The Cinematography in "Ray"

[archmichael]

I never got around to seeing it in the movie, and boy do I regret it. It looks like one of those movies that should be seen in the theaters, or a really good home theater.

I remember having my socks knocked off by the trailers. Watching it in the dark theater, the colors looked so… luscious.

Watching it on tv, it is a little more washed out.

Does anyone know if they used some sort of new technique, or is it the work of a kick-ass cinematographer?

[MovieMogul]

Ray was shot by Pawel Edelman, whose only previous work of note was Polanski’s The Pianist (though he has a long list of credits from his native Poland, also the homeland of Spielberg’s regular DP, Janusz Kaminski).

I’m glad you liked the look of Ray though I personally didn’t find anything special about it or the film itself (though it was deserving of the fairly surprising Sound Oscar it won earlier this year). I don’t think it was even the best-looking Jamie Foxx film from 2004–Dion Beebe and Paul Cameron’s work on Collateral was far more memorable and distinguished, IMHO.

[archmichael]

@ArchiveGuy

I don’t think it was even the best-looking Jamie Foxx film from 2004–Dion Beebe and Paul Cameron’s work on Collateral was far more memorable and distinguished, IMHO.

I don’t know much about the Biz, but I found nothing extraordinary Collateral. If I had seen it without knowing who directed it, I would have guessed it was a Michael Mann film. Everything looks like it was lit with flourescent bulbs.

[MovieMogul]

Well, Collateral was largely shot with a digital camera–one of the first Hollywood productions to do so that didn’t involve the integration of a ton of CG FX in post. Here is an article going into the technical details:

Film doesn’t record what our eyes can see at night," says Mann. "That’s why I moved into shooting digital video in high definition–to see into the night, to see everything the naked eye can see and more. You see this moody landscape with hills and trees and strange light patterns. I wanted that to be the world that Vincent and Max are moving through…

The difference between film and HD, says Cameron, is that film’s sensitivity falls off sharply at the bottom of the curve, transforming subtle shadows into deep rich blacks. But what if, he asks, you went into those shadows? “How do I record what the eye sees at the toe of the curve?” Where everyone is trying to make black, Mann decided he would go into those shadows and pull out information to create intense emotions…

Beebe says the HD look “serves the feeling of the film,” drawing out that sense of alienation from the stark urban landscape. “You’re getting more nuances and details,” he describes. Beebe was particularly excited about how at night the camera reveals this immersive glowing, haloed, surreal environment, caused by the thick LA marine layer, trapping and diffusing the light coming from the sodium vapor street lights.

From a qualitative stance, the film looks quite different than most urban films shot mostly at night (even previous Mann projects). Digital helped increase the intimacy in the cab-bound scenes, but the use of natural lighting and the tonal qualities of the colors captured by the camera set-up he used added substantially to the mood of the piece–though, again, this is something you’re going to notice more in a theater than on TV (where you’re used to seeing DV and where a lot of the details are muted). Mann even says:

So my reason for choosing DV wasn’t economy but was to do with the fact that the entire movie takes place in one city, on one night, and you can’t see the city at night on motion-picture film the way you can on digital video. And I like the truth-telling feeling I receive when there’s very little light on the actors’ faces - I think this is the first serious major motion picture done in digital video that is photoreal, rather than using it for effects. DV is also a more painterly medium: you can see what you’ve done as you shoot because you have the end product sitting in front of you on a Sony high-def monitor, so I could change the contrast to affect the mood, add colour, do all kinds of things you can’t do with film.

[Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew]

Just wanted to say that I was also struck by the film visually, especially the opening. That shot of the drumstick hitting the cymbal really drew me in, and the transition from the near-monochrome opening sequence to the glowing colors of the bottle tree was beautiful.