the marcus nispel look at DVinfo.net

Dan Richards · March 8th, 2005, 12:30 PM

hello all

i have been trying to imatate the look of director nispel

for those who are unaware of marcus he curently directed the remake of texas chainsaw massacre

the specific look that i am trying to achieve can be viewd as the following links

http://www.texaschainsawmovie.com/

roll over evidence
click on video
click on "evidence" video

half way or so in the video
(after the black and white grainy footage)
there is a section that has a green glowy contrasty feel to the video - THIS IS THE LOOK im trying to imitate!

other ref.
http://www.usanetwork.com/movies/frankenstein/

and lastly
http://www.mtv.com/bands/az/bush/audvid.jhtml
scroll down and click on greedy fly

this i probobly the best example...very obvious look here

the look is a bit hard to describe ....

its rather contrasty but with some vivid colors at time...the footage has a bit of a glow to it and a seem to be rather clean rather than grainy...

a lot of monochromatic teal greenish hues throughout

and but seem to be very dependent on the set lighting and perhaps a lot of post effects i

im just curious if anyone has any intel on how this look is being done

thanks!

Stefan Scherperel · March 8th, 2005, 09:04 PM

The way that I would achive this look is to first, shoot your footage very flat. If you have master Ped control raise your black level so that you have as much detail as possible. Also, light your scene so that you are not blowing out any highlights.
You will then take your footage and duplicate the track, so that you have two tracks, one on top of the other, with the same footage on each. Take the top track and desaturate it completely. Your footage should now be black and white. Go to your composite mode for your tracks. Set your top track to overlay or hard light. Your footage will now have a very contrasty and colorfull look. YOu can adjust the opacity of the top track to get the contrast that you want. Then apply a curves adjustment to the bottom track, raise the green channel slightly until you have the green tint that you want. This final step depends on your NLE, but using vegas, I would apply the "sony glow" filter to the top or bottom layer, depending on the effect and adjust it until it gives me the highlight glow that I am looking for. You coul also apply it to the entire project and adjust it from there.

Jose di Cani · March 9th, 2005, 08:32 AM

Hi stefan scherperel,

I watched your website and my question is what cam do you use? I have downloaded all of your movies and I like your animated stuff. I also wanted to make a cartooon like movie in adobe after effects for a long time. I made some experiments and I like them. I make music myself with pc for 9 years, so I really like to do that stuff. I like the tower video a lot. The rest was just normal stuff. Great job and good luck,.

by the way : the stressed large movie I can't forward, but the rest of the movies I can.
The stressed video was very de-interlaced.

Stefan Scherperel · March 9th, 2005, 01:11 PM

Thanks for the kind words
For the animations I used Flash MX
SOme of the older movies were done with a Sony TRV 20. The quest for stress was shot with the same camera and also a Panasonic DVX100a.
I'm not sure what you mean about not being able to forward the stress movie. Are you unable to download it? What do you mean by de-interlaced? DId you watch the small version? Unfortunalty it is very compressed, as the film is about 8 min, so you might have been seing artifacting.
Thanks for the heads up, I will check those things out.

Jose di Cani · March 11th, 2005, 04:06 PM

hi,

I couldn't view the larher version of the stressed out movie,. I havent tried out the smalle one. Maybe it was a server problem. And I am thinking to buy a dvx as well next year when they are really cheap with the ithe introduction of the next lines of dvx. NO HD for me. Read bas reviews in articles about that technology. NO editing solutions yet.

I saw some de-interlaced, like those squared artifacts around straight lines. BUt it depends how you decode them. It didn't interfear with the viewin of the files. just a remark.

ok, goood luck man.

John Jay · March 14th, 2005, 11:37 AM

<<<-- Originally posted by Dan Richards : hello all

there is a section that has a green glowy contrasty feel to the video - THIS IS THE LOOK im trying to imitate!

its rather contrasty but with some vivid colors at time...the footage has a bit of a glow to it and a seem to be rather clean rather than grainy...

-->>>

Dan,

I believe this is a cross processing effect with a green tint but rather a true chem proceess it was likely done with a digital intermediate

check out the pdf manual 55mm filter set from and see the example for Cross Processing

http://www.digitalfilmtools.com/55mm-4/55mm4dwnld.php/55mm_manual_4.0.1.pdf?linklokauth=docs%2F55mm_manual_4.0.1.pdf%2C1110825248%2C1%2Cae599760989a655bda 3a9385a4607624

Nate Weaver · March 26th, 2005, 04:42 PM

Dan...

What you're seeing is not the result of some special, secret recipe. It's standard procedure when shooting film that's going to be transferred to video to impart a look using the "DaVinci". I make it sound mysterious and exotic in that context, but any high quality telecine facility has one in every telecine suite.

You take your film in, they put it on the machine, and you sit in a dark room with a colorist while they adjust, shot-by-shot, for the colors you want to see on tape. If you think Marcus Nispel's photography has a "look", then that look is the product of his DP and the colorist he uses...along with all the other people that contribute (art dept, etc).

If you want to replicate that look yourself, you can use the color-correction tools available in your NLE...Final Cut Pro has a color-correction filter that tries to approximate the control surface of a Davinci (in a very simple, elementary way), but by using multiple instances of the filter on one clip, and being patient with renders, you can do some great stuff.

Trying to get the look in the QT clip you linked to, I'd:

1-Desaturate about 70&
2-Swing the midtones towards cyan/green a lil
3-Make sure all the things you shoot don't have much color in them to begin with. David Fincher does a lot of this...he'll have art dept make a lot of walls, floors, furniture bordering on monochromatic, and then use color like punctuation. Combine things like that with a colorist, and you can get very creepy looks.

What you describe as "glowey" is not so much the result of a NLE (or telecine) filter making bright whites glow, but more the use of hazer during photography, with strong but large source backlights in some of the shots (hallway end blowing out, bank of flourescent lights or windows in evidence room). This is important to realize, because recognizing the difference between something physical that was done on front of the camera and something that was done with potentially gimmicky post filter separates the A-list people from the imposters.

A lot of the music-video looks in modern films relies on the DaVinci (or similar boxes), so the film goes through a "digital intermediate" like mentioned above. In other words, they scan the cut negative in to an HD-like format (but higher resolution), do the CC work electronically, and then do a film-out from that. Very expensive, but slowly becoming commonplace.

Anyway, my point was that it's not so much some exotic process to get "that look", it more just using the tools music video directors have had at their disposal from the get-go, and a creative colorist.

March 8th, 2005, 12:30 PM	#1
Dan Richards New Boot Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: dallas texas Posts: 10	the marcus nispel look hello all i have been trying to imatate the look of director nispel for those who are unaware of marcus he curently directed the remake of texas chainsaw massacre the specific look that i am trying to achieve can be viewd as the following links http://www.texaschainsawmovie.com/ roll over evidence click on video click on "evidence" video half way or so in the video (after the black and white grainy footage) there is a section that has a green glowy contrasty feel to the video - THIS IS THE LOOK im trying to imitate! other ref. http://www.usanetwork.com/movies/frankenstein/ and lastly http://www.mtv.com/bands/az/bush/audvid.jhtml scroll down and click on greedy fly this i probobly the best example...very obvious look here the look is a bit hard to describe .... its rather contrasty but with some vivid colors at time...the footage has a bit of a glow to it and a seem to be rather clean rather than grainy... a lot of monochromatic teal greenish hues throughout and but seem to be very dependent on the set lighting and perhaps a lot of post effects i im just curious if anyone has any intel on how this look is being done thanks!

March 8th, 2005, 09:04 PM	#2
Stefan Scherperel Major Player Join Date: Dec 2003 Location: Seattle WA Posts: 209	The way that I would achive this look is to first, shoot your footage very flat. If you have master Ped control raise your black level so that you have as much detail as possible. Also, light your scene so that you are not blowing out any highlights. You will then take your footage and duplicate the track, so that you have two tracks, one on top of the other, with the same footage on each. Take the top track and desaturate it completely. Your footage should now be black and white. Go to your composite mode for your tracks. Set your top track to overlay or hard light. Your footage will now have a very contrasty and colorfull look. YOu can adjust the opacity of the top track to get the contrast that you want. Then apply a curves adjustment to the bottom track, raise the green channel slightly until you have the green tint that you want. This final step depends on your NLE, but using vegas, I would apply the "sony glow" filter to the top or bottom layer, depending on the effect and adjust it until it gives me the highlight glow that I am looking for. You coul also apply it to the entire project and adjust it from there. __________________ Stefan Scherperel SSE Productions http://www.stefweb.net

March 9th, 2005, 01:11 PM	#4
Stefan Scherperel Major Player Join Date: Dec 2003 Location: Seattle WA Posts: 209	Thanks for the kind words For the animations I used Flash MX SOme of the older movies were done with a Sony TRV 20. The quest for stress was shot with the same camera and also a Panasonic DVX100a. I'm not sure what you mean about not being able to forward the stress movie. Are you unable to download it? What do you mean by de-interlaced? DId you watch the small version? Unfortunalty it is very compressed, as the film is about 8 min, so you might have been seing artifacting. Thanks for the heads up, I will check those things out. __________________ Stefan Scherperel SSE Productions http://www.stefweb.net

March 14th, 2005, 11:37 AM	#6
John Jay Major Player Join Date: Sep 2002 Location: US & THEM Posts: 827	Re: the marcus nispel look <<<-- Originally posted by Dan Richards : hello all there is a section that has a green glowy contrasty feel to the video - THIS IS THE LOOK im trying to imitate! its rather contrasty but with some vivid colors at time...the footage has a bit of a glow to it and a seem to be rather clean rather than grainy... -->>> Dan, I believe this is a cross processing effect with a green tint but rather a true chem proceess it was likely done with a digital intermediate check out the pdf manual 55mm filter set from and see the example for Cross Processing http://www.digitalfilmtools.com/55mm-4/55mm4dwnld.php/55mm_manual_4.0.1.pdf?linklokauth=docs%2F55mm_manual_4.0.1.pdf%2C1110825248%2C1%2Cae599760989a655bda 3a9385a4607624 __________________ John Jay Beware *PLUGGER-BYTES*

March 26th, 2005, 04:42 PM	#7
Nate Weaver Wrangler Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Los Angeles, CA Posts: 2,100	Color Correction... Dan... What you're seeing is not the result of some special, secret recipe. It's standard procedure when shooting film that's going to be transferred to video to impart a look using the "DaVinci". I make it sound mysterious and exotic in that context, but any high quality telecine facility has one in every telecine suite. You take your film in, they put it on the machine, and you sit in a dark room with a colorist while they adjust, shot-by-shot, for the colors you want to see on tape. If you think Marcus Nispel's photography has a "look", then that look is the product of his DP and the colorist he uses...along with all the other people that contribute (art dept, etc). If you want to replicate that look yourself, you can use the color-correction tools available in your NLE...Final Cut Pro has a color-correction filter that tries to approximate the control surface of a Davinci (in a very simple, elementary way), but by using multiple instances of the filter on one clip, and being patient with renders, you can do some great stuff. Trying to get the look in the QT clip you linked to, I'd: 1-Desaturate about 70& 2-Swing the midtones towards cyan/green a lil 3-Make sure all the things you shoot don't have much color in them to begin with. David Fincher does a lot of this...he'll have art dept make a lot of walls, floors, furniture bordering on monochromatic, and then use color like punctuation. Combine things like that with a colorist, and you can get very creepy looks. What you describe as "glowey" is not so much the result of a NLE (or telecine) filter making bright whites glow, but more the use of hazer during photography, with strong but large source backlights in some of the shots (hallway end blowing out, bank of flourescent lights or windows in evidence room). This is important to realize, because recognizing the difference between something physical that was done on front of the camera and something that was done with potentially gimmicky post filter separates the A-list people from the imposters. A lot of the music-video looks in modern films relies on the DaVinci (or similar boxes), so the film goes through a "digital intermediate" like mentioned above. In other words, they scan the cut negative in to an HD-like format (but higher resolution), do the CC work electronically, and then do a film-out from that. Very expensive, but slowly becoming commonplace. Anyway, my point was that it's not so much some exotic process to get "that look", it more just using the tools music video directors have had at their disposal from the get-go, and a creative colorist.

March 9th, 2005, 08:32 AM	#3
Jose di Cani Major Player Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: Holland, Europe Posts: 214	Hi stefan scherperel, I watched your website and my question is what cam do you use? I have downloaded all of your movies and I like your animated stuff. I also wanted to make a cartooon like movie in adobe after effects for a long time. I made some experiments and I like them. I make music myself with pc for 9 years, so I really like to do that stuff. I like the tower video a lot. The rest was just normal stuff. Great job and good luck,. by the way : the stressed large movie I can't forward, but the rest of the movies I can. The stressed video was very de-interlaced.

March 11th, 2005, 04:06 PM	#5
Jose di Cani Major Player Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: Holland, Europe Posts: 214	hi, I couldn't view the larher version of the stressed out movie,. I havent tried out the smalle one. Maybe it was a server problem. And I am thinking to buy a dvx as well next year when they are really cheap with the ithe introduction of the next lines of dvx. NO HD for me. Read bas reviews in articles about that technology. NO editing solutions yet. I saw some de-interlaced, like those squared artifacts around straight lines. BUt it depends how you decode them. It didn't interfear with the viewin of the files. just a remark. ok, goood luck man.