SPECTRE and digital colour correction

Silverchain · December 2016

I just finally saw Spectre. Not impressed (despite the great opening scene). Apart from the derivative ridiculous Dr. Evilish plot and plot holes (did the kidnappers pack Madeline's suitcase so she could wear that dress on the train?) I found the overuse of digital colour correction extremely jarring to the point where it constantly took me out of the film. Was anyone else bothered by this?

For example, Rome (a beautiful city which I've seen) and Tangier look like they were filmed through a jar of urine. I get the director was trying to emphasize the age of the cities but this overuse constantly broke the fourth wall for me. (The yellow tones in these scenes also aged Craig and were very unflattering to his face.)

I know films have been doing this for a while but in a movie like the Matrix, it was much more subtle and therefore much more effective. In Spectre, it was as subtle as a flying mallet and damaged the film in IMHO...

welshboy78 · December 2016

Silverchain wrote:

Rome (a beautiful city which I've seen) and Tangier look like they were filmed through a jar of urine.

Brilliant

Oakvale · December 2016

People always seem to be go back and fourth about colour correction but at the end of the day it's a matter of personal opinion. What looks washed out to one person is realistic to another.

Matt S · December 2016

I agree. I'm not a fan of the colours changed so much that it no longer looks realistic. I've colour-corrected most of the screenshots from Spectre that I use on my blog to better show the real colours of the clothes. The vivid colours of Casino Royale were one of the few good things about that film. I feel like some consider that approach outdated. Nothing is as bad as the colours in Man of Steel. Along with Hans Zimmer's monotone music, the faded colours just take all of the excitement out of that film.

walther p99 · December 2016

Silverchain wrote:

Rome (a beautiful city which I've seen) and Tangier look like they were filmed through a jar of urine.

That's the perfect way to describe it

). But yeah it annoyed me as well and I feel it made a lot of the locations look less impressive then they normally would look on screen, especially Austria. The same DP was used from Interstellar and that film had the same problem, though nowhere near as extreme because the majority of it was in space. And since that DP also did Christopher's Nolan's Dunkirk you'll notice the same washed out yellow tint in the trailer.

HalfMonk HalfHitman · December 2016

"Digital color correction" isn't the problem. Literally every movie you see undergoes digital color-correction. I suspect the problem wasn't the cinematographer either, who's done quite lovely work elsewhere. My suspicion is that Mendes understandably wanted the film to look very different from Skyfall (what director would want to be restricted to the same palette over and over?), but in his boredom he went too far.

There's an interesting article about the color grading of the film here:

http://www.thebondbulletin.com/true-colours-regrading-spectre

That book of photos taken on the set of SPECTRE really shows how much was lost in that wash of piss the film got.

walther p99 · December 2016

HalfMonk HalfHitman wrote:

"Digital color correction" isn't the problem. Literally every movie you see undergoes digital color-correction. I suspect the problem wasn't the cinematographer either, who's done quite lovely work elsewhere. My suspicion is that Mendes understandably wanted the film to look very different from Skyfall (what director would want to be restricted to the same palette over and over?), but in his boredom he went too far.

There's an interesting article about the color grading of the film here:

http://www.thebondbulletin.com/true-colours-regrading-spectre

That book of photos taken on the set of SPECTRE really shows how much was lost in that wash of piss the film got.

Its seriously like night and day in how much better the film looks without the urine tint, especially the Austria scenes.

Miles Messervy · December 2016

I'd love to watch the film without the color filters. Everything would look so much better.

walther p99 · December 2016

Miles Messervy wrote:

I'd love to watch the film without the color filters. Everything would look so much better.

same here, would probably like the film more honestly.

Matt S · December 2016

walther p99 wrote:

Miles Messervy wrote:

I'd love to watch the film without the color filters. Everything would look so much better.

same here, would probably like the film more honestly.

Probably the same for me. The colour just ruins the cinematography.

Miles Messervy · December 2016

Matt S wrote:

walther p99 wrote:

Miles Messervy wrote:

I'd love to watch the film without the color filters. Everything would look so much better.

same here, would probably like the film more honestly.

Probably the same for me. The colour just ruins the cinematography.

It's especially prevalent in the Austria scenes. Those sweeping aerial shots would be so much better without the tint.

Matt S · December 2016

Miles Messervy wrote:

Matt S wrote:

walther p99 wrote:

same here, would probably like the film more honestly.

Probably the same for me. The colour just ruins the cinematography.

It's especially prevalent in the Austria scenes. Those sweeping aerial shots would be so much better without the tint.

Definitely. The urine tint makes some sense in Morocco where its a visual representation of the heat. Mexico City has a pleasant temperature at the time of year of Day of the Day, but it's not hot so it doesn't make a whole lot of sense. It really makes no sense in Austria, when it makes you think that the snow should be melted.

Revolver66 · December 2016

Respectively disagree on this one fellas. I think Spectre looks wonderful. Fantastic cinematography, and the colour palette of the film I think is quite stunning. The Rome segment of the film has a dusky, golden look that is not worlds away from the Rome depicted in The Great Beauty, which I suspect was an inspiration. For me, both Mendes Bond films are the two best looking in the series.

chrisisall · December 2016

Not a fan of colour washes, but it mostly works in SP IMO. Two movies where it irritates the crap outta me are Minority Report & The Matrix... X-(

zaphod99 · December 2016

Matt S wrote:

Miles Messervy wrote:

Matt S wrote:

Probably the same for me. The colour just ruins the cinematography.

It's especially prevalent in the Austria scenes. Those sweeping aerial shots would be so much better without the tint.

Definitely. The urine tint makes some sense in Morocco where its a visual representation of the heat. Mexico City has a pleasant temperature at the time of year of Day of the Day, but it's not hot so it doesn't make a whole lot of sense. It really makes no sense in Austria, when it makes you think that the snow should be melted.

Had my annual seasonal viewing of OHMSS recently. The Alpine scenes in SP would have looked spectacular with similar treatment.

Matt S · December 2016

zaphod99 wrote:

Matt S wrote:

Miles Messervy wrote:

It's especially prevalent in the Austria scenes. Those sweeping aerial shots would be so much better without the tint.

Definitely. The urine tint makes some sense in Morocco where its a visual representation of the heat. Mexico City has a pleasant temperature at the time of year of Day of the Day, but it's not hot so it doesn't make a whole lot of sense. It really makes no sense in Austria, when it makes you think that the snow should be melted.

Had my annual seasonal viewing of OHMSS recently. The Alpine scenes in SP would have looked spectacular with similar treatment.

It would certainly have been an improvement, but I think OHMSS looks a bit too blue, particularly outside of the snow scenes.

RAINbowTRAIL · December 2016

Especially in the beginning of OHMSS, but these filters were chosen to emulate celluloid 'night-vision' during daytime filming. Make it blue and everybody thinks its nighttime.

jasper_lamar_crabb · February 2017

Hoyte van Hoytema had many discussions with the colorists during production. The film looks the way it does because that's how he wanted it.

Matt S · February 2017

jasper_lamar_crabb wrote:

Hoyte van Hoytema had many discussions with the colorists during production. The film looks the way it does because that's how he wanted it.

Intentional doesn't mean it's not a mistake. You just can't call it an accident. I make artistic mistakes too because I thought what I was doing was right at the time.

JTM · June 2017

Matt S wrote:

walther p99 wrote:

Miles Messervy wrote:

I'd love to watch the film without the color filters. Everything would look so much better.

same here, would probably like the film more honestly.

Probably the same for me. The colour just ruins the cinematography.

Just saw this thread. I watched Spectre a few times in the cinema and once when the bluray came out. While I absolutely love the movie, throwing it on my home screen made me realise how much the filters really ruin certain scenes. So I took my copy straight to a good friend who works at a film studio in the editing dept and got him work a bit of colour grading magic and he handed me back a perfect yellow filterless copy! Haven't watched the original filtered version since. Can't stress enough just how much better the PTS and the scenes in Austria (Mr White, clinic and plane) look now!

The Bond Experience · June 2017

Ayieeeeeeeeeeee.....I want to see!

JTM wrote:

Matt S wrote:

walther p99 wrote:

same here, would probably like the film more honestly.

Probably the same for me. The colour just ruins the cinematography.

Just saw this thread. I watched Spectre a few times in the cinema and once when the bluray came out. While I absolutely love the movie, throwing it on my home screen made me realise how much the filters really ruin certain scenes. So I took my copy straight to a good friend who works at a film studio in the editing dept and got him work a bit of colour grading magic and he handed me back a perfect yellow filterless copy! Haven't watched the original filtered version since. Can't stress enough just how much better the PTS and the scenes in Austria (Mr White, clinic and plane) look now!

JTM · June 2017

The Mantis wrote:

JTM wrote:

Just saw this thread. I watched Spectre a few times in the cinema and once when the bluray came out. While I absolutely love the movie, throwing it on my home screen made me realise how much the filters really ruin certain scenes. So I took my copy straight to a good friend who works at a film studio in the editing dept and got him work a bit of colour grading magic and he handed me back a perfect yellow filterless copy! Haven't watched the original filtered version since. Can't stress enough just how much better the PTS and the scenes in Austria (Mr White, clinic and plane) look now!

Ayieeeeeeeeeeee.....I want to see!

Strung together a few gifs. Filterless versions on top, originals below.

Snow that's actually white really makes a difference

)

Spectre%20Clinic%20Colour%20Grading_zpsibdkzsjc.gif

Spectre%20Clinic%20Original_zps7ac7jspm.gif

Spectre%20Mr%20White%20Colour%20Grading_zpsj7f9azpn.gif

Spectre%20Mr%20White%20Original_zpstwthh96r.gif

Even without the filter the PTS still looks "warm" enough.

Spectre%20PTS%20Colour%20Grading_zpsmsntcbps.gif

Spectre%20PTS%20Original_zpse66idikj.gif

welshboy78 · June 2017

Very very cool JTM. Would love to see this version

walther p99 · June 2017

JTM wrote:

The Mantis wrote:

JTM wrote:

Just saw this thread. I watched Spectre a few times in the cinema and once when the bluray came out. While I absolutely love the movie, throwing it on my home screen made me realise how much the filters really ruin certain scenes. So I took my copy straight to a good friend who works at a film studio in the editing dept and got him work a bit of colour grading magic and he handed me back a perfect yellow filterless copy! Haven't watched the original filtered version since. Can't stress enough just how much better the PTS and the scenes in Austria (Mr White, clinic and plane) look now!

Ayieeeeeeeeeeee.....I want to see!

Strung together a few gifs. Filterless versions on top, originals below.

Snow that's actually white really makes a difference )

Even without the filter the PTS still looks "warm" enough.

Holy s*it it looks SO much better. I don't know why Hoyte prefers that urine look because he also did Interstellar and it had the same tint but it wasn't nearly as distracting or overbearing as it was in Spectre.

Matt S · June 2017

It's nice to see that Bond has recovered from his hepatitis!

It really looks so much better without the yellow!

chrisisall · June 2017

I like the blue for snow, but all others distract me.

Miles Messervy · June 2017

Matt S wrote:

It's nice to see that Bond has recovered from his hepatitis!

It really looks so much better without the yellow!

I mean, it wasn't really a surprise that Bond's liver was failing, but it's nice to see that it was just a stylistic choice.

JTM · June 2017

Morocco scenes. For the most part I'm okay with the original filters on the exterior scenes in this location, interior scenes not so much.

Spectre%20Tangeirs%20Colour%20Grading_zpsh8wrwrzg.jpg

Spectre%20Tangiers%20Original_zpsgqdspwcb.jpg

Spectre%20Wraith%20Colour%20Grading_zpsx3yw6tbl.jpg

Spectre%20Wraith%20Original_zpsqovkzhzs.jpg

Spectre%20Room%20Colour%20Grading_zps6lz18j4i.jpg

Spectre%20Room%20Original_zpsf5tvo0tj.jpg

The torture scene looks terrible with the filter IMO. The natural crisp/bright white look is far more menacing on screen for a villian's torture room.

Spectre%20Torture%20Colour%20Grading_zpsdrewcfcr.jpg

Spectre%20Torture%20Original_zps065i0lyo.jpg

chrisisall · June 2017

Agreed.

Matt S · June 2017

I agree that the yellow filter looks okay in the outdoor scenes in Morocco, but I think it still looks better without it. I thought it made the location feel hotter, but now by comparison it look looks dulled. The indoor scenes look considerably better without the yellow. Based on knowing the true colours of the clothes, the blues are still dulled in the corrected version, which I don't mind. I could understand using the yellow filter for effect in certain locations, but over the whole film it just seems lazy.

Remington · June 2017

Stunning. I've been saying for almost two years now that the yellow tarnishes the film. The only section of the movie where it kinda works is in Rome. This just proves my point. Lol now I want a corrected copy. Thanks for sharing, JTM.
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SPECTRE and digital colour correction

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