Got my Warm Cards today!

[Charles Papert]

Jumping in on Simon and Wayne's discussion:

I have just returned from a telecine session for a short film that I shot a couple of years ago (yup, two whole years, how painful is that). We shot on Super 35, and about six months ago we timed our answer print. During that process I gave the timer notes on the printer lights, which are any or all combinations of red, green and blue. Bringing one down will change the hue, bringing all down will darken the image. The timer goes back and strikes another print, you come in a few days later and give another series of notes, and eventually you say "good enough". And that's about all you can do with a film print.

In today's session on a DaVinci, we made further adjustments to density and color value, but they were immediately viewable. We also adjusted color values to particular sections of the frame, we dropped in "power windows" that selectively darkened parts of the image, we rode density levels within shots. We created subtle changes in saturation and tone that occurred over multiple shots in a sequence.

In a perfect world, some of these fixes would have happened on set. In reality, few DP's have the luxury to fix everything to their satisfaction. Digital post allows one the opportunity to finish your job, sometimes to augment your original vision in ways that are unlikely or impossible to achieve on set for one reason or another (in my world, it's usually budgetary!)

There's a tremendous amount of power in this process. The important thing is that it remain in the appropriate hands--if the DP is to be trusted to capture the visuals, he/she should be the one to see them through to completion. Shooting flat-lit elements on green screen and having computer artists process them into whatever they choose to is filmmaking by committee, and a sad turn of events.

The digital era of filmmaking brings many wonderful and exciting possibilities as I have described above (couldn't be happier with what we did today, and after two years my original vision is finally realized!) but the "dark side" looms. And the fact remains that the better the original material, the better it will be once it goes through the knob-twiddling; polishing a turd just nets you a shinier turd.

[Rob Lohman]

To add to Charles' perfect notes: one can also try to make it "too"
perfect. Fiddle with it too much. But overal I think we have amazing
post tools available. I've had the pleasure (which is quite rare
in this country) to see some Da Vinci sessions on last years IBC
here. It is an amazing system for color corrections. I could not
believe what they could do in a matter of minutes/seconds.
And they also did it on HD footage which I was watching on
a professional 16:9 HD monitor.... that was just sweet to watch!

[Yonathan Gal]

Hi there people.

I'm really iterested in getting these cards.

However, would I get the digital pack ($45) or the regualar pack with large and small for $65?

I'm using a 3ccd mini dv cam, so I guess the $45 version, right? What would I need bigger ones for?

Does anyone know how long this company takes to post them internationally? Thanks very much :)

[John Locke]

Hello Yonathan,

I had mine sent to Japan, and I think it took about 10 days from order to delivery.

I got the small and large kit...and turns out I use the large most of the time. Just my preference.

[Yonathan Gal]

thanks very much for that info John. I'm still not sure which kit to go for, but cheers for the info :)

[Jay Gladwell]

Yonathan, just putting in my two cents: I would opt for the larger set. It's always best to have more than you need, rather than need more and not have it.

The smaller cards will always require you to get closer in order to get the proper reading (fill the screen). The larger cards will afford you the "elbow room" the smaller ones won't.

[Yonathan Gal]

cheers Jay.

I still don't completely udnerstand the concept actually...

This is what I udnerstand so far:

Everytime you arrive on a new location with diferent light, you should look at the colour and then re set the white balance using the approrpriate warm card, whichever makes the image look nicest.

This is done by clicking set white balance, at which time on my sony it flashes for a few seconds until its got the white balance and then its all done. so during this time, I need to hold up the card to cover 90% of the screen, right? so why not just hold the small one close up? Or does it have to be at a distance? I'm sure im midunderstood about soething here. thanks for all your help! :)

I made my own. They work great.

In CorelDraw, Photoshop or whatever, just print out card stock colored with the following CMYK (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow & Black)values (in percentages):

Warm 1: C/15 M/2 K5

Warm 2: C/20 M/10 K10

Warm 1/2: C/7 M1/K2

Minus Green (works great removing flourescent tint): C/10 Y/10 K2

1/2 Minus Green: C/5 Y/5/K1

Or, if you enjoy that blue video look, just white balance to white.

[Yonathan Gal]

Charles:


Thanks for the info. I'm just not sure, I man, would they really work aswell as he warm cards? the largest I can print is A4, would it really have the same effect?

Yonathan:

I don't know what A-4 is. I did two sets, one 8 1/2 X 11 inches, the other half that size. Anything larger would be a problem for my camera bag.

As far as doing the same job... I admit I estimated the values. But I did so by comparing what I printed out to those on the retail set. My cost on the set I made was less than two dollars (including the lamination). The retail set is $90.00. You decide.

Mine work great.

[Jay Gladwell]

Yes, Yonathan, you've got the basics of it. Although I fill 100% of the screen, not wanting to leave anything to chance.

The use of such cards, with maybe the exception of the minus green, is to enhance (warm) the image's overall tone. Many people don't like the "cool" image that is had with digital video. Hence, they look for ways to "warm" it up a little.

The problem is, of course, when you warm the flesh tone using the cards, you warm everything. And in some situations, you may not want everything "warm."

In a "dramatic/narrative" video, you might have shot some exteriors, or interiors for that matter with natural light) in the late afternoon or very early evening when the sun's color temperature was "warm." You could, with testing, shoot the following shots the next day, earlier in the day using the warm cards to approximate the "warmth" (color temperature) of the material you had shoot the evening before--just one example.

The uses of such cards are limited by your taste and your imgination.

[Yonathan Gal]

Thanks.

For the video I'm making I can barely picture one scene where I wouldn't want vibrant, saturated and vivid colours...

It's mostly set in the Caribbean, on beaches, dirt roads, etc... lots of sunrises, sunsets aswell as mid day shots in the heat of the day. So I guess that warm cards and filters are the way to go? :)

[Bryan Beasleigh]

The code works like a charm for the warm 1 and 2. The warm 1/2 is coming out almost purple. I haven't tested it on my monitor yet.

To convert to RGB from CMYK go to colorsnob

http://www.bauser.com/websnob/color/...8=&M8=&Y8=&K8=

It'll give you the hex codes for RGB

Edit
I changed the value for magenta to 2 for the 1/2 and I got a better result. The CMYK formula wouldn't convert on the CMYK to RGB conversion program.

[Adrian Douglas]

Charles,

A-4 is the standard printer paper size. In inches it's approx 8 1/4 x 11 1/2. In the US it's commonly called "letter" size.

[Yonathan Gal]

hehe cheers for cleaning that up :) I can never remember the measurements! :)