Well most DPs and camera operators have tripods, so I figure when it comes to getting one to work with me, we might as well use theirs. I already know two already who have their own, so I figured at this point, their is no need for me to purchase my own, when they will use theirs, which they are experienced with, come production time. The reason why I am practicing my own looks, is so I know what I can get for the locations I have available.
The two people I know are good at moving the camera and operating it, but they don't know a lot about color, so I want to explore the looks I want to achieve on my own, so I can make sure it's being done right later.
I thought the video around 0:59 was possibly the best of those looks as well. It has a little less blue in compared to the first.
In the second video, I like the first look. However when I (that's me), walk from one light, then into the next, in between lights when it is dark, the color becomes almost completely desaturated into black and white almost. You then see the blue form around my eyes, and slowly grow around my face, as I walk into the blue light. This looks unnatural and just off. Would I have to color grade, in between the two lights so it's not so desaturated in the shade areas, if I choose to film a scene there with that color grading?
As far as more information goes, not sure which thriller short yet, but me and my collaborators have writing a couple and deciding on things like the look as we go. I will be directing so I get to choose the look. I don't see a reason to make it all green like the Matrix or all blue like Super 8, but the blue I experimented with there, will just help give a thriller a more gritty look, or at least that's what I aim for. That's just one look I like, but I wouldn't use it for a whole movie. The sunnier looking graded shots will be used for scenes of different tone. I want to aim for gritty and dark suspense thrillers, especially on a microbudgets where you need drama over action to engage. I figured that if I want to work in a certain genre of film in the future, I should aim my shorts towards that genre. Which is why you never see people like James Wan directing comedies and romances for example.