Why do a lot of filmmakers seem to hate deep focus cinematography?

[Ryan Elder]

Well I talked to a DP, and he says that if we are shooting in locations where we cannot control the background colors, to shoot in monochrome, or make a color tinted movie, where a scene is only one color, like those old silent films use to be. Or just shoot black and white.

What do you think? Would a color tinted movie, decrease the marketability of the movie after?

[Brian Drysdale]

If the colour is of such major concern, pure black and white would be the way to go. However, unless it's a conscious style decision and is integral to the whole film and how the story is told, I would stay with colour. It's a lot easier to market a contemporary story in colour.

The colour of walls isn't key to your story, it may be in your head, but it's secondary when selling your film.

There are some B & W films being shot, but they are more art house in nature than genre thrillers. You would need to set it in the 1920s to justify tinting a film.

The Lighthouse | Official Trailer HD | A24 - YouTube

[Ryan Elder]

Yeah that's exactly what I was thinking. My story is a straight up crime thriller, set in a modern setting, so not sure if black and white or color tinting is the way to go. As long as most audience members do not find uncontrolled color in the backgrounds distracting, like some filmmakers might.

[Brian Drysdale]

An audience only worries about what it sees, not what doesn't exist. Unrealistic looking rooms with coloured lighting on the walls is going to distract more than the walls being white. Just keep the light off the white walls as much as possible and they should look pretty oppressive.

I'm surprised you're even asking this, for a director it should be a few seconds of thought before rejecting it. You're not making "The Last Picture Show".

[Ryan Elder]

Well it's just I want to find a creative solution but it seems that so many creative solutions are not good. Like lighting the walls, out, black and white, out.

So should I just embrace the locations being problematic, rather than trying to come up with ways to fix it then?

[Brian Drysdale]

If you're making a realistic crime thriller the creativity is in the interaction between the characters, not the colour of the walls. You don't want the police station to look like at seedy dance hall.

[Ryan Elder]

That's true, it's just when I showed past work to other filmmakers, they found certain aspects of the background distracting that could not be controlled. As long as different lighting will help. But I was also told my story is has a bit of a comic-bookish tone, so maybe being a bit theatrical with the background decisions won't hurt, and I shouldn't have it totally realistic and maybe a bit of surrealism is called for, or at least I was told that by a couple who read the script. Not a realistic crime thriller, but a crime thriller set in mordern times, with more of a comic bookish tone, or at least that is what I was told.

[Josh Bass]

Ok heres the thing...youre not making movies for other filmmakers, youre making them for regular people who dont know crap about filmmaking and cinematography and color theory etc. When filmmakers tell you all this stuff, they notice this stuff because thats what they do. “Audiences” are highly unlikely to notice green cars, the color of the walls or many of the things you are absolutely obsessed with unless you take it way over the top (making the entire movie bright pink or something). I guarantee you they WILL notice the quality of the acting, story plotting, and possibly writing. Seriously focus your energies/obsessions on that. Let all this other stuff come way later.

Also I though we decided to abandon crime thriller and find a better script?

[Pete Cofrancesco]

Ryan you seem too concerned with the superficial and go over the top with everything to put your stamp on it. Concentrate on the basics just tell the story well don’t force things. It’s a bit like sports if you prepare and practice then execute during the game the results will take care of themselves. It is important to be aware of your background but often it only needs to be tweaked, different angle, shallow dof, light the subject so the background is darker. These are tweaks. Like acting when done well doesn’t draw attention to itself it’s natural.

[Josh Bass]

Right. At this stage all your questions should be about writing/plot/character and directing actors.

[Ryan Elder]

Oh okay. Well I talked to some others and they said that I should continue working on the same script as well, and still look for other scripts in the process, which I am also doing. I was also asked to co-direct another project, but if that project doesn't get funding, or I cannot find a better script to afford myself, I was still planning on this one either way. But I was told by others that I should stick to the crime thriller genre, since they said I would do better in that genre, directing style wise, if that's true.

As for why I haven't asked questions about directing actors and things like that, this site seemed more geared towards the cinematography and technical side of things, which is why I was asking those kinds of questions more so. But I thought I had to worry about that too, and not just acting and writing only.

[Pete Cofrancesco]

The color of wall is inconsequential compared to other aspects like the acting.

[Josh Bass]

Thats true, this is a more tech oriented forum but I’m sure there are writing/directing oriented message boards out there too...are you posting the same amount of those types of questions on there as you are technical stuff on here?

[Brian Drysdale]

You should know the type of story you're writing, if it's got a comic book style, that's very different to a crime thriller. A stylised comic book film is going to cost more in art direction/lighting than a realistic crime thriller.

Getting good performances in good, simple locations, with a well written script is the most you can hope for and that is tough enough.

[Paul R Johnson]

If you are using good actors, the people get immersed in the story.If they distract, they look for other things. you are NOT thinking like a movie consumer.