Warm and Cool - A Week of Technique and Stylisation

    An often overlooked technique are the "warm" or "cool" looks. These techniques can be achieved using editing techniques and grading now, however they were once an in camera effect.

  Stylistically, these tones were/or have been achieved with film stock and lighting. The "Warm" look was achieved using daylight lighting with Tungsten film stock (think early Guy Ritchie films like Lock, Stock or Snatch). 

Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels - Trailer:

Snatch - Trailer:

  The "Cool" look was the reverse, using Tungsten lighting with Daylight film stock (think Brian Helgeland's Payback). 

Payback - Trailer:

  Granted the use of filters can and does go a long way to also achieve these looks, but for the ease of lay explanation, that is basically it.

For more in-depth information check this out:

Understanding Colour Temperature

Here's a video comparison:

Warm and Cold 

                                                               - Pixels & Frequencies

  Meanwhile, over at Sploid, here is the original post, with the video from above:

Compare warm and cool scenes in movies, side-by-side

Links:

Neil Oseman

Neil Oseman - Understanding Colour Temperature

Pixels & Frequencies

Sploid

Sploid - Article

Editing... abridged - A Week of Technique and Stylisation

 And back over at No Film School this video was posted a few weeks back and is a quick explanation and look into the history of film editing by the guys at Film School'd.

Watch the video here:

The full article on No Film School:

The History & Techniques of Editing Explained in Less Than 7 Minutes

  Although the above video is more dedicated to the art of perception, especially with the use of montage, there is some good information here. My main concern is the lack of clarity on continuity, which for me personally, can make or break a film. Bad continuity has the ability to remove the suspension of disbelief and completely lose the viewer interest in the process. 

Film Riot explain continuity here:

  My, personal, favourite film for excessive continuity errors has to be Jurassic Park and there is no end of videos pointing these errors out on You Tube, but here are a couple to help you better understand how a film, no matter how good you think, can be heavily marred by bad continuity.

Jurassic Park Mistakes Part One:

And for good measure, Part Two:

Links:

No Film School

No Film School - Article

Film School'd

Film Riot

The Fincher way - A Week of Technique and Stylisation

  Even a bad David Fincher film is an education, and more often than not, it's always a good idea to watch and re-watch the works of certain directors. David Fincher is one of those directors, from his early work directing music videos to having Alien 3 dumped in his lap, he was quickly able to write his own ticket...

Tony Zhou video essay: 

David Fincher - And the other way is wrong

Filmography:

 2014 Gone Girl 
 2013 House of Cards (TV Series)
 2011 The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
 2010 The Social Network
 2008 The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
 2007 Zodiac
 2002 Panic Room
 1999 Fight Club
 1997 The Game
 1995 Se7en
 1992 Alien³


Links:
David Fincher - IMDB
Tony Zhou
Bhushan Mahadani - Article

Noir Noir Noir - A Week of Technique and Stylisation

   Tom Antos has been at it again, a while back, he released a short tutorial video on no budget lighting for Noir filming for the No Film School website.

Check out the video here:

 Read the No Film School page here:

Exclusive Tutorial: How to Create Stunning Film Noir Style with Very Little Money

  But what is film Noir?, well originally it was a Black and White filming style used heavily in American crime dramas, and as more and more of these films were released they all became a watered down parody of themselves; to the point of being "hand coloured" with heavy blacks and not much else (EG: Bugsy Malone). But the Black and White stylistic Noir went out of fashion, though the film content remains to this day (EG: Gangster Squad, although a better example would be Sam Mendes' Road to Perdition). A perfect book, which is essentially Noir, would be Charles Bukowski's Pulp, which is screaming for a film adaptation.

  Although the Noir look can be done very poorly/badly, it's now a little used effect which, when done well, can really make your low budget pop... provided the material is suitable of course. 

  Films like the adaptations of Sin City and it's Sequel, have made good use of the Noir look, although in a heavy green screen environment which is classed as Neo-Noir, it's just a pity they never quite lived up to expectations or the Frank Miller source material.

Links:

No Film School

No Film School - Tutorial

Tom Antos

Sin City - Graphic Novels

Noir - Wikipedia

Neo-Noir - Wikipedia