I'm not working on a project that is trying to emulate the 80s look and feel but out of curiosity I wonder how one would go about making a film that looks, sounds and feels in every way, like it was made in the 80s and not done now?
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Emulating 80s Cinematography
- Thread starter PhantomScreenwriter
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Most of that would be achieved with set dressing, costuming, and hair/makeup. Couple that with a color grade simulating an 80s film stock.
How people and their surroundings look is certainly the most important piece of that puzzle.
How people and their surroundings look is certainly the most important piece of that puzzle.
It's worth taking a look at popular 80's content and the way it's color graded. Often the content is graded excessively to pull out bright colors - which works well, if you look at the style of the decade!
While I have an extreme dislike for the film, 'Do The Right Thing' (1989) is one of your best bets to take a look at drastic 1980's color grading, design, style, etc. It's so incredibly 1980's. In fact, despite my dislike for the film, I can't help but mention how incredibly complex the color grading was, because it was an important part of the story - as the day goes on, and everyone gets more restless and moody, the colors get more and more frustratingly bright and red. I'd say it's a must-see film for film makers, at least, to understand the style of film making.
(I had a film class where we were forced to watch it, and then discuss it for three hours... not fun, but useful.)
While I have an extreme dislike for the film, 'Do The Right Thing' (1989) is one of your best bets to take a look at drastic 1980's color grading, design, style, etc. It's so incredibly 1980's. In fact, despite my dislike for the film, I can't help but mention how incredibly complex the color grading was, because it was an important part of the story - as the day goes on, and everyone gets more restless and moody, the colors get more and more frustratingly bright and red. I'd say it's a must-see film for film makers, at least, to understand the style of film making.
(I had a film class where we were forced to watch it, and then discuss it for three hours... not fun, but useful.)
Just in general I'd say less hand held stuff for sure. The 80's was before "shaky cam" became "cool." Also if you're doing any action, use a lot more medium and long shots, use those sticks; unlike today where everything is usually shot super close and fast and you can barely tell what's going on. Editing speed (how long each shot lasts on average) should be longer as well.
Just out of curiosity, why?
I respect the film, and I appreciate it enough to cite it whenever people are looking for an excellent example of 80's film making or color grading, but on a personal level, the film annoys me and frustrates me to no end. It's actually Spike Lee's mission to do so, though, so he created the perfect film. It's painful to watch because as the colors become more annoying, the dialogue heats up, and as the nonsense ensues, it just makes the viewer upset at the lack of logic in the film. Again, though, he's trying to make a statement, by showing you the absurdity of the racial conflict of the late 1980's.
My other conflict with the film was that I always felt that Lee made a reverse statement for me, because I actually sided with the white people in the film. (Not being racist or anything, I just did.) I'll throw a 'spoiler' thing over this next part if you haven't seen the film,
but essentially, this white guy who isn't racist owns one of the only thriving businesses in the black, more beaten down part of town. The African American community embraces his character, and he's extremely friendly to them. Then, all of the sudden, one of the guys in the community decides that they are being oppressed because the 'Hall of Fame' in the pizza place doesn't have a black person on it. So, this guy gets some buddies together and essentia
The film just peeves me. In fact, I don't think there is a way to 'enjoy' the film - I think Spike Lee wants you to hate it, or be frustrated by it at the end, because that's the same way everyone else felt about the conflict as a whole.
10 hours of Kodak 35mm film, which isn't that much footage for a 2 hour movie if you consider bad takes, things that will be edited out, and extra coverage you end up not using, will cost you about $250,000 USD to buy and have developed and scanned. It's easy to say "shoot on film." Not so easy to actually do it.
Not quite $250,000.
Shoot on short ends, shoot 2- or 3-perf and it becomes pretty cheap, especially when you account for the low cost of camera rental. Versus renting equivalent digital gear (like an Alexa or RED package), it can easily work out to be a similar price or cheaper depending on your shooting ratio. I've worked on films where we've worked on a 3:1 shooting ratio.
Shoot on S16 - it's super cheap and will give you that look.
Id also watch the films you're trying to emulate and note down everything you notice about the look - set dressing, costumes, colours, depth of field, shot types, exposure etc. Then you can create your 80s look book, with notes, pictures, clippings etc. and you can use that to approach the cinematography of your film - it will help immensely even if shooting on digital, and will get you a long way towards that look
Telecine/scanning has been pretty commonplace for many years now. With digital projection, you're actually saving money because you don't need to make any prints!
Shooting film is certainly not for those looking to shoot a film for $5, but it's a lot cheaper than you might think, especially these days.
As ever here on IT, everyone jumps straight into photography, but film of course isn't just photography and the OP specifically stated "a film that looks, sounds and feels". Shooting on film may help to get the 80's look but sound was never shot on film and therefore shooting on film will obviously not get the "sound" and therefore the overall "feel" the OP is asking about.
OP: The answer to your question as far as the sound is concerned is not a simple one. Dolby Stereo was the standard for film sound in the 80s but was superseded by Dolby Digital in the 1990s and neither Dolby Stereo nor Dolby Digital is supported on DCP! Dolby Stereo was a 4 channel analogue (optical) format employing Dolby SVA noise reduction, all of which gave a certain "flavour" to the sound of film in that era. It is possible with modern technology to vaguely approximate film sound of the 80s but it's not straight forward and will not sound "in every way" like an 80s soundtrack.
G
Not to be an asshole but are you trying to be pretentious or it just comes naturally?
AudioPost was just elaborating on the thread, since 'shooting on film' is an incredibly broad response, when rather there are a dozen other factors equally, if not more important to the feel of an 80's film, including sound.
Audio is picky about his sound, believe me, him and I have gone twelve rounds
But his post is useful to the thread - no reason to get aggressive.
I'm afraid you've failed! If you don't want to be an asshole again in the future, I'd recommend a more appropriate use of the word "pretentious".
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Thanks to everyone for your comments!
I've been watching a few 80s action/horror movies lately I really like the style of the films. Obviously to do a period 80s piece regardless of which genre you'd need to make sure everything from hairstyles, make-up, language in terms of phrases and expressions related to the era, and all sorts of things are represented properly. There's so many aspects to what makes a certain decade what it was, and if you want to be authentic to the time period you need to be mindful of so many things so that you aren't misrepresenting that era.
It's one thing to look at a past decade from the perspective of our current society and era, and then re-interpret but it's another to actually think like you're actually living in that era and you interpret that era from that perspective.
I've been watching a few 80s action/horror movies lately I really like the style of the films. Obviously to do a period 80s piece regardless of which genre you'd need to make sure everything from hairstyles, make-up, language in terms of phrases and expressions related to the era, and all sorts of things are represented properly. There's so many aspects to what makes a certain decade what it was, and if you want to be authentic to the time period you need to be mindful of so many things so that you aren't misrepresenting that era.
It's one thing to look at a past decade from the perspective of our current society and era, and then re-interpret but it's another to actually think like you're actually living in that era and you interpret that era from that perspective.
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This is the best place to start. Beyond just "emulating a stock from the 80s" there were many films with many different looks, many different techniques and creative approaches.
Isolate the things you are looking for in the image and share them with your DoP. Sit down together and watch the films from which your isolated images were pulled. Discuss what it is you like about them, why you want to use it. S/He will have suggestions on how to get there depending on what you are showing them. From an image capture standpoint. Shoot some tests, play around with a few different approaches to your post timing, see what works and what doesn't.
I'm happy to answer more specifically to the best of my limited ability, but I'll have to see some of the images you are looking at. Blade Runner was made in 1982, and so was Fast Times at Ridgemont High. They have very different looks.
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Thanks for your input David, here are some images from a few of the 80s films I enjoy:
John Carpenter's The Thing (1982)
John Carpenter's Big Trouble in Little China (1986)
John Carpenter's Prince of Darkness (1987)
A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
Warlock (1989)
Obviously there's going to be differences depending upon how the scenes are lit from one example to the next but this is a taste of the visual style I like from that period.
John Carpenter's The Thing (1982)
John Carpenter's Big Trouble in Little China (1986)
John Carpenter's Prince of Darkness (1987)
A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
Warlock (1989)
Obviously there's going to be differences depending upon how the scenes are lit from one example to the next but this is a taste of the visual style I like from that period.