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Getting the ‘ARRI’ look (xpost from colour grading)
Hi all
I’ve been trying to get the kind of look used in tv shows such as HBO’s ‘Girls’ and Netflix’s ‘Flaked’ for the past few months and I’m struggling. I’m not sure if i have the right kit if I’m honest, so it might be a lost cause, but here goes.
I have a Sony FS7, DaVinci Resolve as well as the Adobe Creative Cloud suite. I’ve got a couple of decent Canon lenses (24-70mm, 100mm Macro and a couple of cheaper primes). I also have a Black Magic Cinema Camera. All the cameras shoot LOG and I have tried various preset configs of log on the Sony. How do i go about getting that milky (but still with contrast), pastel coloured, soft but still sharp look? I’m assuming it’s a mixture of camera set-up, lens choice, lighting and post, but I really don’t know.
It’s the colours that particularly ‘get’ me about these productions – all the tones are muted, but not de-saturated, just pastel and soft.
For reference, here is the trailer for Girls – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rjz6tKEkCPA
and here is a clip from Flaked – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKOpvm7BcOoAny help will be greatly welcomed and appreciated!
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12 Replies
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i don’t want to get stuck on any one NLE, so..
the first clip is mostly just low contrast, no -s curve. shot with sharpen off or find edges blurred to remove any edges.
darks raised to 20 ire, highlights lowered to 80 ire.the bottom is a little more contrast. and both top and bottom clips have the matte tint reds as pink and tint shadows/or everything else as blue/green. this makes skin not look sickly in digital cameras and helps isolate actors from frame.
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Hi Chris
Thanks for your reply. It’s really useful to know. Would you please mind explaining a little more about what you mean when you said “matte tint reds as pink and tint shadows”.
Many thanks
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if there’s any red in the pixel, its given a weighted matte. more red equals less translucency on the matte.
inverted matte of that is everything that isn’t skin tone red, is tinted blue/green. -
Ok, thanks. I’m not sure I get it, but that’s my issue – I’ll work it out.
It’s great to know what the principals of the footage are tho. Cheers.
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[josef brett] ” I’m assuming it’s a mixture of camera set-up, lens choice, lighting and post, but I really don’t know.”
You’re right, a big part of that look comes from the lighting. Powerful lights bounced off of bead board (or whatever) into a few levels of diffusion (silk, tough spun, etc) gives you that creamy light quality that makes skin look nice. Same with outdoor shots, strong sunlight bounced off of a reflector into silk can really bring your subject to life. What do you normally use for lighting?
Shawn
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if you need some clues, here’s a template I made a while back in after effects
enable the layer-tint red matte highlight and shadows
https://f1.creativecow.net/9780/ae-technicolor-cc-2015 -
They may also be using a bit of filtration on GIRLS, like a 1/4 Black ProMist or something to soften the look and glamorize it a bit. You can do some of this to a point with OFX filters in Resolve (or any other full-featured color-correction program), but a lot of it is truly the lighting, makeup, art direction, and costuming. That having been said, I’m a big fan of the Tiffen GlimmerGlass filter (both the actual filter for lenses and the plug-in).
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Hi Chris – that’s great thanks. I’ll have a good look at that. it looks interesting and very well put together. Thanks.
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Hi Shawn. Yeah, I thought lights would would be a big part of it. We don’t have great lights. We have LED light panels (2 of these and 3 spotlight versions – https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1012483-REG/litepanels_903_1063_1_x_1_ls.html).
We don’t really have anything to diffuse the lights. We have reflectors, but the light then doesn’t go through anything.
What kind of lights and diffusion do you use/recommend please?
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Thank you. I really appreciate all the advice and insight on this forum!
I’ll look into the filter you mentioned.
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