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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 :)

Janusz Kaminski: "..I don't have respect for digital media just yet."

Marc Wielage said:
Pilots, of course, are different, and in those cases, my experience is that the director does control the look about 75% of the time.
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That is true. Pilots are much more analogous to features in terms of level of responsibility and control, although network suits often get involved - especially just prior to delviery - even when feature level directors are hired.
 
Vadim Bobkovsky said:
Give the guys at Red couple years more and watch what's gonna happen.
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Give the industry a couple years more, and let's see how many 4K options are available from half-a-dozen manufacturers. The flood is coming. Lots of options are good for users at all budget and skill ranges.

At that point you'd be able to capture all the details in shadows and highlights and then either leave it as it is "in all it's cold digital glory" or play with "the shoulder" and soft rolloff any way you want in post to get that filmic feel (almost like the way they grade and carefully manipulate scanned 35mm negs for years now).
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As far as I know, we've been doing that with digital images already in color correction for 15 years. The dynamic range can be controlled and change in post quite effectively, both shoulder and toe, depending on the skill and intent of the DP. The biggest issue now is what we can salvage from shooting problems, and that's a major problem with all digitally-derived media vs. film, in my opinion. But getting much better.
 
Stanley Carpenter said:
Hard to argue with the likes of Janusz who captures some of the greatest images ever... and yet, there is survival of the fittest. Adapt with the times or die...
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But if your read Mark's post you see that the article may not be an entirely accurate representation of his opinion.
 
M Most said:
Try working on the television show "The River." On any given day - not even any given episode - they used Alexa, XDCam EX, Canons of various types, NX Cam, SI 2K, GoPro, and at least 3 or 4 others. In one day. With each one supplying close to 2 hours of footage. Much of it with no slates. Of course, they still wanted to see the dailies at 9AM the next morning, even though they were shooting in Hawaii and cutting in L.A....

Ja! I remember working on the pilot for that show (The River) with your Team Mike. I most say, that ONE day where we got 18 hours of footage from EX3 (operated by the actors)/DVCAM (Non Square pixeled on a Tiny Heli)/GoPros (@30FPS)/Alexas/FLIR (on DV TAPE 4:3 @ 59.94)/VIXIA(@29.97 4:3)/Canons and spotty slating/reports was a HUGE nightmare (over 400 takes that needed hand audio sync IIRC), and it HAD to be in LA next morning. We had one advantage on L.A./Hawaii, we are 4 hours ahead ;)
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>>>>Based upon the amount of crap I see on television I have to wonder if the majority of television Producers have any appreciation of photography at all. It used to be just the errant auto-focus shots that led me to wonder, but now that we have the wonder of DSLR's in productions we also see a lot more hunting for focus... Not that it serves the story at all. <<<<

A-FRIGGEN-men. I almost can't even watch TV anymore. It's a disgrace that we have so many great tools out there and so much of what airs looks like cheap, lo-fi, monkey crap.
Cheers,
Harry
 
Harry Clark said:
>>>>Based upon the amount of crap I see on television I have to wonder if the majority of television Producers have any appreciation of photography at all. It used to be just the errant auto-focus shots that led me to wonder, but now that we have the wonder of DSLR's in productions we also see a lot more hunting for focus... Not that it serves the story at all. <<<<

A-FRIGGEN-men. I almost can't even watch TV anymore. It's a disgrace that we have so many great tools out there and so much of what airs looks like cheap, lo-fi, monkey crap.
Cheers,
Harry
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Yet most fiction shows look better than ever. Non fiction, I agree, is abysmal and the level of tech knowledge in this domain, where you hear "its' all about the story" ad-nauseum, leads me to believe that many who work in documentary TV should work in radio instead. Yet, most prime time TV looks beautiful.
 
Rob Ruffo said:
Yet most fiction shows look better than ever. Non fiction, I agree, is abysmal and the level of tech knowledge in this domain, where you hear "its' all about the story" ad-nauseum, leads me to believe that many who work in documentary TV should work in radio instead. Yet, most prime time TV looks beautiful.
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There are many that look terrific! With the schedules they keep it is nothing short of miraculous what gets done. It is unfortunate though that they are so outnumbered... Or so it seems.
 
Yes, I should have qualified my statement. Narrative TV can look great, and much of the prime time programming does.
It's just that it's a small slice of the TV world, and the documentary stuff does not seem to hold up well.
The "reality" type stuff is abysmal.
Cheers,
Harry
 
MPEG-Goo

MPEG-Goo

Even those shows that are well done from set to mastering get clobbered by a distribution system that over compresses the living crap out of the final delivery step to the viewer. Compression is not evil if its done well, but MPEG-2 is not clever and efficient enough to deliver decent 720P or 1080i (let alone 1080P) at 5-8mb/sec bit rates. Because I work in the industry I have seen uncompressed masters being QCed, then watched the same material at home on a Panny Pro plasma in a darkened room and the difference was stark. Just saying'

Cheers - #19
 
Nick Morrison said:
Did you guys read about how he shot War Horse? In ASC this month? He literally layered filters and shot everything in camera. He layered double fog and coral and ND grads to get these pastoral majestic looks. I saw the still grabs and I was blown away. They have almost no tweaking done in the DI. He and Speielbierg shoot it all in camera. Amazing.
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Can still be done with digital - people are just to lazy/ afraid / controlled by politics to go the distance

Not saying anything about film vs digital - just saying that when wysiwyg mentality arrives together with fear of dedicating to something. The easy route is most of the time taken
 
Fredrik Callinggard said:
Can still be done with digital - people are just to lazy/ afraid / controlled by politics to go the distance

Not saying anything about film vs digital - just saying that when wysiwyg mentality arrives together with fear of dedicating to something. The easy route is most of the time taken
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Of course, but having the balls to use as much in-camera filtration as Janusz does...and make it WORK...is pretty remarkable as far as I'm concerned. He's one of my heroes for that.
 
Nick Morrison said:
Of course, but having the balls to use as much in-camera filtration as Janusz does...and make it WORK...is pretty remarkable as far as I'm concerned. He's one of my heroes for that.
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Very true. In my opinion though, as a cinematographer, the more control post has on the look, the more important it becomes to commit to the look, bake in colors, filters etc so you get your vision on that screen. Just test test test.
 
It is so true about testing. The most important thing for pre-prod. Just like how directors have throughout history struggled to get final cut, a cinematographer will now need to ensure that his or the agreed upon look is what the film finishes as. A DP still in my opinion is chief in executing vision, though I think these days post workflow is way more important than it ever was before. So much changes in the grading.
 
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