Menu

Blog
Podcast
Newsletter
Shop
About
THE BACKLOT
Log In|Log Out

NOAM KROLL

NOAM KROLL

NOAM KROLL

Blog
Podcast
Newsletter
Shop
About
THE BACKLOT
Log In|Log Out

LATEST BLOG POSTS

Using Premiere Pro As a Workflow Tool

Premiere Pro is tool that I’ve had a bit of a love/hate relationship with. I started using it…

Review: SLRMagic 12mm T1.6 Hyperprime

Recently, I picked up theÂ 12mm T1.6 Hyperprime fromÂ SLRMagic as I was in need of a fast wide angle…

So Many Sliders

I am currently gearing up for a feature film and the script calls for some nice slow, small…

Why I Am Editing My Feature Film In FCP X

In October I go into production for my second feature which is set to be shot over 11…

New Raw Cameras, Which To Choose?

Earlier this year three potentially groundbreaking cameras were announced that have a few things in common: They shoot…

Lumix GH3: Pre-Release Thoughts

The Lumix GH2 is one of my favourite cameras in existence today. I use it for the majority…

Prev 1 … 51 52 53

Subscribe & Follow

NOAM KROLL

FILMMAKER

Premium articles, filmmaking tools and access to giveaways all available FREE by signing up for my newsletter below.

Newsletter

SIGN UP HERE

Leave this field empty if you're human:

Find me on Instagram

noamkroll

noamkroll

Filmmaker & Creative in LA 🎥☀️🌴
New blogs, podcasts & newsletters each week +
Post-production tools @cinecolor.io 🍊

4 different films with (almost) the same palette.

4 different films with (almost) the same palette. There is a reason the teal and orange “blockbuster” look is still alive and well. Love it or hate it, it plays into one of the most important aspects of color psychology - color contrast. Our eyes are drawn to complimentary colors that are on opposite ends of the color spectrum.

In film though, not all color combinations have an equal effect. Take the example above - it works because the skin tones skew warm (which is flattering to the eye), and the shadows skew cold (which adds moodiness). If it were reversed, warm shadows would look muddy and unpleasant, and cool skin tones would look lifeless. Sometimes that’s the look you want, and there is no right and wrong. But as a rule of thumb: Warmer tones in the mid-high range tend to look best when contrasted against cooler shadows - whether you are going for a blockbuster look or not. Just remember to capture the look on set and not attempt to achieve it entirely in the grade.

#filmmaking #filmmaker #cinematography #cinematographer #colorgrading

Imagine the feeling of accidentally deleting the e

Imagine the feeling of accidentally deleting the entirety of TOY STORY 2 in the middle of production. That’s what happened in 1998 when someone mistakenly wiped Pixar’s file system, deleting what they thought was the only surviving copy of Toy Story 2. Thankfully, Pixar’s technical director Galyn Susman was working from home with her newborn baby, and had a full copy of the film that was unaffected. Ironically, even after saving the film, the studio decided to scrap it and re-created nearly the entire movie from scratch to make additional changes.

#filmmaking #filmmaker #cinematography #cinematographer

Martin Scorsese and DP Robert Richardson were so f

Martin Scorsese and DP Robert Richardson were so far ahead of their time on The Aviator. This film accurately captures three distinct film looks:

1. Technicolor two-strip
2. Technicolor three-strip
3. Classic color film stock

The finished product takes the viewer on a journey through the history of color cinematography, all while serving the story beautifully.

#filmmaking #filmmaker #cinematography #cinematographer

Even the biggest Hollywood productions sometimes h

Even the biggest Hollywood productions sometimes have to resort to DIY tactics to get the shot. This is how David Fincher captured a crucial establishing shot of Harvard University without permission, using a three headed camera rig and some innovative lighting and post.

Steven Spielberg credits LAWRENCE OF ARABIA (1962)

Steven Spielberg credits LAWRENCE OF ARABIA (1962) as the single film that inspired him to become a filmmaker. And accordingly to him this sequence is among the best to ever be committed to film.

#filmmaking #filmmaker #cinematography #cinematographer

Steven Spielberg credits LAWRENCE OF ARABIA (1962)

Steven Spielberg credits LAWRENCE OF ARABIA (1962) as the single film that inspired him to become a filmmaker. And accordingly to him this sequence is among the best to ever be committed to film.

#filmmaking #filmmaker #cinematography #cinematographer

If you’ve ever wondered what PSYCHO would look l

If you’ve ever wondered what PSYCHO would look like in color, here are a few shots that I colorized for fun. You can see why Hitchcock opted for monochrome, but still an interesting experiment!

#filmmaking #filmmaker #cinematography #cinematography

Find a way to make your movie. It will ever get an

Find a way to make your movie. It will ever get any easier until you build a body of work. Every project, no matter how small, has immense value.

#filmmaking #filmmaker

Ryan Coogler’s SINNERS is the first film in hist

Ryan Coogler’s SINNERS is the first film in history to mix footage from the extremely wide (and rarely used) Ultra Panavision 70 camera in 2.76:1 aspect ratio, with IMAX 70mm (which creates a 1.43:1 image). Here’s a quick comparison showing the vast difference in framing each format offers.

#filmmaking #filmmaker #cinematography #cinematographer #

SINNERS is the first movie ever to mix the IMAX 70

SINNERS is the first movie ever to mix the IMAX 70mm format with Ultra Panavision 70 in the same film.

These screenshots show the full 1.43:1 aspect ratio, captured on 15 perf 65mm film (which runs horizontally through the IMAX camera to achieve the highest resolution of any format).

The Ultra Panavision 70 shots have a vastly different widescreen ratio of 2.76:1, creating an incredibly unqiue viewing experience as the edit cuts between shots that are very wide and very tall. But only a handful of IMAX theaters allowed viewers to get the full experience. Regular theatrical screenings and digital formats crop the IMAX shots to appear wider and lessen the effect.

Brilliant work by Ryan Coogler and DP Autumn Davis Arkapaw.

#filmmaking #filmmaker #cinematography #cinematographer graphy

Only 2 narrative features were ever produced in CI

Only 2 narrative features were ever produced in CINERAMA, including “How The West Was Won” - which used it to brilliant effect way back in 1962. The Cinerama system used a special 3 camera rig (shooting left, right, and center) to capture some of the widest images ever produced at the time. Each of the 3 film strips were played back simultaneously using independent projectors on wide, curved screens like the Cinerama Dome in Hollywood. While it was soon replaced by Ultra Panavision 70, anamorphic glass, and other advancements that made widescreen capture simpler, the few Cinerama films that actually got made have a special visual quality that has never been fully replicated.

Several other “travelogue” films were also produced in this format, including the first ever Cinerama film “This is Cinerama” in 1952.

#filmmaking #filmmaker #cinematography #cinematographer

Love these references from “Playtime” (1967) t

Love these references from “Playtime” (1967) that directly inspired the production design and aesthetic of “Severance” over half a century later. Such an innovative film that was lightyears ahead of its time and was truly original in every sense.

#filmmaking #filmmaker #cinematography #cinematographer

Every film runs into issues at some point, even th

Every film runs into issues at some point, even the biggest Hollywood features. The best filmmakers know how to turn problems into opportunities instead of letting them destroy the creative process. While in post for “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” DP Robert Richardson and Quentin Tarantino decided to work with this footage that was severely damaged in the lab and lean into the aesthetic for stylistic effect, rather than re-shooting.

#filmmaking #filmmaker #cinematography #cinematographer

Red is the most psychologically associative color

Red is the most psychologically associative color in cinema, and can be used to trigger a “fight or flight” response in the brain. This is one of the many reasons it’s used so extensively in horror. But it’s even more effective when used with restraint, as seen here in “We Need To Talk About Kevin”.

This is one of the most haunting films of the century, and accomplishes so much without having to show violence on screen. The subtle red cues in production design and lighting build throughout the film and create an anticipation of violence that is scarier in our minds than it could ever be on screen. Casual viewers may not even notice it, but they definitely feel it on a subconscious level.

Worth noting, red can also of course signify many other things (love, power, obsession, etc.), and is an incredibly powerful storytelling tool across the spectrum of genres.

#filmmaking #filmmaker #cinematography #cinematographer

Fun fact: Ridley Scott had to borrow Stanley Kubri

Fun fact: Ridley Scott had to borrow Stanley Kubrick’s aerial footage from “The Shining” to complete the theatrical cut of “Blade Runner” in 1982. The studio felt the original ending was too dark and bleak, so at the last minute they decided to add some footage of Deckard and Rachel driving off into the countryside.

But Ridley and his team hadn’t shot any scenic footage or aerials that could work, so he turned to Stanley Kubrick who generously shared leftover footage from “The Shining” to complete the theatrical cut.

10 years later, Ridley Scott removed the footage and accompanying voiceover for the director’s cut, fully restoring his original vision for a darker and more ambiguous ending.

#filmmaking #filmmaker #cinematography #cinematographer

Not sure any film was ahead of its time more than

Not sure any film was ahead of its time more than “The American Friend”, at least in terms of color, mood, and atmosphere. Made in 1977 it’s now nearly 50 years old, but still has some of the most innovative use of color that surpasses the vast majority of films today. Directed by Wim Wenders and shot by Robby Müller, as they laid the groundwork for “Paris, Texas” - made 7 years later. Both films mixed natural and artificial light, while leveraging vivid saturation and colored gels to capture stunning golden hour, blue hour, and warm interior tungsten scenes.

My favorite sequences pair colored artificial light sources with daylight spilling in through windows. It creates such a unique “in-between” aesthetic that is truly original. Almost 5 decades later and it still holds up.

This film also of course predates “The Talented Mr. Ripley”, and was the first adaptation of the novel “Ripley’s Game”.

#filmmaking #filmmaker #cinematography #cinematographer

There is no such thing as “good skin tones” in

There is no such thing as “good skin tones” in color correction. Even films with a more naturalistic look will have massive variances in tone and color based on environmental elements, lighting, and other factors.

While you should avoid muddy skin tones that feel unnatural or synthetic, beyond that you have a ton of flexibility in the grade to achieve the look you want. Don’t artificially limit your palette to make things feel “natural”, when sometimes the natural look is more vibrant or stylized.

#filmmaking #filmmaker #cinematography #cinematographer

When your key light is a candle and you’re shoot

When your key light is a candle and you’re shooting on 100 ASA film, you bring out the insanely fast f/0.7 Carl Zeiss Planar 50mm lens. Only 10 of these lenses were ever made, originally commissioned by NASA in the 60s to capture images of the moon. Kubrick discovered these while doing technical research for BARRY LYNDON and ended up purchasing 3 to use on the production. They were the only lenses that gave him enough exposure on the Kodak 5247 film stock, and also allowed him to capture a more authentic period-specific look. Today, you could shoot digitally at high ISOs and use slower lenses, but the aesthetic wouldn’t come close.

#filmmaking #filmmaker #cinematography #cinematographer

I love how BLUE VALENTINE mixes Super 16mm film wi

I love how BLUE VALENTINE mixes Super 16mm film with RED One digital. It’s one of many techniques director Derek Cianfrance used to make the “before & after” time periods feel distinct. Another method was having Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams live together during a filming break in between the two time periods. This gave the early scenes a warm and spontaneous feel, and the left the present day material feeling more lived in and cold. None of the choices were obvious or gimmicky, which is why they worked so well and made this film so visceral.

Also, the RED One footage holds up super well all these years later…

#filmmaker #filmmaker #cinematography #cinematographer

Crazy this 113 year old hand-cranked camera is sti

Crazy this 113 year old hand-cranked camera is still finding its way onto Hollywood feature films. It was used as recently as 2023 (Killers of the Flower Moon) and 2022 (Babylon). In both cases the Bell & Howell 2709 was used to replicate era-specific footage without relying on heavy color or VFX work for a more authentic look.

The color shot from Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon was originally intended to be black and white news reel footage, but in the edit it was kept in full color and matched to the rest of the 2.39 cinema footage. This helped it blend in more seamlessly, but you can still feel the jitters and imperfections, which add a lot of character to that scene.

This camera was also used for special effects shots on movies like Citizen Kane (1941), and even Star Wars (1977) as its technical accuracy and minimal gate weave made it ideal for optical compositing and matte paintings.

#filmmaking #filmmaker #cinematography #cinematographer

Load More... Follow on Instagram

(C) 2024 - Creative Rebellion, Inc. All Rights Reserved.