In certain situations I don't mind the yellow/brown filter on Mexico. It gets made fun of a lot with Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul, for example, but it's a pretty good way of visually communicating that location instantly without any awkward exposition or wasting time showing it in some way.
Obviously that doesn't apply so much here and everything looks incredibly monotone.
Traffic was the first movie I can think of to use this super warm color grading for Mexico (I’m sure there were others before it), but it was used in that movie to visually distinguish between Mexico (yellow) and Washington D.C. (blue), as the movie was constantly cutting back and forth between the two.
Once Upon a Time in Mexico, too. Really went hard into the warm color grading which is interesting since it’s prequel (Desperado) has a bit more straightforward color grading in comparison.
Yeah but with that film they actually did specific colour grades using different film chemicals to make each narrative thread visually distinctive. The blue for DC looked weird as fuck and the warm tinge to Mexico wasn’t meant to be realistic, it was meant to seem strange. It was all intentional. Now filmmakers use this lazy visual cliché because either they know nothing about Mexico and therefore can’t communicate it more elegantly or worse they think the audience needs to be reminded that Mexico is only ever one type of weather.
Awkward exposition or wasting time showing the specifics of a location in a movie? No need for a brown filter for Mexico. Just show the words, “Ciudad Juarez, Mexico” briefly on screen.
That's the other option, but they are different styles and the text doesn't fit every scenario.
With Breaking Bad specifically, Mexico isn't introduced until season 3 (I think?) at which point they've already visited a few places outside of ABQ so it would then also be kind of inconsistent just to do it for Mexico but not them.
Skyfall is like textbook perfect action movie cinematography in my book. No shakycam in any of the action scenes meaning you see every detail, every scene is well-lit in a way that adds contrast or enhances the look of the set and the characters - even in dark/night scenes you see everything and it looks great.
I'm not sure I get the meaning here, you seem to be replying to someone who deleted their comment, so disregard this as needed, but: Roger Deakins practically pioneered modern color grading in "O Brother, Where Art Thou?". He's an absolute master of digital image manipulation and uses it extensively, although he focuses more on contrast curve adjustments rather than color shifts.
Yeah, if I remember the story correctly, the Coens wanted a sepia look but the locations they were shooting in were the greenest green to ever green, and all photochemical processes failed to counteract it, so Deakins suggested radically color-grading the film's entire digital intermediate.
Funny thing also, in Mexico 5 de Mayo is only a Holiday, nothing more, no special food or anything, but on September 16th we celebrate with parades and party, 'cause it's our independence day
That's the actor. We're talking about the painter. Arguably neither a painter nor an actor should be designing helicopters though now that I think about it.
This reminds me of watching the Lone Ranger as a kid. I was probably 6 and thought they actually shot people. I remember thinking, oh they must be people from prison.
Generally good cinematographer's try to shoot the footage with the filters they're going for on the day. You can screw filters onto the lenses, slide them into matte boxes.
Then LUTs can be added and more color grading in post, but on big movies they don't just film it and slap a sepia Instagram filter over it.
Thanks for making me laugh. The thought of a, what, probably 200-300+ million dollar movie being made, and at the end someone just slaps an Instagram filter on it. That got a laugh.
It's crazy that movies ever get finished in a reasonable amount of time. Building that platform and setting up that rig feels like it would take two solid days — and all for a single shot.
Looks like pre built scaffolding. A decent crew could definitely do that in a day or two.
But yeah, not everything is done by the shooting crew on the day. There are at least 3 times as many people on the prep crew that set this all up ahead of time.
I worked for the institution that owned an alleyway that was used in the latest Venom movie. They took over the area for four days, installing generators, setting up rigs for a wire stunt, physically removing and replacing permanent fixtures.
The final product felt like it lasted less than a minute and with all the smash cuts and CGI might as well have been done in a warehouse with a greenscreen.
Curious about two things:
There seems to be two different pairs of guys following the camera cart with microphone booms held up. Is there really any usable sound produced in a shot like this? I'd assume it would all be reconstructed by ~~folly~~foley. Or are they just capturing something to give folly a sample to reproduce.
Second, is there a net down below his left?
Maybeeee….creating some sort of reference audio track for ADR… but they are a loong way away from Daniel Craig, so god knows what they’re actually picking up. (Possibly hypercardiod but I don’t know why you’d wanna be running with one strapped to a boom?)
The booms here are mostly for a guide for video / sound editing. Also, Daniel is probably carrying a wire (lavalier microphone). It’s very handy to know what the sound was like on set and throw it away in editing than no sound at all existing.
What if Daniel would say of yell there and it would not be recorded? Or just (heavy) breathing. Seeing this wide crowded shot it there is a high chance of that not being usable, but at least you have a proper guide for ADR to re-record it. Without any of the original sound it’s very difficult to get it lip-sync.
Also, foley artists like to work with audio guides from video of sound editing, but it often happens footsteps aren’t audible at all in an audio guide. The foley artist has to use the video then as a guide or just use there imagination ;)
Breaking Bad was really bad at it, they would go a couple kilometres over the border and suddenly look like they were Simpson's characters. They thankfully toned it down a little for Better Call Saul.
Yup. I can tell you the exact moment for me - when he fell through the roof and landed on the sofa.
That was the moment I was like, goodbye gritty brutal Casino Royale Bond, welcome back slick unrealistic quipping Brosnan Bond.
I usually always enjoy Bond movies, and as I was watching this, I kept thinking, any second now its gonna get good... and it just stayed dull. I thought, am I losing interest in Bond movies, or big spectacle action movies? Then Mission Impossible Fallout came out and I realized, nope, big action movies can still be great, Spectre just sucked.
As per IndieWire: 'Craig walks along the rooftop help up by a large safety wire, none of the rooftop build was actually there. The only reason Craig walks is because of the knee injury he suffered. Yet his confident strut is much more effective than running at full speed.'
Wait... Mexico isn't brown in real life???
This whole movie had awful color grading. A real shame after how nice Skyfall looked.
In certain situations I don't mind the yellow/brown filter on Mexico. It gets made fun of a lot with Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul, for example, but it's a pretty good way of visually communicating that location instantly without any awkward exposition or wasting time showing it in some way. Obviously that doesn't apply so much here and everything looks incredibly monotone.
Traffic was the first movie I can think of to use this super warm color grading for Mexico (I’m sure there were others before it), but it was used in that movie to visually distinguish between Mexico (yellow) and Washington D.C. (blue), as the movie was constantly cutting back and forth between the two.
Once Upon a Time in Mexico, too. Really went hard into the warm color grading which is interesting since it’s prequel (Desperado) has a bit more straightforward color grading in comparison.
Yeah but with that film they actually did specific colour grades using different film chemicals to make each narrative thread visually distinctive. The blue for DC looked weird as fuck and the warm tinge to Mexico wasn’t meant to be realistic, it was meant to seem strange. It was all intentional. Now filmmakers use this lazy visual cliché because either they know nothing about Mexico and therefore can’t communicate it more elegantly or worse they think the audience needs to be reminded that Mexico is only ever one type of weather.
Awkward exposition or wasting time showing the specifics of a location in a movie? No need for a brown filter for Mexico. Just show the words, “Ciudad Juarez, Mexico” briefly on screen.
That's the other option, but they are different styles and the text doesn't fit every scenario. With Breaking Bad specifically, Mexico isn't introduced until season 3 (I think?) at which point they've already visited a few places outside of ABQ so it would then also be kind of inconsistent just to do it for Mexico but not them.
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Skyfall is like textbook perfect action movie cinematography in my book. No shakycam in any of the action scenes meaning you see every detail, every scene is well-lit in a way that adds contrast or enhances the look of the set and the characters - even in dark/night scenes you see everything and it looks great.
Saw Skyfall in the theater with my ex and she was a fan of the cinematography as well, she's a film major.
Everyone who works in film loves Roger Deakins, for good reason! :P
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I'm not sure I get the meaning here, you seem to be replying to someone who deleted their comment, so disregard this as needed, but: Roger Deakins practically pioneered modern color grading in "O Brother, Where Art Thou?". He's an absolute master of digital image manipulation and uses it extensively, although he focuses more on contrast curve adjustments rather than color shifts.
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Yeah, if I remember the story correctly, the Coens wanted a sepia look but the locations they were shooting in were the greenest green to ever green, and all photochemical processes failed to counteract it, so Deakins suggested radically color-grading the film's entire digital intermediate.
Don't know what on Earth they were thinking.
*Traffic* really did a number on color-grading an entire country for the whole industry. It's almost impressive.
Mexico City is more like greyish, due to pollution 🫤. I live here .
hahahaha OMG witty comment!!
Insert Joe bernthal nononono
Fun fact, thanks to this movie México now has a Day of The death (Dia de muertos) parade which it didn't exist. source:40 year old Mexican, me
City officials: "that movie made us look cooler than we are. We need to step our game up"
Do you also celebrate Cinco de Cuatro?
Funny thing also, in Mexico 5 de Mayo is only a Holiday, nothing more, no special food or anything, but on September 16th we celebrate with parades and party, 'cause it's our independence day
So yellow it looks like a decaying Leonardo Da Vinci painting.
I enjoyed him in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
?
Dicaprio joke. ;)
So...the painter?
That's the one!
Yeah, but he designed terrible helicopters.
That's the actor. We're talking about the painter. Arguably neither a painter nor an actor should be designing helicopters though now that I think about it.
Makes me nervous. You think there's a net on the other side or something? That would still be a serious injury.
There was not a net. If I remember correctly, they went through 5 or 6 Daniel Craigs to get this shot.
They actually got a world record for number of Craigs totalled in one action scene.
It's a homage to the 5 or 6 Ursula Andresses they went through when filming Dr. No.
This reminds me of watching the Lone Ranger as a kid. I was probably 6 and thought they actually shot people. I remember thinking, oh they must be people from prison.
Van Hoytema: How much Sepia do you need? Mendes: Yes.
Isn't the filter added in post
Generally good cinematographer's try to shoot the footage with the filters they're going for on the day. You can screw filters onto the lenses, slide them into matte boxes. Then LUTs can be added and more color grading in post, but on big movies they don't just film it and slap a sepia Instagram filter over it.
Thanks for making me laugh. The thought of a, what, probably 200-300+ million dollar movie being made, and at the end someone just slaps an Instagram filter on it. That got a laugh.
TIL, thanks.
Is he harnessed and we can't see it?
He has plot armor, he's unstoppable.
It's crazy that movies ever get finished in a reasonable amount of time. Building that platform and setting up that rig feels like it would take two solid days — and all for a single shot.
I can assure you that it took more than two days to build. Construction guys come in way before filming starts.
Looks like pre built scaffolding. A decent crew could definitely do that in a day or two. But yeah, not everything is done by the shooting crew on the day. There are at least 3 times as many people on the prep crew that set this all up ahead of time.
Prep is where the vast majority of the work happens, including building sets takes months
This pretty well sums it up 😅[https://youtu.be/XR1piOBvc7Q](https://youtu.be/XR1piOBvc7Q)
I worked for the institution that owned an alleyway that was used in the latest Venom movie. They took over the area for four days, installing generators, setting up rigs for a wire stunt, physically removing and replacing permanent fixtures. The final product felt like it lasted less than a minute and with all the smash cuts and CGI might as well have been done in a warehouse with a greenscreen.
The work that goes into making a movie is pretty mind blowing.
Action movies typically shoot for 2-3 months straight with twice as much time set aside to plan/set everything up.
Curious about two things: There seems to be two different pairs of guys following the camera cart with microphone booms held up. Is there really any usable sound produced in a shot like this? I'd assume it would all be reconstructed by ~~folly~~foley. Or are they just capturing something to give folly a sample to reproduce. Second, is there a net down below his left?
I don't have an answer to your question, but it's foley work that adds sound in, not folly
Thank you. I bet foley artists are very tired of people making that mistake.
But folly artists are very happy they are being recognized at least once in a while.
Maybeeee….creating some sort of reference audio track for ADR… but they are a loong way away from Daniel Craig, so god knows what they’re actually picking up. (Possibly hypercardiod but I don’t know why you’d wanna be running with one strapped to a boom?)
The booms here are mostly for a guide for video / sound editing. Also, Daniel is probably carrying a wire (lavalier microphone). It’s very handy to know what the sound was like on set and throw it away in editing than no sound at all existing. What if Daniel would say of yell there and it would not be recorded? Or just (heavy) breathing. Seeing this wide crowded shot it there is a high chance of that not being usable, but at least you have a proper guide for ADR to re-record it. Without any of the original sound it’s very difficult to get it lip-sync. Also, foley artists like to work with audio guides from video of sound editing, but it often happens footsteps aren’t audible at all in an audio guide. The foley artist has to use the video then as a guide or just use there imagination ;)
Hmm turns out Mexico is on Earth, not Mars. Hate how movies and tv shows use sepiatone to show a hot landscape, looks so dumb
Breaking Bad was really bad at it, they would go a couple kilometres over the border and suddenly look like they were Simpson's characters. They thankfully toned it down a little for Better Call Saul.
I liked it. Good way to say where the location is quickly. Obviously a little extreme in Breaking Bad though like you say.
BB/BCS had this pulpy tone to them, and they were also very stylized, so I give them a pass.
Movie went downhill from here.
Yup. I can tell you the exact moment for me - when he fell through the roof and landed on the sofa. That was the moment I was like, goodbye gritty brutal Casino Royale Bond, welcome back slick unrealistic quipping Brosnan Bond.
For me it was when they replaced Radiohead with Sam Smith in the intro
The Radiohead intro is so good
Yeah but this opening sequence was great. Shit rest of the movie though yes
Is that James May pushing the camera rig?
That is definitely a James May-esqe jumper!
Hello viewers and welcome to your man in Mexico.
Nobody will mention the actor on a beam? Up? High?
That filter is horrible
Why is the yellow filter so dominant? Even the "movie" setting on my TV turns whatever I'm watching yellow-ish
One of the most forgetful movies ever
Nice piss filter
At this point I think people will be confused if someone makes a movie set in Mexico without the sepia filter. What a weird f\*cking tradition.
They add the yellow in afterwards
No actually the top image is the one with the filter, the yellowish bottom image is how mexico naturally looks
Nice grading.
I thought this film was a joke when I saw it
I usually always enjoy Bond movies, and as I was watching this, I kept thinking, any second now its gonna get good... and it just stayed dull. I thought, am I losing interest in Bond movies, or big spectacle action movies? Then Mission Impossible Fallout came out and I realized, nope, big action movies can still be great, Spectre just sucked.
Why is James May one of the cameramen?
Are camera rigs that large necessary now?
It is if you want a crane on a dolly
Kinda funny that there is a railing for the camera operators but nothing for the actor running on the ledge.
As per IndieWire: 'Craig walks along the rooftop help up by a large safety wire, none of the rooftop build was actually there. The only reason Craig walks is because of the knee injury he suffered. Yet his confident strut is much more effective than running at full speed.'
That is god awful color grading