» Posts Tagged ‘film’
Get Your Canon T2i/T3i, GH3, Nikon D800, & More Looking Like Film with FilmConvert's Newest Update
During the NAB 2013 show, FilmConvert, the film emulation color grading program/plugin that actually maps color profiles to specific film stocks, was updated with support for the Blackmagic Cinema Camera, GoPro HERO3, Canon 7D, and 60D, as well as newer profiles for the Canon 5D Mark II and Mark III. Now, in the newest update, they’ve added the Panasonic GH3, Nikon D800 and D7000, in addition to the Canon T2i/T3i. Read on for more about the update, including a new ability to apply film color and contrast separately. More »
It’s seems like an eternity (or a brief instant, maybe) since Ryan first posted about the cessation of major manufacturers’ development and production of motion picture film cameras, and not quite as long since Joe updated us on the all the more tenuous vitality of the only two companies actually making celluloid film, Kodak and Fuji. What’s been announced before is now an all-but-undeniable reality for Fuji, who have just confirmed the company’s plans to bring its production of motion picture film to a full, complete, and permanent dead halt. Read the full scoop below before the ink fully dries on this fairly somber confirmation. More »
'Side by Side,' the Film vs. Digital Documentary Produced by Keanu Reeves, is Now on Netflix
Film vs. Digital. Celluloid vs. Silicon. While the debate is beginning to die down due to economics and advancements in digital cinema cameras, a documentary on the subject called Side by Side takes a look at the issue with some of the premiere directors and cinematographers. We mentioned a few months ago that the doc, produced by Keanu Reeves, was available to buy, but now the film is available to watch right now on Netflix. Click through for some clips from the movie. More »
What is the 'Real' Aspect Ratio of 'On The Waterfront?' Plus, Restoring a Warped Hitchcock Classic
The aspect ratio is one of the fundamentals determining your compositions. Even though we live in a time where displaying any aspect ratio is incredibly easy, films are still being shown incorrectly in many mediums in an attempt to make them fill the entire screen (even if that’s not the intention of the filmmaker). Interestingly enough, cinema history has actually been plagued by these kinds of issues related to aspect ratio. A visual essay by Criterion Collection illustrates how the intended aspect ratio of On The Waterfront is still in question to this day, and we also get a demonstration of the impressive restoration to Hitchcock’s The Man Who Knew Too Much from a heavily warped and damaged print. More »
J.J. Abrams and Valve CEO Gabe Newell Discuss Storytelling in Film vs. Video Games
Nowadays, major franchises get the royal treatment upon release. Some video game series are expanded with original novels or comic books between release dates. The opening of many big films occurs with novelizations and video games accompanying them. The problem is, I haven’t seen many video game adaptations I’ve been able to appreciate as good films in their own right, and all the while games seem to be getting more and more realistic. How comparable, or even compatible is storytelling between video games and movies? If anybody could figure it out, it’d be “Star Wars Episode VII director” J.J. Abrams and Valve co-founder/CEO Gabe Newell. Check out their full D.I.C.E. 2013 keynote discussion below. More »
“I create these stories with missing pieces. Missing pieces are very interesting because then people wanna fill them. People are afraid of emptiness and they wanna fill those gaps…. That’s exactly what I want to do with my art. I want people to think about what they see and wonder if what they see is real. If what they see has a meaning.”
If you’ve yet to fall under the spell of French director and musician Woodkid’s (aka Yoann Lemoine) approach to music videos, then I suggest you get comfortable and feast your eyes on this trio of promos for Iron, Run Boy Run, and I Love You: More »
Lomography is both an analog-based film movement as well as a manufacturer of specialty products conducive to such an activity — these include the LomoKino 35mm stills-to-motion camera and the (successfully) Kickstarted Smartphone Film Scanner app/device. Lomography’s goods aren’t for everybody, or every project — but the company has some exciting news for the analog enthusiast in all of us, especially while production of 35mm film seems to be slowing down. Lomography will be releasing a new ISO 400 35mm color negative stock called LomoChrome Purple, inspired by the surreal quality of Kodak’s discontinued Aerochrome infrared stock — read on to check out the details. More »
A solid color grade can very quickly take the edge off an image that looks “too digital.” If you don’t have much time to spend on said color grade, but you’d like to get a great look very easily, a film LUT that attempts to recreate some of the magic we get from Kodak and Fuji stocks could serve you well. We’ve discussed FilmConvert a bit before, but basically it’s either a standalone program or a plugin for the major Apple and Adobe products that uses the color science of the specific camera you’re using in order to precisely match the film stocks they have in their system. Now they’ve introduced another update, this time including support for the Canon C300 and the Arri Alexa. More »
In the whirlwind of hyperactive change that is Moore’s Law, branding can be a prime anchor point. Brand identity fights the tendency toward ‘the new’ with powerful invocations of the past: nostalgia, reliability, simplicity, and the association of that brand name with the creation of very dear memories. Granted, nostalgia alone can’t save anyone from bankruptcy — but it’s a start. Polaroid, Technicolor, and Kodak are prime examples of this interplay, and each is adapting in its own ways — though there’s some overlap. Not one, but two of these traditionally film-based companies are even releasing digital cameras. In whatever the way, each of the three is working toward the preservation of its own historic brand name — which do you think will pull through? More »
Kodak has been making motion picture film since the beginning of cinema, but earlier in 2012 it looked like the company was on its last legs. Fuji also announced last year that it would no longer be making motion picture at all, so 2012 very well could have been the end of celluloid as we knew it. But Kodak isn’t throwing in the towel yet, as a court decision has approved $844 million in financing from multiple deals and sources in order to emerge from bankruptcy sometime this year. More »
With Film Dead or Dying, Can You Still Get the 80s or 90s Wide Open Low Light Look?
Film is going the way of other elegant, exotic, but evolutionarily condemned creatures such as the Tasmanian Tiger, the Dodo bird, and the Macarena. Somehow chart the decline of film use against the rise of digital and you’ll hear a lot about ‘how to make digital look like film’ in your research. It’s almost an existential crisis for shooters of our transitional generation, and the heart of digital’s identity crisis. If film is the look of cinema, what’s the key ingredient? Resolution? Latitude — or worse, light response curve? Motion transfer? Color reproduction? Or should we just let “the digital look” evolve into its own beast altogether? That’s a lot of heavy questions for a Sunday afternoon read, but ones unavoidably raised by a post from Art Adams of Pro Video Coalition about the wide open lensed and low light look of ’80′s and ’90′s films. More »
Ever wondered what format, camera model, lens type, finishing format, lens manufacturer, etc. was used to create a certain film? You may have found yourself punching in IMDb as your default movie trivia database, and you may have found some or all such information in the film’s technical specs page — or you may not have. While IMDb has a lot of other coverage to keep itself occupied logging (particularly cast and crew lists), you may find yourself wanting a more detailed and dedicated technical breakdown — enter ‘ShotOnWhat?‘ More »
New Lomography Kickstarter Makes Your Smartphone a Mobile Film Scanner
Though I understand where these things come from, calling something like Lomography “the analog Instagram” is like calling Kodak’s new Super 8 stock “the chemical MiniDV,” or even better, “the new digital from back before digital” — for the sake of modern analog (dear lord I just said that) we’re getting our chicken-and-egg orders mixed up. That said, we’ve seen some pretty interesting blends of the old and the new… and then back to the old again. There was The Impossible Project’s Impossible Instant Lab, which made Polaroids of cell phone stills — which we also called “the Real Instagram,” though again, I understand why. Thanks to (both a hobby and) a company called Lomography, the opposite chicken-egg process is possible — with some help, your smartphone is now also a digital scanner of film negatives. Read: Instant scanning, insta… sharing. More »
If you’re tired of digging through Netflix or Hulu for harder to find films, there are some options out there for you to consider. MUBI (formerly The Auteurs), an “online cinematheque,” is a website dedicated to film culture, conversation, and criticism. They also have been doing online VOD streaming for a while now, but a new format has been rolling out in Turkey, Norway, and the UK, and now it’s about to launch in the United States. It’s quite a departure from the way most streaming sites are organized, but the site, which is partnered with The Criterion Collection and other art house distributors, already does things a little differently than everyone else. More »
Exercising micromanagement and fine-tune control over the minutia of scenery is a must in filmmaking for all but the most hardcore run-and-gun-style productions. It’s not very often, however, that you see production-level set design and construction, prop manipulation down to the inch, or cinema lighting used to illuminate deep lived-in landscapes in still photography. Gregory Crewdson does just this, implementing an unheard-of degree of visionary control upon the constituents of his still frames — the image at left, for one, is no incidental happenstance. Filmmaker Ben Shapiro has documented Crewdson’s decade-spanning pursuit of creating true-to-life vignettes by fictitious articulation in Brief Encounters — screenings are limited, but the doc looks to be a must-see. Watch the trailer and some clips from the film below. More »
Choosing Super 16mm over Digital and the Cinematography of 'Beasts of the Southern Wild'
It seems like there have been tons of posts about this movie, but The Creators Project has been slowly releasing their exclusive Behind the Scenes videos over the course of the last few months. We’ve taken a look at the score and other aspects, but now we’ve got a video with Director of Photography Ben Richardson talking about the aesthetic of the film and their choice to shoot on celluloid as opposed to digital. More »
Maybe things aren’t looking that bad for Kodak after all? The company looked like they were on the verge of collapse not too long ago, and by closing down some of its businesses and shuffling others around, it seems they may once again be solvent. Early last month they made a deal for interim and exit financing to continue functioning and finish reorganization (and leave Chapter 11) by the first half of next year. They’ve also introduced a brand new Super 8mm film stock — though you’ll have a difficult time actually finding a place to develop said film. More »
Want Film-Like GH2 Footage? FilmConvert Now Supports GH2, More Canon Profiles, and Final Cut Pro 7
Not too long ago we told you about a color corrector plugin/standalone software solution from Rubber Monkey that not only tries to mimic the looks of many film stocks, but does it in a way that is particular to the exact camera you’re using. Until now the only cameras that were guaranteed to work properly with FilmConvert to achieve the specific look were Canon DSLRs and RED cameras, but now they are adding support for the Panasonic GH2, as well as support for more Canon picture profiles, and a brand new plugin for Final Cut Pro 7. More »
If you’ve noticed off-hand that the world — and particularly that of cinema — has been missing a little bit of a beloved strangeness recently, there’s a possibility that’s because David Lynch hasn’t made a feature film since 2006′s MiniDV-shot Inland Empire. He’s been active (and acting, in several cases) in media of other kinds, and directed a 2010 promotional short for Dior, but I for one have found myself wondering what exactly has been stopping him from a return to the big screen. Thanks to a recent interview with Lynch by the Hollywood Reporter, we now know his opinion on the internet and the digital future of film, plus answers to the question my title poses both in the spiritual and literal sense. More »
We’re all, I’m sure, very familiar with the phrase “Film is Dead” and the like by this point. And that very well seems to be true, because of a perfect storm of emergent technologies — between the high-quality digital acquisition now possible and the the distribution possibilities offered by the internet, celluloid may finally be uttering its climactic guttural death-rattle. What some of us (including myself) may not think about as much, though, is how many times cinema itself has supposedly been finished in the past. An article by The Village Voice highlights how many times over each decade since its inception film has been declared deceased, and why. More »
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