Mindhunter season 2

[Aaron Green]

I’ve seen posts from Eric Messerschmidt’s IG tagging Helium 8k for season 2, but unlike season 1’s Leica glass, it looks like they moved to anamorphics. Anyone have any insight on their lens choices?

 

[Phil Holland]

The flares tricked you in major ways.

Look at the bokeh and it tells a tale.

Fairly certain here, but it's Leica Summilux-C on Helium 8K (likely both Xenomorph and DSMC2 bodies used) with not only flare added in post, but also lens distortion to better fit the optics of the era.

I binged the whole bloody thing on Friday and it was a great season, a little surprised by it actually.

Personal take, a masterclass in pacing of dialogue scenes. Really nice wides, especially with the cars. The sound design was absolutely stellar as well.

 

[Aaron Green]

Yeah, the distortion is what threw me off. Interesting.

 

[jordan levy]

The flares tricked you in major ways.

Look at the bokeh and it tells a tale.

Fairly certain here, but it's Leica Summilux-C on Helium 8K (likely both Xenomorph and DSMC2 bodies used) with not only flare added in post, but also lens distortion to better fit the optics of the era.

I binged the whole bloody thing on Friday and it was a great season, a little surprised by it actually.

Personal take, a masterclass in pacing of dialogue scenes. Really nice wides, especially with the cars. The sound design was absolutely stellar as well.

interesting, I know Fincher does heavy post on cleaning up frames, from equipment or even a tree branch he doesnt like, but adding an anamorphic flare? strange for him, especially since they didnt add anything to the beauty of the shots. strange to me coming from him.

 

[Matt W.]

interesting, I know Fincher does heavy post on cleaning up frames, from equipment or even a tree branch he doesnt like, but adding an anamorphic flare? strange for him, especially since they didnt add anything to the beauty of the shots. strange to me coming from him.

The first season had heavy distortion and fake anamorphic flares, too, and heavy chromatic aberration added in post. I thought the pilot was beautifully lit and composed, and of course the direction was very strong, but I wasn't a fan of the fake anamorphic look at all.

But Fincher has been using fake anamorphic flares (almost as questionably imo) since at least Zodiac, where they show up in some night exteriors. I love that movie, but felt it didn't need them. Maybe it covered for some dodgy comp work, though I thought the comp work in the night exteriors was superb... maybe since they was covering for it lol.

 

[BrandonChristensen]

I was watching this last night and said the same thing to my wife, it was just weird to see the distortion. But the bokeh explained it .

 

[Phil Holland]

interesting, I know Fincher does heavy post on cleaning up frames, from equipment or even a tree branch he doesnt like, but adding an anamorphic flare? strange for him, especially since they didnt add anything to the beauty of the shots. strange to me coming from him.

I don't remember when he started doing it exactly, but he certainly did it in Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, though a different flare. Anamorphic flare was an interesting choice here, and for the experienced eye noticing the bokeh didn't line up it was maybe distracting. For the general audience, they were just like "oh man those police lights, this is big".

I do see art directing/VFX of flare as adding to the beauty of the shot. He's 100% not the first to do it in the industry, but he is using it much more often and noticeably.

The only thing that really stood out to me was the gate weave effect on the titles didn't match up with the footage it was placed on top of, but I think it was also a node to the optical title days and common from films of the era.

He and his team or mostly designing their own visual language that lands or ping pongs between vintage and modern to present the show. Because I'll tell you now, camera movement back then was nowhere near that good

Without spoiling it much, I do hope they revisit specifically 1-3 of the locked up peeps in Season 3. 2 stood out to me as delicious appetizers, 1 was like a dessert you didn't order, but you absolutely want to order another one after eating it. I enjoy the general writing and journey of the characters and the psychological aspects each of them being focused on this season. Season 1 felt like a really nice wrap up, Season 2 lets the sting linger and sort of just makes you want to jump into Season 3.

 

[Bob Gundu]

Fincher did say that the post lens distortions are also helping define the different eras. He said the characteristics of the lenses will
Change over time.

 

[Marc Wielage]

Here's a link to some comments from noted Light Iron colorist Ian Vertovec about the look of the show:

https://thefincheranalyst.com/2019/...nstagram-notes-on-his-work-for-david-fincher/

 

[Sebastian Bjork]

Fincher added anamorphic flares in Panic Room sequences - shot on spherical lenses.

In Gone Girl commentary he said "I added it just to f*ck with people".

 

[Christoffer Glans]

I’ve seen posts from Eric Messerschmidt’s IG tagging Helium 8k for season 2, but unlike season 1’s Leica glass, it looks like they moved to anamorphics. Anyone have any insight on their lens choices?

All anamorphic effects are done in post, as they were in the first season as well. Fincher shoots with a big look-around to be able to resize, split-screen and stabilize. The anamorphic effects are done by distorting the image, adding edge chromatic aberrations and lens flares.

 

[Timur Civan]

Are the Xenomorphs Helium or dragon?

I thought they were dragon. Unless they are changeable... it is a custom camera afterall....

 

[Aaron Lochert]

Are the Xenomorphs Helium or dragon?

I thought they were dragon. Unless they are changeable... it is a custom camera afterall....

They made a Mark 2 version that is Helium.

https://www.instagram.com/p/Be1oVY7D_14/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

@emesserschmidt:
A little late-night Xenomorph Mk2 Firmware Testing
#xenomorph #mindhunterS2 #netflix #ACES #reddigitalcinema #helium #8k #paralinxtomahawk2 #leader #zaxcom #rtmotion #leica #r3d #foolcontrol @instajarred @reddigitalcinema @cwsonderoptic @paralinx @rtmotion

 

[Jonathan Shugarman]

has anybody else noticed the terrible blue clipping in shadows in episode 3, never seen that on a helium sensor, wondering if its Netflix's compression..?

 

[Travis MacRitchie]

Some of the flares almost looked in-camera, streak filters. Cop red & blues at night specifically I thought. I overall loved the show and it's look, but think the real subtlety and nuance of the colors had to have been in the DI. Phenomenal work there. I can't believe they added distortion to simulate anamorphic. I definitely noticed some bowed vertical lines in doorframes, etc. So it was at least a convincing post-distortion that had me wondering if they were actually using anamorphic for some setups.

 

[Jamie A]

The B-cam operator told me it was shot using Summilux-C lenses, although he mentioned Red Dragon as the camera?

 

[Christoffer Glans]

Some of the flares almost looked in-camera, streak filters. Cop red & blues at night specifically I thought.

Generating fake flares isn't especially hard. I thought the flares of the police lights were a bit over the top though, mostly in luminance. Such flares usually don't become that harsh in real anamorphics if the coating isn't made or removed on very special glass.

The B-cam operator told me it was shot using Summilux-C lenses, although he mentioned Red Dragon as the camera?

Fincher have shot with the Summiluxes since Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Don't think he'll change that before going full frame. Old Xenomorphs were Dragon 6K sensor, previous season shot on that. VFX shots (backgrounds for green screens in cars and elsewhere) were shot on regular Dragons put in an array to capture 180 degree backgrounds.

 

[Phil Holland]

Fincher have shot with the Summiluxes since Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.

I'll ping Jeff to confirm, but I'm 100% sure GWTDT was Master Primes. Summilux-Cs came later for Gone Girl, then pretty much everything after that. More of timeline issue there than anything. House of Cards was MPs for S1, don't recall if they changed up or not for later seasons.

 

[brian hanson]

Really odd and interesting aesthetic to add the post fx to the summilux-c's.

Another thing that surprises me is how hot the exteriors were in some scenes, is this an HDR related choice?

Beatifully shot show.

 

[Sean Keefe]

Gone Girl was done with Leica Summilux-C.

Social Network and GWTDT were ARRI Master Primes.

https://britishcinematographer.co.uk/jeff-cronenweth-asc-gone-girl
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