, I think he is a filmmaker with a big F, a one of a kind mind that is far above most people in the industry. Though I do agree to some extent that he's getting a bit "yellow" these days. He has a reason for it no doubt, but I prefer a more balanced look. Though Girl with the Dragon Tattoo was actually rather balanced, it had a much more cool look then warm.
 
Phil Holland said:
I agree Seven is a gorgeous film, of course different DP. But some of it is along these lines too:

Seven+2.jpg
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You're right on that last scene. But it's obviously stylized for a reason ( I won't spoil it for anyone who hasn't seen it).

I'm just not a huge fan of a majority of a film to take on such a harsh tint. I thought Fight Club had a good balance of tint as well as Zodiac. I feel like he's gotten more and more extreme on the tint with each new film haha. Anyways, it's fun discussing this stuff because it is art and it's all in the eye of the beholder. I'm a huge fan of his, just think his color palette has gone a bit strong for my taste on this one. I'll reserve final judgement until the film comes out and see it in context ;)
 
Matt Ryan said:
Exactly. Just saw Ian Vertovec do a demo at Quantels booth at NAB and he was discussing the different color treatment for trailers versus the actual film. It made a lot of sense because a trailer is out of context so footage needs to be similarly colored to not be so jarring between shots. Was great to see him work and talk about his process.
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I work on promos and trailers for a living, and it's pretty common for us to receive log dailies. Not surprisingly, we end up having a significant say in how the end trailer looks...for better or for worse...I'm sure in feature world it's different and someone of Fincher's stature may have more of a voice than a lesser known director, but with early teaser promos trailers it's so hard to tell how much influence ANYONE could have. Don't forget, early on there are numerous trailer houses all working furiously at same time, all competing to "win" the final trailer(s), so I imagine there may just be too many balls to keep track of...
 
It's an interesting battle. Back when my primary function was Digital Colorist DI was just happening and we had this interesting balance of people who were interested in the photo chemical process that was tried and true. Which mostly ended up on the digital side of being RGB mult values which we shot out for the lab to use as reference. However, I was always playing devil's advocate and showing what we could do further, also correcting/grading and hitting a good LAD print became a different beast. Eventually a few filmmakers came around to some of the crazier things we could do with grades (and also had stories that could benefit from it) and at that point others were integrating DI into the process a bit more around town.

It's crazy to see what's happened. Post color discussions and tests are now happening in pre-production these days.

From working with a few directors over the years it's become so much more about essentially creating a moving painting and "feeling out" the right mood. I like where it's gone to now. I feel for the folks who deal with generic color correction that then gets handed off to a colorist elsewhere (sometimes within the same studio even). It's an important job, but the creativity moved to a different part of the chain at some point.
 
Zeb B said:
WRONG!!! If the stop light bulbs are switched then the story is wrong and people die
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Hahahaha

Kinda illustrates my point!

I am not saying I necessarily like the colors I see here, but I think that whenever people go beyond "naturalistic" for a better reason than "i lit it wrong", "the camera could not capture it", or "I just plainly fucked up, let us try to solve it", it is good.

I have worked with DoPs, directors and colorists on how to get "that" look, planning from lighting to post, before starting shoots, and "naturalistic" is not allways the goal. If the goal is reached, the result is "good according to the goal".

For a while I considered "good" being "correct" wb,not crushed blacks and non-blown highlights.

Which they can be, from a technical POV.

That does not however allways correspond with what I like for a given situation.

Now... Good is: What I like...


Hahahaha
 
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I think The Social Network is one of the best films of the decade and I recognise that the images have a certain restraint and 'contortion' to the palate but if you look closely at each image there is still color complexity there. I don't think the grade detracts from the overall effect (emphasis overall, I.e. a full viewing) but rather contributes to it. Therefore we cannot judge a movie by it's trailer because a trailer does not a movie make, especially an Entertainment Tonight one!
 
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