Joined: 29 Jun 2007 Posts: 722 Location: Copenhagen, Denmark
"Carlos" - the most video-looking 35mm film ever..
Just saw the movie "Carlos" (2010), about the life & times of Carlos the Jackal. Pretty good movie. Lots of production value in period sets & vehicles, tons of locations, etc.
But right from the opening frame I bitched about the video look, and it really bothered me that professionals aren't getting better quality out of digital (crushes my own DSLR dreams!). And I particularly have an issue with period films looking digital (Public Enemy, I'm looking at you!)
And then I saw the behind-the-scenes featurette, where they clearly have bigass cameras with film cans on them... two of them, even. And I looked it up on IMDb, and it's all 35mm.....
I know I'm just a whining fanboy who can't do better, but I don't mean no disrespect to the DOP, I'm just puzzled. A lot of the film is really beautiful, but every scene with exterior, or shot interior looking out a window, looked like your in-laws' vacation video with sharp highlight clipping and all.
What gives? Until know I've always been able to tell film from digital, so this really baffles me.
If it's all 35mm, I suppose it either happened in color timing or in the dvd process. I should lend some goodwill to the fact that I only saw it on dvd, so don't know how the projected print looked. Although, I've seen dvd's be too dark, too bright, too compressed, etc, but never "video-ified" like this.
Have you guys seen it? Thought about it? Heard about the process used? Anything?
Joined: 29 Jun 2007 Posts: 722 Location: Copenhagen, Denmark
tazer wrote:
is it possible it was the TV that you were watching it on?
Ohh, I assure you such a travesty would not take place in my house.
I should say my TV is properly calibrated, with everything called motion flow, interpolation, sharpness, overscan and what over ridicules they've invented to ruin images, turned to OFF and sliders pushed left.
Cheers,
- Jonas
Tue Jun 21, 2011 1:50 am
headshotriddle7
Joined: 14 Oct 2009 Posts: 77 Location: City of Emeralds
Hey Jonas,
I saw the film on the big screen a while ago and remember that it struck me as incredibly beautiful looking, definitely not digital. The fact that skies and windows are blown out in most shots is much more of a deliberate cinematic choice than a shortcoming of the medium it was captured on in my opinion. The kind of natural looking lighting approach of Carlos does go against the current trend in cinematography though where everyone seems to be all excited about HDR and whatnot... a little clipping can be a beautiful thing, especially when it happens on 35mm... I find the use of hot windows as practical backlights to be very cinematic and for some reason it helpes to give the film its european aesthetic which makes it appropriate for the subject matter... maybe thats just me tho...
check out these clips from the movie (german language):
even in this highly compressed form they dont look the tiniest bit digital to my eyes...
I'd say you either have a really bad copy of the film or just a really twisted sense of aesthetics.
Here's an article from the November 2010 issue of American Cinematographer providing great insight on the cinematic aspects of the film.
Joined: 29 Jun 2007 Posts: 722 Location: Copenhagen, Denmark
Hey headshot,
good to know, thanks for your insight! Unfortunately, those clips can't be viewed "in my region"... :-/
Now, what I was referring to wasn't "a little clipping", and certainly not the soft shoulder you see on film - it was the worst clipping I've seen on a 35mm -> dvd transfer.
I guess it must be from tht dvd process, then.... odd.
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