I appreciate what the director and yourself are trying to do, but for me the color cinema release looks better. Personally, i find B+W looks best when pushed to its limits. A lot of contrast, lot’s of hard light and dark shadows e.g. Sin City. The B+W grade for Logan obviously won’t look as awesome as it could’ve because as you say the studio wouldn’t let Mr. Mangold do B+W. Now, that being said, I think John Mathieson really outdid himself. Even though the cinema release is in color, he was able to make it look noir-ish. It has the features/elements I mentioned(high contrast, hard light and dark shadows). I think I can confidently say that they managed to achieve the noir look even with color.
I can see where you’re coming from. And I’m not sure I disagree with you. When you don’t have a higher contrast visual aesthetic sometimes black and white can just look kind of muddy.
I’ll be posting “Fury Road: Black and Chrome Edition” soon. You might like that. I feel like the Black and White is a little more contrasty. Keep checking back. I’m hoping to post it soon.
I very much look forward to your post on Fury Road: Black and Chrome edition. Black and chrome…not black and white…my expectations are already raised. I really appreciated the color palette on Fury Road. It’s grading was pushed to 11! So I imagine the “Black+Chrome” will be bonkers
As for achieving a noir look but in color…I think a perfect example is the X-Files, esp the earlier seasons. It used to air on Tv in Kenya when I was little so I wasn’t able to appreciate it back then. But now when I’m older and interested in cinema, I’ve been watching it from the beginning. I’m halfway through season 3 and cinematography-wise, I’ve been blown away by majority of shots. X-Files’ unique cinematography lends it a mood and atmosphere.
One more thing (sorry for inundating you with my comments), I love your posts on cinematography. Keep it up. You’ve really enriched my tastes in the kind of cinema I now watch. Also; your posts show what fantastic filmmakers are capable of producing when they put their minds to it. Moreso esp in this day and age of lowest-common-denominator/by-the-numbers filmmaking. Your posts show what we’re at risk of losing as both filmmakers and audiences.
I’m hoping to post another comparison of the B & W images soon. It’ll be a comparison of the original color images with just a simple B&W filter added and then the Logan Noir images. That way you can see how the B&W images were processed from the original color. When contrast/brightness was added, when power windows were added to lighten/darken certain areas of the images, that sort of thing.
Thanks so much for your work! I have been searching web for site like this for weeks.Finally, i found it.My favorite movies shot by shot, great idea. Logan was fricking beatifull, not just because of the cinematography, but because it was just great story and overall vision.
9 Responses
I LOVE YOUR WORK!! PLEASE NEVER STOP DOING THIS!!!
I appreciate what the director and yourself are trying to do, but for me the color cinema release looks better. Personally, i find B+W looks best when pushed to its limits. A lot of contrast, lot’s of hard light and dark shadows e.g. Sin City. The B+W grade for Logan obviously won’t look as awesome as it could’ve because as you say the studio wouldn’t let Mr. Mangold do B+W. Now, that being said, I think John Mathieson really outdid himself. Even though the cinema release is in color, he was able to make it look noir-ish. It has the features/elements I mentioned(high contrast, hard light and dark shadows). I think I can confidently say that they managed to achieve the noir look even with color.
I can see where you’re coming from. And I’m not sure I disagree with you. When you don’t have a higher contrast visual aesthetic sometimes black and white can just look kind of muddy.
I’ll be posting “Fury Road: Black and Chrome Edition” soon. You might like that. I feel like the Black and White is a little more contrasty. Keep checking back. I’m hoping to post it soon.
I very much look forward to your post on Fury Road: Black and Chrome edition. Black and chrome…not black and white…my expectations are already raised. I really appreciated the color palette on Fury Road. It’s grading was pushed to 11! So I imagine the “Black+Chrome” will be bonkers
As for achieving a noir look but in color…I think a perfect example is the X-Files, esp the earlier seasons. It used to air on Tv in Kenya when I was little so I wasn’t able to appreciate it back then. But now when I’m older and interested in cinema, I’ve been watching it from the beginning. I’m halfway through season 3 and cinematography-wise, I’ve been blown away by majority of shots. X-Files’ unique cinematography lends it a mood and atmosphere.
One more thing (sorry for inundating you with my comments), I love your posts on cinematography. Keep it up. You’ve really enriched my tastes in the kind of cinema I now watch. Also; your posts show what fantastic filmmakers are capable of producing when they put their minds to it. Moreso esp in this day and age of lowest-common-denominator/by-the-numbers filmmaking. Your posts show what we’re at risk of losing as both filmmakers and audiences.
I learned a ton by just comparing every two shots and comparing how they treated value in black and white and color.
Thank you for this awesome post.
I’m hoping to post another comparison of the B & W images soon. It’ll be a comparison of the original color images with just a simple B&W filter added and then the Logan Noir images. That way you can see how the B&W images were processed from the original color. When contrast/brightness was added, when power windows were added to lighten/darken certain areas of the images, that sort of thing.
Keep checking back!
Thanks so much for your work! I have been searching web for site like this for weeks.Finally, i found it.My favorite movies shot by shot, great idea. Logan was fricking beatifull, not just because of the cinematography, but because it was just great story and overall vision.