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How to get "film look" on Epic for cinema?

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Alexey Datsenko

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Could you please advice how to get "film look" picture for shooting cinema.
I see "Pirates of Carribian 4". "Prometeus" and etc and I see a amazing "film look" picture but I have been trying to get with Epic and could not. I was try to make color correction in Redcine-X but it is don't look like "film look".
Could you please tell me how on movies shoot on Epic is getting such amazing "film look" picture?

1. Color correction in Da Vinci?
2. Magic Bullet?

Or maybe something else?

Thank you
 
Lighting, lighting, lighting? I'm not that much of an expert but that would be my first guess :)

Can you put any stills or motion of your work on here for us to see? I'm still trying to improve my work too like so many others.
 
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Yes, Lighting is very important but when I see a big scenes for example a city square in the frame there is no any lighting besides sun and it is amazing "film look". Ok I will attach r3d file with my attempts.
 
Define "film look"
 
Usually what people mean is: Contrasty, highlights tending towards warm, yellow tones. In SpeedGrade use a LUT layer and use the CineSpace2383sRGB6Bit.itx LUT - this usually gives you a good starting point and it's usually what people mean. Then use Opacity to fine tune and grade on top. Maybe another tutorial, Jon? (Great work on the other one!).

Cheers,
Lin
 
It's a combination of lighting and grading. For grading, Pirates of the Caribbean 4 used Davinci, REDLogFilm setting in the decode as their grading starting point.

Graeme
 
Alexey Datsenko said:
Yes, Lighting is very important but when I see a big scenes for example a city square in the frame there is no any lighting besides sun and it is amazing "film look". Ok I will attach r3d file with my attempts.
Click to expand...
The fact that you can't see lighting in the scene does not mean that there isn't any. And it definitely does not mean that an extraordinary amount of work was not needed to get the shot with just the available light (timing, location, camera placement etc.). It's all about lighting (and a bit about grading).
 
I remember at my film school, we would shoot on film (16mm and 35mm) and it would not look filmic at all.
I believe that the filmic look has nothing to do with the support, so why calling it filmic look, and not cinematic look?

Also to answer your question like the others.
First light properly (with the right budget) with your final result in mind (if you put something in the shadow, how will it look past the grading).
And a lot o time (and mad skills) on the grading.

For your exterior example, I am sure they are using bounce boards and probably screens as well to cut and manage the amount of light.
Just think of the sun like a huuuuuge HMI. You wouldn't just throw a HMI on your actor's face without filtering or directing it.
Same with the sun.

Oh and make up, costume and set design should also cconsult to use a matching palette of you use color effects (all yellow or bleach bypass effects...)
 
Graeme Nattress said:
It's a combination of lighting and grading. For grading, Pirates of the Caribbean 4 used Davinci, REDLogFilm setting in the decode as their grading starting point.
Click to expand...

I would say that for grading they used Stefan Sonnenfeld. Stefan then used Resolve and RedlogFilm.
 
Put a movie star in your shot and it will have the "film look" :-)

Yes it's prod design, costume, make up, lighting, grading, everything. I shot on a street in Isanbul last year, sun was back lit but shafts of light were bouncing back into the scene, women were dressed in brightly colored head scarfs, there was fruit and all kinds of colorful products on the street and the old buildings were amazing. This shot looked like a film all by it's self, I just pointed the camera and graded it. I almost always try to back light when out in the sun, for me thats a good first step.
 
"I bought the same canvas and oil paints as Picasso used , but all the art I make looks like beginner crap.
When I go to museums, his work looks SO much better, why is that?"
 
BRANDON JAMESON said:
"I bought the same canvas and oil paints as Picasso used , but all the art I make looks like beginner crap.
When I go to museums, his work looks SO much better, why is that?"
Click to expand...

LOL!! =}
 
A lot of it is also about the glass you shoot with, and you're creative use of framing, art direction, lighting. I'm a firm believer in letting the glass imprint a look on your shots. And then letting the lighting, framing and performance take that up to a whole other level. But if your glass is flat and boring, your lighting and framing have a lot more work to do.

That's just me.

I'm working at Lifetime right now, and show A (will go unmentioned) is shot on Zooms, and with massive depth of field, and requires lots of lighting and set work to look "interesting". Whereas show B (just picked up, very famous creator) is shot on huge Tele's, very compressed space, beautiful bokeh, wonderful framing, a great sense of space...the wides have deeper field of view, but the closeups on the women are wide open, or tele'd, and look unreal. They even add busy backgrounds to some of the women to busy up the texture of the bokeh and make it look even more fun-tastic. I think that all adds to the "filmic" look you are talking about.

But hey, I'm just a producer/director, not a DP, so you'll have to let some of these other dudes give you the master class! Good luck!
 
This thread somehow reminds me of "What's that clunking noise?" in dvxuser. You guys probably don't know what I'm talking about...

Seriously, though, Graeme summed up the color part, Timur the art part, the others lighting. A Film look ends up being, in my humble opinion, a subjective creative choice. I don't particularly like some of Michael Mann's film's look. He used 2/3 CCD cameras with gain and slow shutter, but the matter of fact is these films where very well received by audiences, and narratively speaking they worked and where showcased in cinema screens all over the world. A film like "Breaking the Waves" by Director Lars VonTrier, shot in Mini DV, is considered a modern cinema masterpiece. Godard also shot in HDV his latest film, showcased in festivals around the world... The Hollywood Blockbuster Film also has its own, distinctive looks depending on the franchise... It's a subjective matter, but it all ends up, in my opinion, if the film immerses the audience in its story and the way it looks contributes to this storytelling...
 
How easy is this guys question. He want to make the Epic look like motion picture film.
Define "film look"??? is a question from someone that does not know.
Alexey wants to know how to make his footage look like "Pirates of Carribian 4". "Prometeus" and etc


 
Alexey Datsenko said:
Could you please advice how to get "film look" picture for shooting cinema.
I see "Pirates of Carribian 4". "Prometeus" and etc and I see a amazing "film look" picture but I have been trying to get with Epic and could not. I was try to make color correction in Redcine-X but it is don't look like "film look".
Could you please tell me how on movies shoot on Epic is getting such amazing "film look" picture?

1. Color correction in Da Vinci?
2. Magic Bullet?

Or maybe something else?

Thank you
Click to expand...

grading is best left to experts with years of experience... not months playing around with RedCine-X ...

A good place to start with the MX Sensor from a CAMERA perspective... is to use a Schneider Digicon Filter (1/8 or 1/4) when shooting. Its a low contrast filter that bakes in a nice filmic look
and takes off the edge off of plastic looking skin tones.

We recommend this to indies that have les experience lighting for film... amazes me how arrogant some people can get on here when the guy is looking for some pointers to achieve a look
when he gave specific references to films he was trying to emulate.

Alexa is rented more as people in our market find it more of a "point and shoot camera: and its easier to use than RAW (the latter gives a LOT of choices and oftentimes that is daunting for people new to filming RAW) in fact RAW can make things a lot HARDER if you don't know what you are doing. (Take a REDUCATION CLASS is my best advice to maximize your Red experience)

Im not giving the BE ALL END ALL ANSWER either... experiment and test test test is best way to get there. But using a filter than Alexa basically has inside their camera
is a good way to make the RED ONE or EPIC more of a point and shoot (if that makes sense) camera. GOOD EXPOSURE is your friend and provides more options in post
when tweaking your look.

Lets keep it civil and not make jokes at a less experienced persons expense shall we all you know it alls who posted here and gave NO ADVICE but snide remarks

My best advice however would be to hire a professional DP to show you how to achieve various looks. Probably be the best money you spent.
 
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