BvS Larry Fong is the cinematographer!

[Herolee10]

Man, if MOS had been shot in the same manner that Gunn had done with Guardians, then it would be one hell of a beautiful looking film in more ways than it is now, which would be impressive because MOS is already a well shot film for the most part.

I just wish that we could get a modern day superman film where the colors are normal. Singer neutered the colors in "SR", which is ironically like his only film where he has tampered with the colors to that extent. And now, Snyder's pretty much toned down the saturation levels for MOS by a lot.

 

[John-An]

While I agree that I'm up for a little more of saturation, I don't think GoG levels are good idea either.. I mean those are different franchises and had different goals. If you tell me about a Legio of Superheroes movie then of course I'd agree with ya. Also I'm one of the guys that doesn't want to see the same mark and style in all the cbm. Diversity FTW.

On the other hand if you'd seen the gifs that were shared from 300 (or even Watchmen if you hadn't seen it, I recommend it to you, make your opinion of it... It's one of the greater stories in the cbm world yet and an amazing visual experience... don't miss it) in the previous page, that cinematography would fit really good with this one (BvS) and it won't be a much stretch from MOS.

 

[Herolee10]

Well, maybe when I get a chance later on I might take a look at Watchmen if it's being recommend by that many people around here.

It's ironic, people were so worried that Snyder would use too much slow-motion in MOS back when he was first announced that by the time MOS came out, some were saying that they had wished that he had used slow motion in the film.

I'm up for diversity myself, but I really feel that doing things like darkening the hell out of a Superman movie isn't the best for the character on film.

 

[John-An]

See it man... It's worth it, it's recommended by the bunch of geeks that some of us are

And for the slow motion I remember... first moaning that now way to the slow mo then moaning for its return. People
Little secret here... [I wish we see some slow-mo scenes in this one]
While I like the color palette (I'm neutral on each side), and I see why the did it and really liked the result... I'm all for a little more color, however what it's important to me is how Supes is portrayed and interacts with many characters (Bats, Lois, etc..) and does what I like the most... he being Superman on spirit and courage.

 

[adeel7861]

GotG definitely looked more beautiful visually. Most of the Marvel movies have a more balanced out contrast & color palette compared to MOS, this could be attributed to them using Digital cameras rather film. Two things I did not like about MOS:

No.1 Too much noise and dark color grading. While film cameras produce much more noise compared to digital cameras such as EPIC RED. The noise in MOS was purposely increased (I actually have proof of this) for reasons I have no idea of, maybe Snyder loves the grainy look. As for color grading, I think Snyder needs to balance some of the saturation and color grading. The movie had a slight greenish bluish tone to it. The actual Superman suit looks quite different in real life as you guys must have seen in some of the pictures. The suit itself was also re-colored in post production. Why not give the actual suit some color vibrance/saturation from the get-go rather than doing it digitally in post-production, it takes much more time. I also didnt get why the S shield was kept dirty, you could see smudges on it. The symbol of Hope needs to stand out!

No.2 Too much hand-held camera work & blurry shots. I know Zack's reason for this were that he wanted to get a more realistic & documentary style tone for the movie as if we the viewers were actually present in the movie itself and to showcase how hard it is to actually film Superman because he is so fast. But by doing that I actually I didn't get to enjoy to some of sequences, I'm a sucker for beautiful cinematography (Watchmen, Prometheus, GOTG etc) . I think handheld works well only for some particular action sequences, not the whole movie (this hand-held technique by the way at one point was strongly discouraged in the film-making industry).

The blurry action sequences might have been done ON PURPOSE to hide the CGI of the characters, because if they were focused-in clear shots you would be able to clearly tell a CGI model from an actual person. CGI has improved alot lately and looks great on non-living objects such as buildings, automobiles etc but the CGI for living objects (character models) still needs improvement.

Hand-held camera work might have also been done ON PURPOSE to finish filming much faster. I remember there was a court case going during the development of MOS regarding the rights to Superman between Warner Bros. and the family of the creators of Superman if I remember correctly and they had to finish up shooting in a particular timeline to keep the rights to him or something. You are able to finish shooting much quicker when there is no use of tripod or dolly work, not to mention when you mostly utilize only one camera operator and camera, rather than many more for various angle shots.

These are my 2 cents. Sorry for blabbering on too much. I'm actually in the video production business, so I look at these things from a certain point of view.

 

[matt47]

^ I loved the grainy look.

 

[John-An]

Marvel movies looked better FOR YOU! Some of us, like me for example, would prefer something that looks more like a movie. Some of them don't look cinematographic like at all, more like TV Show's style.

The look worked for the vision, scenarios and the grounded universe that they wanted to establish and show us.. Some people loved it, some don't. Fine... If you want to see a Marvel looking movie, you know where to find them.

But please, don't pretend that every movie needs to have the same style or to look the same because IT WON'T HAPPEN.

 

[adeel7861]

It doesn't have to. But he could still try something different. He doesn't have to exactly follow the look of Marvel. Snyder's look in my opinion suits movies that have darker characters such as Watchmen, Batman etc.

 

[John-An]

Snyder's style is far more broad than that. He has managed many styles. and watchmen did have some elements that could easily fit Superman and maybe could be explored in these new ones (I'm refering to visuals). Ya know Watchmen wasn't about Roarschach or Night Owl only right? It had also superhumans as Dr. Manhathan.

But you know what's the funny thing? That he has many styles) and many wished he abstent slow-mo, he didn't use it. then bang... WHY? Why? Now they were asking why he didn't use it. People just want to complain (some).

I don't know, I'm all for a little more saturation, but please we can't pretend they need to go back to the Reeve era of flashiness and cartony colors, that of course liked but it belong to another era. We are having this new era and I'm glad with that, and with Fong I hope they can only make it better the great visuals of MOS.

 

[adeel7861]

Where did I mention they need go back to the Reeve's era? As for slow-mo, Ive actually always loved those sequences by Snyder, so I was never against him not utilizing those in MOS.

 

[Herolee10]

I feel like Snyder was also trying to use JJ Abrams signature move in overusing "Lens Flares".lol

If I'm not mistaken, both Abrams and even James Gunn shot their respective Sci-Fi films on film as well, as opposed to doing so on Digital....both films looked really great imho.

Honestly, I personally feel like it would be a great step to AT LEAST use more vibrant colors for the film's saturation. I mean I know it's great to have variation, but can someone tell me on why a superman film should have color filters that really ruin the vibrancy of the colors present on screen at times? I mean what's wrong with just having some normal colors? Especially now for BvS when we've seen on how beautifully colored Cavil's suit looks like.

Snyder can go about using whatever filming style he wants, but I really hope that he eases up in the color filters. It really ruined the experience of watching MOS for me at times, especially since there are some scenes where no amount of color filter alteration (from my TV) can help fix the issue.

 

[John-An]

^^ That's not completely true... there were scenes like (the black zero, after the smallville battle where the blue was vibrant). Also I feel like for some they saw it gray or in black an white and it wasn't
It was blue steelish I understand that they wanted to make him with lightning feel it like a Man of Steel.. though I can understand people who wanted a little more blueish and I think Snyder listened to that, just look at the first official pic of supes in BvS... BEAUTIFUL SHOT and greater colors IMO...

Where did I mention they need go back to the Reeve's era? As for slow-mo, Ive actually always loved those sequences by Snyder, so I was never against him not utilizing those in MOS.

Well, those colors are really alike with the ones with description (it was only an example). My point is let's not give it in the other extreme. At least I'm a lover of different styles, because let's be honest... one style for evertything would be so lame.

To conclude this I'd say that with Fong again with Snyder we can expect some good work in the visuals, just we have to wait an see.

P.S I didn't said you were one of the guys who complained the slow-mo. Just wanted to clarify that.

 

[Herolee10]

Well if that BvS Comic Con teaser was of any indication that we'll be seeing more "Watchmen" style shots/techniques for this film, then hope shall remain for me.lol

 

[John-An]

And this

At night and in Gotham and even the blue, yellow and red are greater

 

[Mrs. Wayne]

And this

At night and in Gotham and even the blue, yellow and red are greater

The people that complained about the mood of this pic can get bent. It's beautiful!

 

[Herolee10]

Was Fong working on a different project back when they were shooting MOS? I wonder why they didn't just get him from the start? Especially after how many times he's collaborated with Snyder in the past.

 

[John-An]

I think he was busy... from what I've heard.

 

[adeel7861]

Like I mentioned in my message before. Im a fan of the cinematography of Watchmen, so I'll be very happy if the movie turns out to be similar. BTW I made this small comparison to show you the slight different color tones they did in regards to MOS:

Some of the early Marvel movies (i.e. Iron Man) might have a similar color tone/grading as the old Reeve's Superman movies, but not Winter Soldier, Goft etc.

 

[Herolee10]

I think he was busy... from what I've heard.

Figures; speaking of which, I take it that you've seen "Watchmen" already. I've only seen a few "gifs" regarding scenes from the movie, and the colors there looked pretty dynamic in some spots.

What would you say the colors were like there overall, especially when compared to MOS's color filters? I only ask because if there's a chance that BvS will slowly transition into the "Watchmen" style visuals, then I want to know on what I should be expecting.lol

 

[Herolee10]

Like I mentioned in my message before. Im a fan of the cinematography of Watchmen, so I'll be very happy if the movie turns out to be similar. BTW I made this small comparison to show you the slight different color tones they did in regards to MOS:

Some of the early Marvel movies (i.e. Iron Man) might have a similar color tone/grading as the old Reeve's Superman movies, but not Winter Soldier, Goft etc.

What's a MPC Reel?lol

I can't tell which is the worst between the first and last one.lol

 

[adeel7861]

And here is a color corrected version I did of Henry Cavill's image (I'm not saying it should look like this, just did this for fun):

 

[adeel7861]

MPC is the VFX studio that did some work for MOS, I took that image from their work reel they posted on youtube.

 

[Herolee10]

MPC is the VFX studio that did some work for MOS, I took that image from their work reel they posted on youtube.

Thanks. I just came across a few more examples.

"Sigh"; why did they have to color correct it?lol I would have gladly settled with the film with the way it looks in the MPC reel.lol

 

[John-An]

^^ Those shots are pure EPICNESS!!

Figures; speaking of which, I take it that you've seen "Watchmen" already. I've only seen a few "gifs" regarding scenes from the movie, and the colors there looked pretty dynamic in some spots.

What would you say the colors were like there overall, especially when compared to MOS's color filters? I only ask because if there's a chance that BvS will slowly transition into the "Watchmen" style visuals, then I want to know on what I should be expecting.lol

Yep I've seen Watchmen. and yep the color it was more saturated. That's why I've told you that I'd be glad with a little more color as we are getting now with the things we have seen. but as Fong said it will be good but it won't be a dramatical change. Just to remind that.

Some of the early Marvel movies (i.e. Iron Man) might have a similar color tone/grading as the old Reeve's Superman movies, but not Winter Soldier, Goft etc.

First, to your pic is nice but I really don't see it much difference at all.. besides a little more of saturation or less filter of course (contrast). But I'm happy with what we've got and liked that style in a overall scale BUT clearly as you can see in my previous posts we are getting a little more color and improvements to make it better.

And I don't know of which one of IM movie you refer (the first one, and the best of the trilogy wasn't colorful and may be with more or less the tone of MOS) while the other two yeah there were more colorful and I loved more the realistic approach of the first and it wasn't surpassed yet.

Winter Soldier and GoTG doesn't have the same cinematography nor the colors though... Althought I'm not much a fan of those styles, I welcome different styles and of course I enjoyed them.

 

[adeel7861]

Their clips are lacking some contrast to be honest with you. But in regards to color it should have been something in between that and what we got in the end product.