How Did Hollywood Erase the Difference Between Film and Digital?
Seigher Brown
21,914 views
How did the film look survive the transition from photochemical film to digital cinema?
This video explores the history of film emulation and how filmmakers learned to recreate the color, contrast, grain, halation, texture, and tonal response traditionally associated with motion-picture film.
The story begins with Westworld, one of the earliest films to convert photographed footage into numerical data. It continues through Kodak’s Cineon system, the rise of the digital intermediate, film-print emulation LUTs, digital cinematography, FilmConvert, Steve Yedlin’s Display Prep Demo, and the custom image pipeline behind Knives Out.
As cinema moved away from film capture, the film look became something filmmakers could measure, separate, and rebuild inside a computer. Color response, contrast, grain, halation, gate weave, and laboratory processes could now be applied to footage captured on a digital sensor.
0:00 How Digital Learned to Look Like Film
0:23 Westworld and Early Digital Imaging
0:32 Kodak Cineon and the Digital Film Workflow
1:27 Pleasantville and the Rise of Digital Processing
1:50 O Brother, Where Art Thou? and the Digital Intermediate
2:35 How Film Print Emulation LUTs Work
3:16 Film Looks Enter Consumer Software
3:46 Shutter Island and Custom Film Emulation
4:11 Digital Cameras and the ARRI Alexa
4:39 How FilmConvert Recreated Film Stocks
6:18 Steve Yedlin’s Display Prep Demo
6:45 How Knives Out Recreated Film Digitally
7:44 Film Emulation for Independent Filmmakers
8:08 How the Film Look Became Digital
8:41 FilmConvert and Closing Credits
Topics covered:
The history of the film look
The history of film emulation
How digital footage is made to look like film
Westworld and early digital image processing
Kodak Cineon and the Cinesite Digital Film Center
The history of the digital intermediate
Pleasantville and digital color processing
O Brother, Where Art Thou? and the digital intermediate
Film-print emulation LUTs
How LUTs work
Magic Bullet Looks
Shutter Island and custom film-inspired LUTs
ARRI Alexa color science
FilmConvert and camera-specific film profiles
Steve Yedlin’s Display Prep Demo
How Knives Out recreated the film look
Film grain, halation, gate weave, and tonal response
The difference between film emulation and a simple film LUT
Search topics:
film look, film emulation, cinematic film look, how to make digital look like film, digital film look, film look color grading, film emulation color grading, film grain, film halation, film texture, film emulation LUT, film print emulation, film print emulation LUT, Kodak Cineon, digital intermediate, ARRI Alexa film look, FilmConvert, FilmConvert Nitrate, Steve Yedlin, Knives Out cinematography, digital cinema history, color grading history, film color science, analog film look, 35mm film look
Subscribe for more documentaries about cinematography, filmmaking technology, digital cameras, cinema lenses, color grading, and the history behind how movies are made.
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https://bit.ly/44O7j4K
Use code SEIGHER10 to save 10% on your order.
#FilmLook #FilmEmulation #Cinematography
A huge thank you to FilmConvert for sponsoring this video!
20 Comments
Would love to see a video explaining how each facet of the cinematographic process (colors, tone, contrast, exposure, etc.) affects the image.
It's also an honor to have the first comment on the video.
As genius & intelligent as it is, to show these options to alter digital into a "film look" the only true way to this outcome is to use Film.
There are aspects to darkroom film photography that are so precise that a difference in the degree of water temperature used or an extra agitation of the film tank could shift the colors or tonal range in a roll of film to something unpredictable: these aspects could not be replicated in digital.
Continue with the fun & education of enjoying the experiments but Film is Film.
Continued Success to you. Enjoy your weekend.
Planet terror and the Holdovers is a good example of what I mean.
Which is not to say that digital has no value. Michael Mann lets his digital images look digital, with miles of dynamic range and digital grain all over the place. His digital night skies look electric and iridescent in a way that is both unique and familiar, and he intentionally avoids simulating a film aesthetic. That's a great use case for digital.
But if someone's just shooting digital to save money, whether their budget is $1M or $100M, I'll call them cheap. If you want it to look like film, just spend the money and do it on film. I don't like slow cars with fake spoilers, I don't like wood houses with fake stone facades, I don't like vinyl pretending to be leather, I don't like plastic pretending to be metal, and I don't like digital pretending to be film. I just don't like anything pretending to be something it's not.
Hi-res video is fantastic don't get me wrong, I have multiple high definition video cameras and I love them but they don't and can't produce the look of film.
How Did Hollywood Erase the Difference Between Film and Digital?
Seigher Brown
21,914 views
How did the film look survive the transition from photochemical film to digital cinema?
This video explores the history of film emulation and how filmmakers learned to recreate the color, contrast, grain, halation, texture, and tonal response traditionally associated with motion-picture film.
The story begins with Westworld, one of the earliest films to convert photographed footage into numerical data. It continues through Kodak’s Cineon system, the rise of the digital intermediate, film-print emulation LUTs, digital cinematography, FilmConvert, Steve Yedlin’s Display Prep Demo, and the custom image pipeline behind Knives Out.
As cinema moved away from film capture, the film look became something filmmakers could measure, separate, and rebuild inside a computer. Color response, contrast, grain, halation, gate weave, and laboratory processes could now be applied to footage captured on a digital sensor.
0:00 How Digital Learned to Look Like Film
0:23 Westworld and Early Digital Imaging
0:32 Kodak Cineon and the Digital Film Workflow
1:27 Pleasantville and the Rise of Digital Processing
1:50 O Brother, Where Art Thou? and the Digital Intermediate
2:35 How Film Print Emulation LUTs Work
3:16 Film Looks Enter Consumer Software
3:46 Shutter Island and Custom Film Emulation
4:11 Digital Cameras and the ARRI Alexa
4:39 How FilmConvert Recreated Film Stocks
6:18 Steve Yedlin’s Display Prep Demo
6:45 How Knives Out Recreated Film Digitally
7:44 Film Emulation for Independent Filmmakers
8:08 How the Film Look Became Digital
8:41 FilmConvert and Closing Credits
Topics covered:
The history of the film look
The history of film emulation
How digital footage is made to look like film
Westworld and early digital image processing
Kodak Cineon and the Cinesite Digital Film Center
The history of the digital intermediate
Pleasantville and digital color processing
O Brother, Where Art Thou? and the digital intermediate
Film-print emulation LUTs
How LUTs work
Magic Bullet Looks
Shutter Island and custom film-inspired LUTs
ARRI Alexa color science
FilmConvert and camera-specific film profiles
Steve Yedlin’s Display Prep Demo
How Knives Out recreated the film look
Film grain, halation, gate weave, and tonal response
The difference between film emulation and a simple film LUT
Search topics:
film look, film emulation, cinematic film look, how to make digital look like film, digital film look, film look color grading, film emulation color grading, film grain, film halation, film texture, film emulation LUT, film print emulation, film print emulation LUT, Kodak Cineon, digital intermediate, ARRI Alexa film look, FilmConvert, FilmConvert Nitrate, Steve Yedlin, Knives Out cinematography, digital cinema history, color grading history, film color science, analog film look, 35mm film look
Subscribe for more documentaries about cinematography, filmmaking technology, digital cameras, cinema lenses, color grading, and the history behind how movies are made.
Try FilmConvert Nitrate:
https://bit.ly/44O7j4K
Use code SEIGHER10 to save 10% on your order.
#FilmLook #FilmEmulation #Cinematography
A huge thank you to FilmConvert for sponsoring this video!