RED ONE MX: film look during daylight?

[Steve Yager]

http://www.theasc.com/ac_magazine/June2011/PiratesoftheCaribbean:OnStrangerTides/page1.php

This might help, the American Cinematographer article on PotC4. It might help.

Yeah, i agree with Nook, it is rough to have clients who don't understand that they can't have a $100mil look on $10grand.
Good luck, don't get agravated and do your best man. I am sure you can figure out a way to make him a satisfied client.

My two cents is pick a key shot and color it a variety of different ways, and let him pick his favorite. I have always found that a good way to get the leash back on a pesky client is overwelm them with choices... They have a tendancy to realize you are the professional anf they are merely a tourist to filmmaking.

Giving them choices is a great idea, Drew. That's how you also deal with a stubborn two year-old. "Which pants would you like to wear today? You can choose!" Great technique. I'll bet anything the client is talking about depth of field. Next time, put some ND in your matte box and open that iris up. People are so dazzled these days with shallow DOF that they forget to be creative.

 

[dave_garcia]

It's just a plugin, but I find that sapphire "film look" has some nice out of the box looks. I use it with Scratch, but it's available for the major platforms. It has print and negative stock presets that look great. Also nice grain controls.

Obviously, the way you shoot makes a huge difference. Good separation between your lighting planes I've noticed helps create something more filmic as it seems like this is something film can be forgiving with whereas digital gets mushy quickly with looser lighting.

On the color side, it seems like film has a natural saturation spike in the reds that make flesh tones look very rich. This could be achieved by strategically popping them up in your first light before your chosen grade workflow.

And then there's always shooting film...

 

[Jason Joseph]

Put some light leak filter on the footage
its all the rage
just kidding~

 

[Rob Ruffo]

Giving them choices is a great idea, Drew. That's how you also deal with a stubborn two year-old. "Which pants would you like to wear today? You can choose!" Great technique. I'll bet anything the client is talking about depth of field. Next time, put some ND in your matte box and open that iris up. People are so dazzled these days with shallow DOF that they forget to be creative.

I agree - it has its place, but i am starting to call it the "wedding video look" when I want a client to stop asking for it everywhere.

Seriously, the real film look is the look of competent cinematography and good lighting tools and most important enough trained, motivated, talented crew. No plugin, no camera, no easy fix of any kind will really get you there convincingly any other way.