Why are Modern Movies SO DARK? Colorist's Insights
HTML-код
- Опубликовано: 27 июл 2024
- Cheap TVs can't show the modern color grading nuances.
Qazi's Toolkit Has Arrived: qazistoolkit.com
Freelance Colorist: bit.ly/49zuShM
FREE Webinar: bit.ly/39OdiKi
Practice Footage: bit.ly/3R1y3bs
Business inquiries: waqasqazi.com/book
If you have been frustrated lately watching night scenes and can barely determine what's happening on the screen, this video has the answer.
TIMESTAMPS
0:00 Did you notice...?
0:38 The Classic Horror Look
2:29 Modern Day Horror Look
5:00 Why SOO Dark?
8:24 Pro TIPS on Creating Horror Looks
9:13 Analyze. Analyze. Analyze.
9:37 My Final Thoughts
ABOUT ME
I'm Waqas Qazi, founder and senior colorist at Qazi & Co. I have worked with PRIME VIDEO, ADIDAS, TOYOTA, VIZIO, etc. My mission is to share industry secrets by making fun and practical videos on color grading.
My Work: waqasqazi.com/
IMDb: imdb.to/3rIm493
For Hire - Sponsorship - 1:1 Coaching
waqasqazi.com/book
SOCIAL
Podcast: spoti.fi/3Y4XU4A
Instagram: / theqazman
TikTok: / qazmanofficial
Threads: www.threads.net/@theqazman
#waqasqazi #horrorlook #colorgrading 
Хобби
Blade Runner (1982) every scene is a night scene, indoors or the city street. And this is one of the best cinematography in the world. And there are not pale, faded, ugly, muddied frames.
Blade Runner 1982 was a masterpiece so I can't argue with you on that. I do like that unapologetic style of cinematography and post processing.
And this masterpiece was readable on every tv in the world.
The first time you put The Ring and the contemporary look side by side it took me a couple of seconds to realize that current look was NOT ungraded log 😅
Footage today is graded within an inch of it's life. Monochromatic. Low contrast. Dim. Very soon it's going to look as dated as the exaggerated teal/orange look. I prefer the color and contrast you find in classic horror like The Shining or The Thing. Or Dario Argento! Give me some unmotivated mood lighting.
I do not disagree with you. You made some great points.
Specialized look was justifiable, when it was "you can expirience it only at movie theater", but if you can see the actual image only on certain screen type that is owned by a small margin of audience, while streaming studios make this look standardized, it becomes just an obvious share of profit between screen manufacturers and streaming app they partnered with. Caravaggio and Fuseli can't turn themselves into Malevich if the screen isn't technological enough.
All fair points. At times it is a bit much.
Darker = cheaper. The more pixels are in the shadow the less work the crew need to do. Modern horror movies (not thrillers) are always low budget. Big budget horror movies are in the past. "The Sixth Sense" (1999) for example
Its funny to hear the average film camera had 12 stops of dynamic range and now people say 13 stops are not enough but aiming for the "filmic" look...
Exactly
Most of The Ring's look was baked into the footage using filters.
A lot of people don't realise this, because of when it came out, the assumption is that it's an example of early DI when in actual fact, it's a look they went to great lengths to achieve in camera by stacking an 81EF warming filter along with either a Tiffen green filter (named Green one on the set) or a custom made half strength green by Harrison and Harrison. The green filters were equivalent to about +14 and +7 green printer lights respectively. They used the half green mostly for closeups so not to push skin tones too far.
It was also shot on an older film stock. Even though Kodac Vision stock was available at the time they decided to use the older EXR 5293 200T (the 81EF warming filter not fully correcting for the tungsten film so when shot in daylight still kept some of the cool tones) They also overexposed the 200T film, treating it as if it were 160 ASA and then had technicolor pull process by 1 stop. This resulted in less contrast and saturation.
@kblamo wow, very interesting, thanks !
@@kblamoIt is a masterpiece in terms of cinematography.
I prefer something in the middle. I find modern stuff too low contrast and muddy. To each their own.
I can see your point
I get the feeling a lot of the modern stuff is mainly graded for the HDR version and the SD version is muddy and sad looking.
@@Fedorevsky my TV is HDR, so why does it look muddy to me? Honest question.
@@peterkominek2681 I don't know, is it the HDR versions of the shows?
@@Fedorevsky if steaming services aren't streaming the HDR versions then why grade for them? I think the muddy look is an aesthetic choice, one I disagree with.
Excellent video! At first it bothered me that everything was so dark, but listening to you I realized that it is true... it is that intrigue that it generates in the viewer that makes it so great.
Totally
I love the lifted blacks and the whole compressed luma range aesthetic. And you're so right - it works perfectly for the horror genre as it makes you wonder what may be lurking in the dark. Great insights, as always. Thank you!
Silky smooth contrast in this show was to die for. 👌🏽 Thank you, Marieta. 🤗
Actually disagree... it absolutely doesn't work at all for any genre and especially the horror genre. It's lazy and absoletely going out of stlye within a few years and people will look back at this era and ask what the hell did they think of making such ugly muddy pale dark movies where no one can see anything... basically watching on black screens.
@@spanishprisoner Of course, everyone has a different taste. And that's what's so great about colour grading. It's nuanced and subjective.
@@marietafarfarova that's fine with me. But I bet you'll grow out of it - especially when you watch the great movies again from the 70s, 80s, 90s.
Fantastic video! Great to hear you insights about Haunting of Hill House, one of my favorite shows, for story and photography/cinematography. And is great to see the BTS on how they lighted some shots.
Nice concept to learn thanks
Brilliant analysis, thanks Brother!! The Ring (2002) is one of my faves. Cheers
Ty. Just watched it again recently. So good.
Batman (2022) was also under-exposed and criticised, but someone like me who saw it in the theatres, won't even speak a word because it was a physiological decision.
P.S : The good old intro is back❤
Really good content! You're a beast! Could you create more videos showing how you set up your screens, what your workspace looks like, and giving some tips about hardware? Specifically, what you consider essential hardware for those aspiring to work as professional colorists. It would be greatly appreciated! Thank you very much for your content!
Ty very much. Appreciate that. Honestly, might tip me over and make me do it. It's on the list for ages. ♥️💪🏽
Very intresting!🎉Thank You
this us the most profesional explanation ive ever seen regarding color grading on different feelings the director looks for, im going to watch TERMINATOR for the true color explanatopm
ty. Great choice. T2 is my all time fav action movie.
i absolutely DID notice this! you have to watch everything in the dark!
I was just talking to someone about this last week!
Love this
Ty bro.
Thanks for the content, this video was amazing
♥️
Dude, this channel is a goldmine. Thanks for always teaching useful techniques and concepts!
🙏🏽 happy to do it bro.
@@theqazman also love that you're at 400k and still replying to comments. Super cool man
Nice job. Stay well 🙌
LIKE button smashed!
people are confusing a dark scene with a lack of lighting. A photograph to have horror will hardly need to be as dark as today's films, it's like a fight scene full of cuts and excessive camera movement, it completely takes away the immersion
I miss the good old days when the scene was decently lit and characters would just like… shine around flashlights to indicate that it’s dark... Oh, and they would speak the hell up too, so I didn’t have to use subtitles… but, I’m an old soul…
Thank you maestro.
Nice discussion.... Useful
Totally agree!
I have to say it was very interesting
very dark, precisely because of the jumpscares to support simple and bad scripts. Soon they will put up a black screen with sounds and screams of fright and the justification will be because it was a room without any light and the human eye wouldn't see anything anyway
Would love to hear about this OUTSIDE of Horror - I do a lot of commercials and I feel like my DOPs are always shooting SO dark and it's really hard to get the shadows back after, even if shooting on the ALEXA 35
The Batman: Hold my beer.
Bladerunner 2049: Hold my Beer Barrel.
Dune: Hold my Beer Factory.
I tend to like the more dim, "muddy" look these days if the story fits...its very suffocating in a sense and u can find yourself really gasping to breathe at certain points
💯
And the irony is, that while tvs get brighter, the films get darker. That's so funny and sad at the same time. Did we gain anything much from that progress?
I hate the current look of most films and shows. Part of that is the digital look and part is the grading. There are no blacks, only greys. The image is flat and boring, colors are dull yet overwhelming… It’s something that I personally find exhausting when watching. I get fatigued. Now, compare that to movies shot on film. Inky blacks, 3D look and image that pops with all the right colors and saturation. The Ring has a beautiful look and is effortless to watch. The image is not something I think of when watching it, yet I’m constantly in awe of it.
Came down to say this. I prefer the old organic look of film. Even when it's stylized it holds up.
Today it feels like I'm watching color grading instead of watching a movie. It's almost like they're using it as a gimmick to make it look interesting, because it's low budget just to pump content out. It's mainly some of those Netflix shows that are just unnatural and overdone a lof of the times.
U are amazing man
♥️
Interesting overall. I do like the classic look way more. All that modern diffusion lightening just doesn't feel gritty enough, with all those softly rolled off shadows it just isn't gripping enough, and overall shadows are never as interesting as the highlights. Those classic highlights they just feel energetic, but modern shadow details makes everything feel sleepy. The blacks of the classic look feel strong, intense. Modern look feels like fairy tale for kids. And I don't think you needs such modern look to disguise the characters in the shadows.
Nice
Well, i have an LG oled c1, and Game of Throne season 8 was a pain in the arse. It's dark to a point you don't understand what's happening on the screen, and from that point they failed their mission of telling a story. I think "turning the lights off" to ceate darkness or mystery is way too litteral, and lacks subtility. The art of "not showing" goes with the art of "deciding what you show and what you cleverly hide". Alien is often cited as a good example of this, and they didn't need to kill the lights to make the threat invisible. On the contrary, they lit up everything else, the scared faces, the sweat, the empty rooms, which made the horror even more mysterious, even more puzzling, and that made the world in wich it happend even more real. Modern color gradings have a tendency to make the environment very fake, as if it was bad CGI sometimes. I think the technology allowing a wide dynamic range and very fine details in the shadows created this trend. But it has completely killed the art of creating contrasts, sculpting the subjects with shadows and lights to create a readable image and telling a story. We used to be able to "show" darkness, night, and mystery. As someone said here, Blade Runner has an incredible image, and light was very well used to create night and shadows. This is the exact definition of "movie magic", which modern productions lack.
I'm trying to download the practice footage but I'm not able to find a way to download it 😢
I think I was able to watch Game of Thrones only because of my projection home setup. The picture is so dark and lacks of light in it that the entire screen feels completely black if there is any slight real light in the room. And of course no chance for watching it in the airplane or any other transport. Which in the end reduces the audience or watch counter. As result, cinematic experience stays in the cinematic environment.
I liked the look of Alien: Dark, uncanny, but I didn't need to watch it in a dark room at night to recognize the scenery.
After a long time I watched Qazi's video very informative earlier ,he used to just promote his classes that was boring then
Sometimes even I gotta pay the bills. 😂
Hello, for the last season of games of thrones, I had a 4K photo monitor (calibrated in rec709 since even my calibration software wasn't talking about rec2020 yet) And so what. EVERYBODY had to buy a brand new TV to be allowed to watch this season? On my screen, it was fine when I stayed in the dark for 20 minutes before reading the episode. But my case was 1 in 10,000 people. No, really, they exaggerated and even for me the last episode was a nightmare. I had to adjust my screen just to see it. What's more, a screen calibrated for photos is set to 120 lumens, which corresponds to paper prints. But I NEVER had any problems BEFORE this series. I'm sorry, but it's totally ridiculous to use 20% of screen brightness. What if I told you that I was going to make the sound at -80dB and it was up to you to buy a 10,000W amp to listen to my films? There are limits to respecting your audience.
Great point you made with the sound analogy.
nice chair
😆 - how gloomy do you want to make it?
- endlessly!
Very interesting, thanks. I agree with your view of GoT season 8, btw.
The looks were great, story wise ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I was watching X the other day and I couldn't see what the hell was happening during the night scenes. Even with the lights off. Then you have Pearl on the other end which proves you dont have to be dark to be horror.
Also true
To be fair i don't think good monitor are a niche, a lot of people watch series on their laptops and they have far better screens than many family tv with settings on vivid etc, and i can see why the look evolved in that direction. The first thing i would point out is that the ones complaining probably watched in daylight or maybe distracted by bright smartphones.... come on, when you watch a movie, especially a horror movie, your room must be dark! Then all those subtle details in the shadows start living and emerging and it's beautiful cause low lighting activates different vision pattern and brain processes....
Game of Thrones was Too Dark. (Pro Colorist here)
❤
Subscribe button was hit with ultra speed!!
🙏🏽
Hi I’m a super newbie of Da Vinci resolve, when I import a media file (Sony a7s3 10bit 60fps slog 3) it only show audio. Do I really need to use the paid version?
❤❤
Everything looks awesome when watching with the proper equipment… But what’s the point of doing it if most people can’t enjoy it? Is there a census of worldwide household TV Sets? Color grading decisions are not to be taken lightly.
You make good points but being the 1% I do appreciate those little nuances on my overpriced and next gen TV. 😉
i have lg c2 55"inch is that a good tv ?
It's great
I wouldn't mind if these freaking OLED TVs wouldn't dim to oblivion during these dark scenes....
I hate this bad cinematography. Bad visuals is not a style.
Games as well. Jesus... Sometimes it is just unbearable
Sometimes, for sure.
its dark, why isn't there noise?
its all cool looking. to hell with all the technical shtt
Midsommar has left the chat
Sell more OLED tv ? 8P
🤣😂😂😂😂😂😂
what a joke of a man. analyzing scopes in 2024? hahaha come on maaan