Comments on: Fincher Reframes in Post! The 4K Release of 'The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo'

By: Enter the Shot on RED Film Festival, Winner Receives a RED SCARLET Camera Package - NoFilmSchool

Thu, 25 Oct 2012 23:20:25 +0000

[...] shot a film on RED but you want to actually project that movie for an audience in 4K? With so few films actually being distributed in 4K, aside from renting out a 4K theater, what’s a filmmaker [...]

By: Kickstarter Not Just for Indies Anymore, David Fincher Crowdfunding the Animated Film ‘The Goon’ - NoFilmSchool

Sun, 14 Oct 2012 00:38:49 +0000

[...] Fincher, who is often at the cutting edge when it comes to technology – even directing the first movie shot and projected in 4K and recently using a Monochrome RED Epic – is now crowdfunding a new animated film [...]

By: Could the ‘Looper’ In-Theater Commentary Track from Director Rian Johnson Start a Trend? - NoFilmSchool

Thu, 11 Oct 2012 15:14:31 +0000

[...] theater experience is great for some, and terrible for others, and it greatly varies depending on the venue, the movie, and those pesky [...]

By: ‘We Just Aren’t Up for the Grief,’ Jim Jannard and RED Give Up on June 4th Camera Shootout - NoFilmSchool

Thu, 03 May 2012 18:59:27 +0000

[...] not be overstated, and it’s something that’s been done in film forever – but is only now starting to be used in digital because of the extra resolution. It also allows for less destructive stabilization of the [...]

By: Jeff Cronenweth Talks His Career, the Digital Revolution, and ‘The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo’ - NoFilmSchool

Fri, 27 Apr 2012 16:18:18 +0000

[...] Fight Club, The Social Network, and more recently The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo – which we’ve talked about here before because of its interesting post workflow. Besides feature films, Cronenweth has also shot and [...]

By: Rgrain: a Low-cost Solution for Adding Realistic Film Grain to Your Videos - NoFilmSchool

Tue, 28 Feb 2012 01:22:51 +0000

[...] is relatively inexpensive if you are looking to give some character to that clean digital footage. With less and less films being shot on actual film, I expect this technique to be used for years to come, as some projects or scenes require a bit of [...]

By: MicroOLED Screen Promises Massive 1280×1024 Resolution for the Next Generation of EVFs - NoFilmSchool

Fri, 24 Feb 2012 18:47:27 +0000

[...] or optical viewfinder (fixing rolling shutter problems mainly), but sensors are getting faster, and plenty of digital motion pictures have been shot without a mechanical shutter and [...]

By: Get Industry Attention with the 2012 Nicholl Screenwriting Fellowships and Two Other Competitions - NoFilmSchool

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 21:58:03 +0000

[...] you’ve seen a Hollywood film recently, there’s a good chance a Nicholl winner was involved with it. It’s an elite club, but [...]

By: Brennan

Brennan — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 06:11:12 +0000

good deal bro; case in point: i check your website at least 3 times daily

By: unidob

unidob — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 01:48:02 +0000

I saw GDT at the Varsity in Toronto and it looked awful. I don’t know…it really looked like it was shot with a video camera to me…not digital cinema. Could have been the facility, or it could be that I’m just not used to that kind of resolution, but I can say that in my opinion it did not look good.

By: Heiko

Heiko — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 20:12:52 +0000

Some people are interested in cameras, you do realize that, right?

By: James0b57

James0b57 — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 10:01:59 +0000

Not sure if this has been mentioned,

With the fast paced speed of projects these days, I very much like the ‘look-around’ technique. The frame lines on the monitoring device allow the camera operator to frame “perfectly” on the day, and the extra space around the frame allows for options later, when everyone is removed from the moment. Of course, I believe that it could be a great tragedy if the DoP did not have control or input on the choice of any possible reframes, but that would depend on the project, and severity of the DoP’s framing choices.

35mm film has had this extra-space-around-the-frame technique for ages. This just expands on it.

By: Koo

Koo — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 20:18:35 +0000

I think they only cropped that much on the EPIC. And the One is almost 4.5k. So, less than 4k of “real” resolution but not substantially less.

In the front half of any theater good eyes should be able to tell the difference between 2k and 4k.

By: Andrew

Andrew — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 18:20:05 +0000

If the Red One/MX resolves just over 3K, as you point out, Koo, and if 2/3 of the film was shot on a Red One/MX (not to mention the fact that it was then cropped) – and if the Epic’s 4K of actual (debayered) resolution was also cropped (by 20%) – doesn’t that mean that this ISN’T the first film shot and distributed at 4K?

Well lit 35mm film datacined at 4K and distributed at 4K has higher resolution and dynamic range than TGWTDT (theoretically at least!), but I suppose that’s not what was meant by “captured [shot?] at 4K”. The Sony Head of Marketing featured in the video on Light Iron’s website says that the advantage of end-to-end 4K for the cinema audience is that it looks… like film (“natural”, he adds).

That said, I reckon you’d need a v-a-s-t screen or else would have to be sitting uncomfortably close to a large screen to see any advantage over 2K projection. The advantage of shooting 4K is presumably the pixel redundancy that allows for cropping, zooming and effects work.

The “look-around pad” seems similar to the “safe area” used on film ever since the industry abandoned the 4:3 aspect ratio (in the 1960s?). In practice, it’s not that great because on a professional set there tend to be things in the safe area by necessity (microphones, lamps, edges of sets…) that you wouldn’t want to see on the screen.

By: Richard

Richard — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 10:27:11 +0000

IMHO, cropping in post to achieve better framing is just another tool in the film makers set. Nobody is perfect and the constraints on set or on location (when covering live events) may be less than ideal to realise perfect framing every time. Since I do a lot of events/unscripted work, it’s always better to have the shot than to miss it because you had to move the camera for a perfect frame.

I shoot at 1080p and edit at 720p, giving me roughly 20-30% to play with in the edit, either for reframing or stabilisation (thanks to Adobe’s Warp). I guess those who are on RED will scoff at 720p, but this is the resolution-by-choice for most of my web-only projects (and it looks acceptable when viewed on a FullHD screen). So, until 4k is a real factor in the living room, I believe a shoot-to-crop approach will be a popular tool. Although I agree that it’s better to do things right in-camera (for one, it saves time in post), it’s nice to know that you’ve got good coverage.

By: Koo

Koo — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 06:45:32 +0000

They do have a 4K projector on the way, both for cinema and home, but who knows when those will show up.

By: Harry Kemball

Harry Kemball — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 04:42:48 +0000

In the olde days, the director trusted his DP, who trusted his camera operator and his crew. There were no monitors which everybody must look at to give their approval.

By: SydneyBlue120d

SydneyBlue120d — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 21:31:15 +0000

Sony 4K image quality is excellent but it has been carefully planned, installed and operators have made they’re homeworks. You may also want to try Cinema’s running 4K DLP, Barco, Christie and NEC for a more predictable result.

By: Josh Pies

Josh Pies — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 21:17:50 +0000

One thing to consider is that this technique is HUGE for the low budget crowd. Think of this scenario – a super low budget film has 1 week to shoot on one camera and it just happens to be in the budget to find a 4K camera. By adding a pad to the shooting problems of inexperience or even perhaps shaky sticks (i’ve seen some really bad tripods on low budget sets) are mitigated. Thanks to AE 5.5 you could easily rescue a shot that you cannot afford to do extra takes on. Its like buying insurance – forget the art for a second and just think – “i didn’t waste any extra money”. Nice thought, especially to a producer and investor

By: Mike Jenkins

Mike Jenkins — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 20:46:56 +0000

Absolutely! That should be standard practice, since it’s definitely something that sets the film apart. The Arclight cinemas are great because everything is digital and I think 4K. But for other theaters that still use film projections, I could see them labeling their 4K or digital shows but maybe charging more for them too. It would be unfortunate unless they were using it to afford upgrading all of their projectors.

Is there any company coming out with a “cheap” 4K projector? I remember RED showing off a server but I forget if they had a projector too. Maybe those would be good enough for smaller cinemas, like the small screen you saw GDT on and I saw In Time on.