*shaking movie directors by the shoulders* NIGHTTIME AND OTHER FORMS OF ENVIRONMENTAL DARKNESS CAN BE IMPLIED WITHOUT MAKING IT IMPOSSIBLE TO SEE THE FUCKING MOVIE
I always think of that conversation on the set of lotr where the cinematographer was asked where all the light was supposed to be coming from in scenes like the battle of helms deep, and he just responded that it comes from the same place as the soundtrack does. sometimes you need to be a little unrealistic to make your work better and actually watchable
This, incidentally, is why “NOPE” had such spectacular and clear night scenes: master cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema just plain didn’t shoot at night.
Instead, they strapped a regular camera and an infrared camera together, coordinated them with lasers…
…combined them, used the naturally black sky created by the infrared as a blank canvas, added a new digital cloud line and various other effects to create a gorgeously lit night scene.
This is a ground-breaking new technique, and Jordan Peele is correct to say it could make movies better.
Good night footage is possible.
You just have to shoot it during the day.
I’d disagree slightly by saying good night footage is possible, but I feel like it has more to do with the intention behind how it’s done rather than just shooting during the day. Day-for-night shooting is done all the time, the issue is it’s often dimmed wayyyy down so it looks “dark” and loses so much of its colour and detail. House of the Dragon, for example, shot night scenes in the day that ended up barely legible:
The reason Nope and other movies with beautiful day-for-night like Mad Max: Fury Road look so good is because the filmmakers shot the night scenes during the day with deliberate intention and a vision of how they wanted the eventual night to look and how that would serve the film.
Fury Road’s night scenes feel like they belong to another reality, less like night and more like the movie has suddenly entered The Blue Dimension, which I didn’t like when I saw it initially but now I feel like it lends the scenes a surreal quality that really works, plus everything is totally readable. The cinematography and colour all through Fury Road create a sense of heightened reality beyond our normal senses, so the bright saturated blue night fits right in.
Nope, on the other hand, is probably the closest thing I’ve seen to capturing what it feels like to be outside in the country on a bright night. It’s brighter than most nights really are so that it’s readable, but the way the filmmakers edited the daytime footage and the addition of the infrared camera create the right kind of look to recreate how it feels once your eyes adjust to the dark.
Even though they’re both very different, I’d say they both work because the way the daytime footage was adjusted to night with deliberate intent to create an effect that would work for their respective films.
The scenes from Nope and Fury Road work because they forsake realism for intentional stylization. Neither of them are ‘realistic’. Both of them have, if you know how to look, very obvious light sources that ‘real’ night doesn’t have. (But so does every shot in a film that has good craft.). They’re very clearly day-for-night, but you buy it as night because they’re consistent lighting designs that carry over from the rest of the film.
Learn about the science behind fall foliage with Daniel Hooper, a postdoctoral fellow at the Museum. The next time you’re out leaf peeping or bird watching, give thought to carotenoids—the incredible pigments that make our worlds a little rosier. 🍂🦩🍁
fascinating that when you tell people “you have to learn the rules to break them” when talking about drawing/painting etc everyone nods and agrees but the second you say “you have to read books if you want to write better” there’s a horde of contrarians begging to be the wrongest people ever all of a sudden
if one more person in the notes of this post says “omg op has clearly never talked to a beginner artist!!” as if im not a literal professional artist and was making a broad point…….. this time im really gonna do it
and reading only fanfiction does not count as reading books to get better at writing. Fanfiction, where everyone reading it already knows who the characters are and what their relationships are and what the setting is and all that crap, is not the same thing as reading an original self-contained story.
If you only read fanfiction, you will not be able to write original stories well.
Fanfiction works in ways that original fiction doesn’t. You can’t write original fiction like it’s fanfiction if you want your story to actually be well written and interesting.
I think it’s important to point out why fanfiction is different – so much context and interest hooks depend on you already being interested in the source. You are familiar with these characters and therefore don’t need to have the basics built into the story.
With original work, you need all that underlying character development to be in the story you’re writing to make us want to read it. You could ‘cheat’ and give us a modern Sherlock Holmes – but we still need your version explored in narrative to actually care about it. Dr. House is more than just Sherlock Holmes in a hospital, he has his own issues and foils and quirks. The Holmes from the TV show Sherlock and Elementary are vastly different takes on the same character.
You need to read original fiction in order to learn how to do that in your own original fiction. Fanfic is great, but it intentional has gaps that make it a different form.
Graham crackers were invented by followers of Sylvester Graham, as part of a dietary regime intended to remove all sinful pleasure from the act of eating. I like to think that the mere existence of B. Dylan Hollis, Baking Twink, would make them cry.
in my house, we refer to him solely as Shouty Dylan. I love him and his little twig arms SO MUCH.
His cookbook is amazing, BTW. Really great recipe organization, very clear and thorough instructions.
there’s a very insidious form of racism in the western left when people act like fascists in nonwhite or nonwestern countries shouldn’t be held to the same standard y’all hold fascists in the US and europe
fascist theocratic regime supporters are just as bad in the middle east or elsewhere as they are in the west and you not wanting to call that shit out is just that type of racism where you think nonwhite people can do no wrong, it’s infantilizing and gross
“The Taliban aren’t that bad!”
THE TALIBAN SHOT MALALA FOR THE HEINOUS CRIME OF BEING A GIRL GOING TO SCHOOL BECKY!!!! THEY ARE FASCISTS!!!!
How you gonna claim the Taliban are unfairly maligned when you don’t even know that they’re Pashto not Arab!? “I don’t even know what ethnic group dominates the Taliban but I DO know that they are actually smol beans!”
I know that and you know that but she seems to think if you’re not White, Black, or Asian, you’re Arab.
A significant change to a flight now includes a three-hour or longer delay for domestic flights, and at least a six-hour delay on international flights. If an airline changes a flight’s departure or arrival airport, or adds a connection, that also counts.
It’s truly wild to me how many people out there don’t understand that the Star Wars prequels are a tragedy or how tragedies work.
Posts like “these are the Jedi failed movies” truly just make me shake my head. They’re actually the “fascism wears a smile until it strikes you down and then it’s too late” movies. They’re the “the senate became corrupt and clapped in the face of genocide” movies. They’re the “make people scared enough of war until they accept authoritarianism” movies. They’re the “fear and possessiveness will tear you up on the inside” movies. The Jedi were the heroes of lore, people loved and looked up to them, looked to them for safety, and then too much got put on their shoulders on purpose by Palpatine, and also by a senate that didn’t want to act (not you Padme and Bail and Mon, you’re perfect). They were drafted and used and scapegoated, which is, you know, a tenet of the vast majority of authoritarian governments (Hitler and Stalin, for instance, might be on different ends of the political spectrum, but they sure both did scapegoat specific groups and commit mass murder, just differently).
When some people say “these movies are about the fall of the Jedi” what they mean is “the Jedi failed” but that’s not what “the fall of the Jedi means.” It means they were wiped the fuck OUT. Like, Jesus, in Rogue One Tarkin is talking about burning out the final MEMORY of the Jedi by blowing up the holy city in Jedha. Palpatine had to get rid of the Jedi because to get rid of the Jedi was to get rid of the final people standing in his way after he had already worn them out. His intention was not only to kill them, but to alter the galaxy’s entire perception of them. To rip away hope. People are always looking for the Jedi to be Bad or nitpick their mistakes (because while other people are allowed to make mistakes, the Jedi never are). Palpatine made himself look like a benevolent grandpa who would keep everyone safe. And that, more than anything, is what gave him SO much power. He stole the narrative.
It’s just like. Of course WE know what was going to happen! We know from watching the OT that the PT can only end in tragedy. But the characters don’t know that! They don’t have all the info! That’s how a tragic story structure works. We see it coming and they can’t.
Anyway. The Jedi are laser-sword wielding monks with psychic powers who just wanted to do what they could to help. The world would be better if more folks remembered that.
ALT
amhrancas 