The dead eater - a bit gothic short movie

[Michele Coser]

Well, this is a short i'm making with a friend. This is not the right title but "The dead eater" is the local legend on we based the story.
We already started shooting the first sequences but the clothing where all wrong. The initial idea was to not clearly specify a period, but for sure is something beetween 1890 and 1930. We avoid anything modern, like cars, 20th century houses....

Here are some test screen grabs, before and after a color correction i done in Premiere (an old version). Is like a cross process but more desaturated.

[Piotr Zubik]

Wow, Michele. I must say these sample pics impress me. I'm no proffesional, I just make shorts for myself but what I can judge from these several grabs:
1) Lighting - dramatic and looks very good.
2) I like the color correction - subtle yet making big difference. Cold, desaturated and contrasty is what I like. I don't know if it looks like it was shot on the tape but for me it does create a 'filmlike' feeling.
3) Going this way I think you will preety close to make your setting in the past very atmospheric.
4) Congrats on standard premiere color corrector - IMHO requires much more skill than e.g. Magic Bullet Looks to get good results. Personally, I went with MB since I had no skill and patience to deal with imprecise controls of standard tools.

Generally, it is the kind of shots that I would like to be mine :)
Well done!

BTW When can we expect the finished film?

Piotr

[Chris Hurd]

Moved from Canon XL2 to Show Your Work.

Looks great!

[Michele Coser]

Thanks for the comments.
This is a very low budget project, small crew (basically me -shooting- and the director, often some other guys to help).
I decided too use this color correction only on day external scenes. I'm not really a DP, but i'm learning as much as possibile and i try to do my best to get a good result.
I took inspiration from deviantart.com, searching for images that range gothic to surreal theme. I'm sure i cannot reach the level of those images, but is just to get a reference point.
I'm using a standard XL2, sometimes just with a gradual ND for the sky; i plan to not go handheld (unless time and work restriction) and take a more classical approach.

[Michele Coser]

Shooting - day 2

I brought some old clothes. Not so old that they are from the last century, obviously, but enough to work better. I'm not really 100% happy about the look of the main character, but is better than previously (the first day the actor wore a pair of Etnies, cargo pants and an adidas wind jacket...). It made him look a bit like Harry Potter (maybe it was the scarf...).
Anyway those scenes are shot for the title sequences. The title has changed, and it will be probably something like "The sleep of the dead"
I found also the Pirates of the Caribbean font that i think is nearly perfect for the titles.

The grabs are resized, only the tile ones are in original size.

[Michele Coser]

Here are some other grabs to show the look and to test diffrent color correction on the character skin

The first close up grab is a raw image; the second is CC using the same curves as the previous post grabs, the third is another version of a cross process simulation. In the fourth grab the RGB curve is a shaped more like the film one and desaturated by the 50%; the last one is a "domino style" cross process

I still undecided what is better; i really like the fourth grab look, wich is probably the more simpler.

[Piotr Zubik]

Hi Michele

For me it's either second or third closeup that I really like in terms of CC...possibly the second's the best since 3rd may be a little bit to harsh.

What's more, I like some of your shots in a Halloween style - there's a branch or bush out of focus on the first plane, which I think in film like this creates a feeling of uncertainity or some hidden fear that somebody's watching.

And thanks for full size grabs, it's easier to judge your video's quality and see details.

Piotr

[Michele Coser]

Working on some props:

Since we have a scene where a news-vendor sells the latest edition of the newspaper, we need a newspaper reporting about the thing that start the whole story. I seached for photos of old newspaper and tried to replicate the style with Corel Draw. Each page is an A4, but it will be copied (and magnified) to an A3; than the four faces copied again on an A2. If i'm right, in the end i got a double faced A2. I see if i can find some yellowish paper or something that can look old. Here is some pic of the test:

[Michele Coser]

New frames from day 3 Unfortunatly we shot only a afternoon for week, so progress is slow.

The major allowed us to shoot into the old cemetary. We are going toward spring-summer so everyday is more difficult find cloudy days.

The last two frames are from day 4, shooting the exterior and interior of a church. Luckly the restoration work on the exterior ended a few days before.

The problem is that this small town is relatively new, and there are only few stone or ancient houses or building.

[Michele Coser]

Here are some raw and cc frame grabs. The prblem i got with cloudy days is that if you do a manual white balance everything get out a bit greenish. To me, the exterior balance on the xl2 give a more pleasing skin tone but the whites go out blueish.