House of Cards

[Chris Langer]

I will be acquiring a RED Epic for a short film I am DPing and want to get it to look similar to NETFLIX's House of Cards. I know a ton of it is in the grade but I was fooled when I looked up the camera specs on the show. I thought it was shot on Alexa. Anyways, since I hope to get a similar look with the RED, do you have any pointers?

Will be shooting on the Canon EF Cinema primes and I will have a matte box. Trying to figure out if it's all in the grade or if there are settings + some filters I can put to bring down the RED look a bit and smooth it out. I know the House of Cards DP used a 1 stop polarizer to cool the scene down a bit.

Thanks,
Chris

 

[Bob Gundu]

Check this podcast out. Most of the look is in camera.

http://gocreativeshow.com/house-of-cards-with-igor-martinovic-gcs025/

 

[Zeb B]

best show ever

 

[Mikael Lubtchansky]

I do not have specific info about the looks themself but on HoC season 3 they are now using REDLink bridges so the DOP can quickly set images settings and curves directly from his computer...

 

[Bob Gundu]

I do not have specific info about the looks themself but on HoC season 3 they are now using REDLink bridges so the DOP can quickly set images settings and curves directly from his computer...

+1!!!!!

 

[Satsuki Murashige]

Most of the look is good location scouting, careful art direction, really good camera blocking and composition, minimalist lighting, and Master Primes wide open. Do all that and you'll get close.

* Also, no Steadicam or handheld, just sticks and dolly.

 

[Zeb B]

Most of the look is good location scouting, careful art direction, really good camera blocking and composition, minimalist lighting, and Master Primes wide open. Do all that and you'll get close.

* Also, no Steadicam or handheld, just sticks and dolly.

. . . think how much better HOC would be if they used a gimbal in every other shot ;-)

 

[Satsuki Murashige]

Nah, pretty sure Fincher post stabilizes everything!

 

[Chris Langer]

Any camera settings/color settings or since it is RAW, it don't matter?

 

[Chaz Curry]

My opinion is more along the lines of the lighting. They've done a great job at making it look seamless.

 

[Bob Gundu]

Igor Martinovic told me that he shot a few dark scenes in the last three episodes on the Dragon which he exposed to 1250 ISO.

 

[Alan Maxwell]

I think you might enjoy this link.

http://nofilmschool.com/2014/03/house-of-cards-dp-camera-lighting-secrets-netflix-red-epic/

 

[Frank Glencairn]

Just saying.... ;-)

 

[Chad Peter]

Nah, pretty sure Fincher post stabilizes everything!

We do. Every shot is tracked and reanimated. Literally any time the camera moves, even slightly, it's pulled for stabilization.