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Trying to acheive 60’s Mad Men look with 7D
My client wants to acheive a Mad Men type look – early 60’s, Trauffaut, polaroid-ish, lowered saturation, slight green hue, with bright red accents. Shooting on 5d/7d, location is a beach.
Is that something they can, or should shoot for? Or should all the work be done in post?
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5 Replies
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Sure, that’s entirely possible… and possible with a camera such as the 5D.
Not so much is riding on the camera choices though, as it is on the other choices you have to make. Watch Mad Men very closely… they have developed a very specific filmic language that gives it the look. Look at the framing, the camera blocking, lens and shot selection… they have a set of rules that their directors follow. The same goes for the editing (there was a great article about the editor of Mad Men earlier this year in POST magazine).
The next important choices will be lighting. The cinematography of MM is very specific, and a little unusual. It’s neither truly accurate for the period of the show (not as if the show was shot in the early 60s, not Hollywood “glamor” lighting), nor is it quite modern. It’s a bit of a hybrid of the two. I love analyzing the lighting plots in each scene.
As for all the color grading and that part of the look you are going for… that can be handled easily in post. Almost any good color correction software or plugin can help you with that, but I’d say specifically Magic Bullet Looks would be very helpful in giving you that look and feel.
And for course, before even the first frame is shot… the right production design.
Good luck!… what a fun project.
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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My suggestion – shoot as flat as you can (and record all details nicely) and apply CC in post. Once recorded with specific filters, you can’t do much.
Analyzing MM in terms of lighting, blocking and framing is another great suggestion (as above).
Richard van den Boogaard
cameraman / editor / video marketing consultantBranded Channels
W: http://www.brandedchannels.com -
You will notice if you look at the show, that the highlights are almost always pulled down. There is almost never burnout of any kind. The image is not flat, it is punchy and with contrast as well as saturation, but it is lit to keep the highlights well with the dynamic range of most modern TV sets.
Other than that, deco, deco, deco.
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[Clayton Burkhart] “Other than that, deco, deco, deco.”
Nooooo….not deco. Art Deco was still around to a degree in the 1960s, but all of the MadMen stuff is Mid-century Modern, baby!
Sorry, I’m a stickler for that 🙂 I looooove Mid-Century Modern… that’s what all the furniture in my house and office is.
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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By deco, I was not referring to Art Deco, I was referring to deco, as in the team that puts together the set.
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