OK, so I am going to vent just a little. This isn't saying anything bad about the director--The director is a really nice guy and is doing a great job all in all on his first attempt at making a fully crewed short.
Here is the background. I am shooting a short that will be about 15 minutes when it is finished. The director has never worked with film...Only video.
He wants B&W for that "Noir" look. Which can't be made since those stocks and techniques don't exsist any more. He doesn't understand that when people watch B&W they have a certain set of expectations. What those expectations are vary from viewer to viewer but they do watch B&W differently.
Plus, his lack of understanding of the production chain for a film gets old. Hopefully he will do a little research into telecine and tape formats before we transfer.
Finally, I am the DP. Please let me do my job. I don't ask him to cast different actors he should question my choices.
Those are my frustrations...
Good Luck
when I hear "film noir" i don't think of b&w personally - i think of very graphic looking, high contrast compositions.
i think a director and DP should work together (oh for that luxury!) but ultimately i think the DP should be left to do his job based on the direction given.
that is why a director has to be an effective communicator ... you don't want to send your cast or crew in the wrong direction!
Tell me about it. I think that "ChinaTown" is one of the best noir-esque films and it is color. It is more about story and less about color vs. B&W.
The director is a nice guy and can express his vision pretty well. The problem in my eyes is that he has never worked with film before and every newbie to film wants B&W...So that is what he will get and it will look great. But, in the end his movie will be weak due to the fact that the story itself is weak.
Good Luck
How much money is being spent on this project Nigel?
Hard to say exactly.
My guess is in the area of 10,000USD....
As far as production costs for my department I will spend about 2500USD to get it in the can--Including rentals and extras. Then there is Xfer and other costs. If I had the control of my dept like I want we would be shooting color stock and making it B&W in Xfer. As of now we will more than likely end up on DigiBeta(Online) and DVCam(Offline).
Why do you ask??
Good Luck
I was just wondering if it was too large a sum for the director to risk not knowing what he's doing. $10,000 is about the cut off usually.
<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ November 07, 2004 10:39 PM: Message edited by: Yammeryammeryammer ]</font>
The shoot is in 5 days so we will see what happens. Monday I am going to make the final rental reservations for lenses and grip. Hopefully it all falls into place.
Good Luck
thats why my partnership with a friend works so well. We're both Writers Directors and DP, I also find it can help with the creative process you have someone you can bounce your ideas off and your idea may trigger a better one in the other [img]biggrin.gif[/img]
<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">I am completely lost by those two sentences. How can a technique not exist anymore, and black and white is no longer available?Originally posted by Nigel:
He wants B&W for that "Noir" look. Which can't be made since those stocks and techniques don't exist any more.
<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">I recently compared changing color reversal to black and white with black and white reversal and found that the black and white just had a "tighter" look to it, the black and white original was definitely more pleasing when compared side by side to the color that was converted to black and white.Originally posted by Nigel:
If I had the control of my dept like I want we would be shooting color stock and making it B&W in Xfer.
By the way, for ultra lowbudget productions, S-VHS has an excellent luminence channel (BW) and when you add gain the picture is quite nice.
Look at the statement...
Those stocks and techniques don't exsist any more.
Why?? Because the ASA6 stocks that required the shadows to actualy be painted in the Background as well as a studio system that had an army of talented people that would use techniques like tinting props and set pieces with dyes. Lab practices specific to those extremely slow stocks.
So those techniques are gone. They are forgotten. Perhaps for the better.
Good Luck
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