The Film Look.
It is 11:44 pm as I am writing this. Weather in the UK has been getting very hot.
Over the couple of years I have been a cinematographer, youtube has always been recommending me videos related to the ‘film look’ a sort of grainy colorgrade that should represent film such as Kodak or Cinestill. It has come to a point where almost every creator has jumped on the bandwagon to make a video about it; even my own subscribers have been asking me to create a video on how to grade like that. I would like to address this.
In my opinion I believe that there is a problem with this. Too many creators have been recommending it, every person who tries to colorgrade for the first time just copies their looks and it seems to be perfect. However, this completely strips away the creative aspect of colorgrading; no one has their own style or identity, they just follow whats trending. I believe as a novice colorist that people should strive to create their own looks, not purchasing powergrades from some random creator promoting the ‘best film emulation’. Tom Bolles, a legendary colorist has successfully done this, his work is really good. He is the only person I recommend that you purchase their powergrade, other ones are not good enough. Any emulation is really good, I don’t disagree with that, however it should only be relied on to a certain extent. I believe that people have been overusing it and I think that people should develop their own style, that is where you see creatives truly shine. Experiment with clean - contrasty tones or a deep teal and blue colorgrade, those are what I have been experimenting with in my latest video. I scrapped the film emulation entirely and went for my own sort of style: accentuating the oranges and dark blues.
Italy, Lake Como
Honestly, you could look at this and think “oh its the film look he’s been talking about” and you could be right, I guess in the end its totally up to preference. I like the film look myself, but I also like to tweak it to my own style - deep tones. All I am trying to say is that don’t rely too heavily on easy powergrades you can just slap on and call it a day - really try to make it yours by doing adjustments with each individual node (Davinci Resolve), I mean I adjusted my entire movie’s look at least five times over in order to really lock in what I wanted it to look - don’t be lazy and forget about curves, exposure, luma etc. I guess this is just my way of adjusting color, other ways could be making it from scratch. For a beginner, I actually would recommend purchasing Tom Bolles’ powergrade as it first introduces you to the node-style way of editing in Davinci Resolve, where he thoroughly explains what each individual node does. Why I like it so much is that each node is like a setting, but it is non-destructive meaning that turning off one node won’t ruin the rest. It also makes it super easy to add effects and adjust further by adding more nodes. Think of it like an electric guitar connected to an amp. You want it to sound nice, so you want to add effects to it. Each node is like a guitar effect pedal, for instance the compressor, distortion, chorus etc. Each one has their own setting you can adjust and you can remove or add to change the sound - or look of the image. I personally add a node specifically for color density - as it trumps over saturation and vibrance. I also reduce contrast going into the color management e.g primaries and then re-add contrast after. This helps to give the actual color science data to work with so that the nodes can really push out clean images. If there is more overall light in the image there is more data in the image that can be used. This is why I always like to overexpose my videos on the FX3 so that I have more data to work with in post-production. Similar for stills on my Hasselblad. The image above (below for phone users) shows a dark - moody mountain range in Lake Como. The foreground mountain has been crushed but if you did take the image and brightened it all the details would be visible. This ability to do that helps so much in post-production as you can really mess around with all types of lighting and not worry about unrecoverable highlights or shadows. In this instance I wanted the eyes to focus on the peak of the mountain which is dead center. This layering of the foreground and background leads the audience straight to the middle - composition. All these thoughts go through my mind when I compose a shot - lighting, framing etc. I guess it comes from experience - I am nowhere near experienced but I have slowly gotten the hang of things. It just takes time, going out practicing composing a photograph.
A really helpful way of learning how to frame good shots is to just use a film camera. My father had lended to me his Hasselblad XPAN - which I have brought on the trip to Italy a few weeks back. The reason using film is so good is that it is expensive. What I mean by that is that you need to be very mindful of the shots you take. It is not a mirrorless sports body - where you can take thousands of photos without blinking an eye, it is a film body where each shot costs a few dollars. Film is a dedication and commitment where after you spend the roll you need to transport it safely back home to the developers and it would take a day or two to develop, then you need to scan and invert the negs to actually see it. This is why film teaches you how to shoot well - every shot is valuable and important. When I shot my first roll of ColorPlus 200, I really tried so hard to make everything perfect - exposure, composition, angle etc. I knew that the rolls were expensive and actually having your work being physically used and handled added more importance to it instead of a few bits of data in a motherboard.
This is why I believe film has its good and meh sides to it. It can be a great tool for composing shots and making anything look so beautiful - but also people love to emulate it on digital or video, where people have been overusing it and/or not using it to the best of its ability. In short, I guess growing cinematographers and colorists should really be able to master a powergrade, like Cineprint 35 to be able to use it to the best of its ability. This means learning what every single node does, how it can be adjusted, and how you can make it yours by adjusting it to YOUR style.
I always wanted to talk about this - as I have personally started with Cineprint16 and 35, it has taught me a lot as a growing filmmaker - that film doesn’t have to encompass your entire coloring life - that it can be made your own and you can use that experience in using a powergrade to potentially make your own, which was what I did.
If you are still reading, thank you. Tomorrow will be another installment into my media-side of my photography, instagram and this website.
