Low-contrast/desaturated on MX

[Joseph White]

Hey everyone! My first post here, excited to get everyone's insights.

I'm currently in Singapore prepping an indie feature and we are using the MX RED w/ the new Cooke Panchros. My question is this:

My director really wants a somewhat clouded, low-contrast, slightly desaturated look for the film - think Antonioni's "Red Desert" and certain sequences in "Noi Albinoi" and "Margot at the Wedding".

I'd really like to do this in-camera as much as possible. Obviously we'll use production design, wardrobe, and lighting to help but we want it to be fairly stylized - anyone have any experiences using different types of filtration to achieve something like this? Looking into Soft Contrast, Fog, etc but would love to hear anyone's thoughts and experiences. Or any camera settings I should be thinking about?

I've shot about a dozen commercials and music videos as well as 4 features on the RED but have never been asked to achieve this look, especially in-camera (our post situation is rather grim seeing as how we're very very low budget and post color can be a bit dodgy in this part of the world.

Thanks in advance for all of your consideration, looking forward to hearing your thoughts!

 

[Zakaree Sandberg]

low con filter, soft fx

i have an older set of lenses that gets the look as is, but I would start with those filters possibly

 

[Clint Lealos]

Welcome Joseph.

Sounds like you aren't going to have a proper color grading pass on your film...bummer. However, your question was about filters and creating a look in camera, so here is my best advice.

Filters: I think I remember David Mullen writing that he liked the Hollywood Black Magic Filter for this type of look, but I would test as many filters as possible and see for yourself. A very light White Pro Mist maybe? I shot a commercial that was supposed to look like the 1960's (low saturation, low contrast) and we shot with a 1/4 White Pro Mist filter on an 18-100 Cooke zoom, but we had a proper color grading session also. Although, I remember really liking our on set color correction too, so I know its possible to do quickly. Here is that commercial for reference: http://vimeo.com/15718953

Tests Shoot: I know this isn't always possible, but if there was any way you could shoot some tests in an actual location prior to starting principle photography you could really get this right. Shoot some small clips (preferably with actual actors and lighting) using several different filters for each set up. Then go into RedCine X and play around until you get what you are looking for. Save your look to a SD card and import the look to the camera. That is the only way to get it exactly how you want it.

Good luck and happy shooting!