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American Hustle - Behind the Scenes
  • My pick for the best movie of the year. Really loved this. The leads were all great, the chemistry, the vibe, the music, the hair, the tits etc really captured the 1970's.

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  • Thanks this is awesome. All roads must lead to this.

  • The boomed chinaball they're using for local fill/eyelight is filled with a coil of LED ribbon allowing them to dial in the color temp and dimming.

  • @BurnetRhoades Wow, I love that idea for a chinaball! Very fucking cool.

    I loved this movie, really well executed in my opinion.

  • It's a short article, in the "Production Slate" section, but the Jan. 2014 issue of American Cinematographer discusses some of the techniques and equipment used. They kept it very simple, wanting mostly practical, motivated lighting (you can tell they juiced up what was in the practical fixtures). Notice in the BTS when you see a wide you're not looking at C-stands and cables everywhere or big movie lights but all the practical lights read as extra hot and too much for the documentary camera.

    Most of the film was shot on a 24mm and they went with now discontinued (like so many) Fuji stocks because of what they did for color, particularly the fluorescents.

    It's a good issue, with a very detailed article on the techniques used for the new Coen Bros. film.

  • Trailer 1

    Trailer2

  • Just saw it the other night. Great movie. Cool style, fantastic soundtrack. Good to great performances from everyone.

    I saw this quote from IMDB on the acting/writing style:

    "According to Christian Bale much of the movie was improvised. So, during the shooting of the film he noted to David O. Russell, "You realize that this is going to change the plot greatly down track." To which the director replied, "Christian, I hate plots. I am all about characters, that's it."

  • I just saw this movie, is very good, reminiscent to the Scorsese of 'Goodfellas' and Paul Thomas Anderson's of 'Boogie Nights' but more lighter that these titles.

    I can be wrong, but in the BTS seems as if he had dispensed with professional lights, using only ambient light and chinaball as reinforcement.

  • They augmented the practical lighting and would supplement light coming through windows with a bank of Kinos and used the big, movie lights outside blasting through windows, using bounce and the chinaball for fill when necessary.

    A lot of the sets/locations needed to work from 360 degrees of viewing given it was pretty much entirely shot on steadicam using long takes. They used 18Ks and the like but these were often outside shining in. The lighting and pre-rigging that was done was to light the environments, setting a base exposure for the backgrounds and then the chinaball let them deal with when the actors themselves were too dark.

    Contrived "beauty" lighting on actors is only one of many ways to light a film, 3-point being the most basic and self-conscious. It works for some but a well done, naturalistic film more in the '70s style was more appropriate here.

    See To the Wonder and Tree of Life for breathtaking examples of movies shot with just available light and no movie lights.

  • Tree of Life was shot with just available light? That's amazing, as that was one hell of a gorgeous looking flick.

  • It was. Of course, when you set out to make a film with that dogma, you don't get a film as beautiful as Malick unless you are as conscious of this decision with every other decision you make. Going available light dictated when and where they were shooting. Where the talent was facing, plane of action, camera angle and movement (unlike the Lars Von Trier dogme of "just shoot it, warts and all" anti-aesthetic from the '90s)

    All locations were essentially pre-mapped during pre-production so that they knew how light was affecting them, down to which rooms in a house were on the sun side, what the sun did inside the rooms and (at least on To the Wonder) they had back-up lookalike rooms in entirely different houses if need be for unfortunate cloud cover, etc.

    Company moves and the daily schedule was dictated by the direction and angle of the sun. Since they were only moving the camera and only a few pieces of gear this meant they were able to move a guerilla speeds. Of course, you also have to have on-screen talent that are going to be on board with the approach and non-diva. They have to be okay with being, by some interpretations, secondary to the photography of the film and can't feel threatened. I'm guessing the speed of setup and movement made that pill easier to swallow, since it ultimately feels less technical and intrusive to their craft, even if it's ultimately more dictatorial than over-lighting.

  • @BurnetRhoades Hey, do you have any links or leads to those LED ribbons you were talking about? For some reason I can't sign in to the AC site right now for the article. Tried searching for em and all I see is the chinese ones.

  • @BurnetRhoades.

    Sweet, thanks man. Have you used em before?

  • No, I haven't used any LED ribbons but it seems like, over the last year, they've become quite popular. I've seen quite a few DIY videos for use in fixtures like bowls and par cans, filling surface area to create something with a nice spread. This was the first time I read about them used inside a China Ball though and thought that was very cool.

  • @BurnetRhoades , thanks. Great info.

    Lubezki has confirmed that use natural light for filming 'Tree of life', here's an interview:

    http://www.theasc.com/ac_magazine/April2013/TotheWonder/page1.php

    My technical knowledge of lighting comes from drawing and painting, so I dont know the handling of the bulbs and all that paraphernalia, but I've been asked several times and hope I do not fall into a offtopic if possible would make a film where the visual is the predominant high-contrast lighting nase low power, perhaps with LED bulbs, but without resorting to Kino, Arri, etc. which are very expensive, or is the one way to make a well-crafted photography?

    Something Dogma style but with a more elaborate aesthetic, or halfway between Dogma, Nouvelle vague and Italian Neorealism.

    I think the current DSLR cameras are more sensitive and can pick up much even in poor conditions, but I see that there is almost always a lock for the more technical aspects, Kubrick filmed 'Barry Lyndon' almost 50 years with candles and environmental and natural light making something that look like paintings in motion and with a wealth of contrast, true that use an optical f0.7, but the technology has evolved a lot since then.

    PD: Sorry for my bad english.

  • Yep. I see some really cheap ones on Amazon I might buy just to see how well I can work with em. Sure the CRI sucks but for $12, it'll be worth a test :)

  • Yeah I've been reading article after article where DPs that like shooting in mixed color temps and naturalistic styles are unashamedly going and building their own fixtures with consumer goods (given the incredibly bold look, I was blown away reading about the low-buck lighting approach to Only God Forgives). If you're already embracing the random that occurs in life a little green spike isn't the end of the world.

  • @BurnetRhoades, thanks again.

    Do you have a link of these articles? Im surprised about 'Only god Forgives', this movie look like a very very costly work of lightnigs.

  • @BurnetRhoades

    Thanks again man. Just ordered 3 different types from Amazon Prime to test and build some sort of custom internal china ball housing. If these work, they'll be such a great upgrade from other known ways. I don't mind wrapping a sheet of 1/4 minus green inside the whole thing if need be :)

  • @vicharris I'll be interested in seeing the results of your budget LED chinaball. I've got few chinaballs that I use with spiral fluoros. Okay indoors with available AC but a 12volt LED version would be great. Keep us posted.

  • @Manu4Vendetta there's a feature article in the September 2013 issue of ACM (with Elysium on the cover). This is the same issue that covers the cinematography of The World's End, breaking the story on the re-introduction of the Panavision B-Series and how that came about.

  • I must be the only one who did not "love" this movie. Yes, it was entertaining, but not entirely. Many times I felt like I was watching a poor-man's Scorsese rendition of this story. There were times I actually thought, "did Scorsese actually direct this?? If so, it's a shame...he's really lost his attention to the flow of the story."

    One example, the scene where the female lead was having a "moment" in her house to the music...really not necessary, but if it actually was, then done totally wrong.

    Overall, meh. If it were to come on tv, I would rather flip to see if Goodfellas, Casino or The Departed were on and if not, then just go to bed.

  • Like the flaky Shakespeare Richard 2nd I saw yesterday, and like every film made - entertainment - hey that's what film TV music and theatre is - is, and always will be made for the people by people purely for entertainment - not critics / "experts" / or people involved - where did this dissection from afar arse come from?- it's all going a bit EOSSD - people who do - do - whether with a phone or GH2 or Alexa, they just do it - people who don't - well u know - post how the people who do's stuff is shit - do you think Walter Murch (for example) sits pixel bashing? lol - no he walks his stinky dog - I know - think Chris Nolan moaned when his crappy footage wasn't allowed by my scary other half to be edited for free when he came in every night moaning for edits Audio and Online - eventually winning her over - trust me - big win

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  • soundgh2 - as a fan of movies i have an opinion and in this instance it is that this movie was entertaining, but not "movie of the year" entertaining, that's all. what is your issue with opinions?

    i've posted one or two things i've done here with my amateur hand and with the site's namesake's, for better or worse, allowing myself to be open to opinions. however, your post seems to take the acceptance of commentary somewhere else. weird.