What is a “filmic” or “Cinematic” look?
People often ask for a “filmic” or “cinematic” look to their project but what exactly makes a look “filmic” or “cinematic”? We’re going to dive into a few of those elements here!
The obvious definition is that the look needs to emulate the feel of film. What makes a film feel like a film? It’s a combination of elements. Film grain is usually the first thing that comes to mind. True celluloid film also has halation. This is a result of bright light passing through the layers of film, hitting the back of the camera and exposing the film from the opposite side. This is why halation often has a reddish, warm tone to it. The layer up against the anti-halation backing of celluloid film is the Red layer (the other two layers being the Blue and Green). These imperfections of film are what give it its personality. There’s a wonderful quote by Brian Eno that I’m thinking of while writing this:
“Whatever you now find weird, ugly, uncomfortable and nasty about a new medium will surely become its signature. CD distortion, the jitteriness of digital video, the crap sound of 8-bit - all of these will be cherished and emulated as soon as they can be avoided.”
There’s a humanity and uniqueness to film that our digital workflows have largely ‘fixed’ and removed. So now we attempt to recreate some of these things to make digital feel like the cinema we all remember.
So what are some other elements of a ‘film feel’? Roll off is definitely a quality. Roll off refers the the gradient way film handles highlights and lowlights. Instead of just clipping the signal the highlights “roll off” gradually. This is much more akin to how the human eye works and is probably why it's preferable to the digital signal clipping highlights. Another aspect would be acutance or the perceived sharpness at the edges of contrast. A film image is not laser sharp through and through. Because of the layered nature of exposure and the nature of grain there is more of a softness to the edges of contrast in film. There is also more of a filmic ‘S’ curve to the exposure in film as opposed to video linear exposure.
There are more elements that could be discussed but I feel these are the big pieces. When you are asking for a “cinematic feel” for your film these are the first few things I start to think about and incorporate into your look. And all those ‘imperfections’ that we’re introducing into your image should be embraced if that’s the direction we’re going in. Those filmic touches are that cinematic personality!
