Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow

Sean McHenry · October 17th, 2004, 08:46 PM

OK, we have discussed lots of things here on the subject of Sjy Captain. Just saw it this weekend with my daughter. We both enjoyed it. Me having seen the old reruns of Flash Gordon and other series of it's type and her from a perspective of never having seen this stylization of a movie before. We both still liked it.

My question is, I always loved that glow that this picture has all over it. I looked over the link from "Premiere" magazine someone posted and they give no real explaination of this washing out or sort of soft gausian blur effect. Anyone used this effect with DV footage yet?

I'll be playin in Premiere Pro and Avid Xpress Pro to figure out some decent settings for this.

Sean

Sean McHenry · October 18th, 2004, 09:11 AM

OK. After a little poking around the net, I found this blurb on the Apple web site:

Color
The unique look of “Sky Captain,” at times the sepia tinge of an old photograph or postcard, at others bright with the unmistakable light of Technicolor, was achieved by running the color film through a diffusion filter, and then tinting it black and white before running the entire film through a final stage, where color was blended, balanced and added back in.

Link is here:

http://www.apple.com/pro/video/conran/index3.html

So, anyone ever done this in Avid Xpress Pro? Maybe Premiere Pro? Looking for the "color wash" technique that can be done electronically. I'll have to shoot some footage and play now.

Sean

Joshua Starnes · October 18th, 2004, 10:18 AM

You could do it, but it would be very time consuming. The Sky Captain people more or less repainted each shot as they went in order to get that effect.

Sean McHenry · October 19th, 2004, 09:56 AM

I am rendering a test right now on the laptop in the corner. My little Sony Vaio (A tiny PCG-SRX87) and tried it in Avod Xpress Pro. Strange but there is no Gausian Blur or really any blur at all with the standard Avid plugins. How odd, and sad. I suppose they want you to use After Effects for that sort of thing.

On the other hand, Premiere has always had a Gausian blur. So I am rendering test footage from there. I am convinced some combination of taking high key shot footage to B&W, then a bit of sepia or other color "tone" followed by clipping the whites a bit below the normal 235 along with a touch of gausian blur, horizontal and vertical, should put me in the ballpark.

On the Mobile 850, it's taking a while to do that to 4 test clips of about 5-7 seconds each.

I suppose what I am looking for is an electronic equivelant of the bleach and tint process. Anyone have any similar ideas?

Sean McHenry

October 17th, 2004, 08:46 PM	#61
Sean McHenry Trustee Join Date: Mar 2004 Location: Hilliard, Ohio Posts: 1,193	Technique? OK, we have discussed lots of things here on the subject of Sjy Captain. Just saw it this weekend with my daughter. We both enjoyed it. Me having seen the old reruns of Flash Gordon and other series of it's type and her from a perspective of never having seen this stylization of a movie before. We both still liked it. My question is, I always loved that glow that this picture has all over it. I looked over the link from "Premiere" magazine someone posted and they give no real explaination of this washing out or sort of soft gausian blur effect. Anyone used this effect with DV footage yet? I'll be playin in Premiere Pro and Avid Xpress Pro to figure out some decent settings for this. Sean __________________ ‘I don’t know what I’m doing, and I’m shooting on D.V.’ - my hero - David Lynch http://www.DeepBlueEdit.com

October 18th, 2004, 09:11 AM	#62
Sean McHenry Trustee Join Date: Mar 2004 Location: Hilliard, Ohio Posts: 1,193	OK. After a little poking around the net, I found this blurb on the Apple web site: Color The unique look of “Sky Captain,” at times the sepia tinge of an old photograph or postcard, at others bright with the unmistakable light of Technicolor, was achieved by running the color film through a diffusion filter, and then tinting it black and white before running the entire film through a final stage, where color was blended, balanced and added back in. Link is here: http://www.apple.com/pro/video/conran/index3.html So, anyone ever done this in Avid Xpress Pro? Maybe Premiere Pro? Looking for the "color wash" technique that can be done electronically. I'll have to shoot some footage and play now. Sean __________________ ‘I don’t know what I’m doing, and I’m shooting on D.V.’ - my hero - David Lynch http://www.DeepBlueEdit.com

October 19th, 2004, 09:56 AM	#64
Sean McHenry Trustee Join Date: Mar 2004 Location: Hilliard, Ohio Posts: 1,193	I am rendering a test right now on the laptop in the corner. My little Sony Vaio (A tiny PCG-SRX87) and tried it in Avod Xpress Pro. Strange but there is no Gausian Blur or really any blur at all with the standard Avid plugins. How odd, and sad. I suppose they want you to use After Effects for that sort of thing. On the other hand, Premiere has always had a Gausian blur. So I am rendering test footage from there. I am convinced some combination of taking high key shot footage to B&W, then a bit of sepia or other color "tone" followed by clipping the whites a bit below the normal 235 along with a touch of gausian blur, horizontal and vertical, should put me in the ballpark. On the Mobile 850, it's taking a while to do that to 4 test clips of about 5-7 seconds each. I suppose what I am looking for is an electronic equivelant of the bleach and tint process. Anyone have any similar ideas? Sean McHenry __________________ ‘I don’t know what I’m doing, and I’m shooting on D.V.’ - my hero - David Lynch http://www.DeepBlueEdit.com

October 18th, 2004, 10:18 AM	#63
Joshua Starnes Major Player Join Date: Jun 2004 Location: Houston, TX Posts: 356	You could do it, but it would be very time consuming. The Sky Captain people more or less repainted each shot as they went in order to get that effect.