Why Modern Movies Look So CLEAN and How To Fix Them

have you ever been watching the newest Hollywood Blockbuster and think to yourself why does this look so clean and almost fake today the pursuit of higher quality images with 4K 6K 12K cameras is all anyone talks about digital film making has revolutionized the craft ushering in increasingly sharp pristine and Flawless imagery but why do we now look at better images and think that it looks worse even if we can't quite put our finger on why we just know that something doesn't feel right why does Saving Private Ryan from 1998 look better than hacksaw Ridge from

2017 why does Lord of the Rings from 2000 actually look better than the rings of power even though it came out 20 years later or why does the Batman look better than everything else why do modern movies look so clean do we as an audience want Perfection or do imperfections add character and authenticity or more importantly what can filmmakers do to make their films more authentic let's dive in first of all this topic goes Way Beyond the film World debate of film versus digital it is true that film and digital both have totally different looks

but I've also seen digital look like film and I've seen film look like digital by its nature film is less clean and something used to seeing in those incredible cinematic Masterpiece films but in the right hands digital can blend perfectly or even replicate film David Fincher who is a master Storyteller with films such as Gone Girl The Social Network The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and so many more loves working with red cameras which over the years have kind of developed a reputation of having somewhat of a digital look and I've even heard some cinematographers

refuse to use them yet none of his films look digital in any way if I didn't know I would say that all of them were shot on film because of how authentic they look yet The Hobbit shot on the same red camera looks like a cartoon cinematographer Steve Yedlin ASC of Knives Out Looper and The Last Jedi challenges us to think of a camera not as a look maker but merely as a data collection device and that the Aesthetics we desire are determined predominantly Downstream in the processing pipeline by what we do with the data

not with which instrument collects the data this shows us that capturing your story on film doesn't simply make a beautiful authentic experience for the audience and realizing that the power to control how your film looks is ultimately in your hands and not the tools we put in our hands that is where we start now you might say well why not just capture the cleanest most pristine image possible to allow for maximum flexibility and post there are film stock emulation plugins and software that gives us tools to bring in imperfections so why don't we all just

shoot that way well there are elements that we can't change in post such as camera choices lens choices filters lighting atmosphere all of these things filmmakers must decide while filming it all comes down to choices we would argue that the best filmmakers that land Classics are ones who make bold choices and stick to them filmmakers like Deni vnu and his choices on Dune or Matt Reeves choice to dirty up the frame practically in the Batman these are still industry Giants that we look up to yet in their own words they say their choices might get

them fired yet they stick to their choices and sometimes win an Oscar for it if you begin to see your camera as a data collection device your first choice is lenses filmmakers have many lens options available to them but the choices break down to these main factors modern or vintage anamorphic or spherical prime or Zoom now there's a lot more to it but that's the heart of it there's a growing selection of vintage glass rehoused in modern housing so that the metadata can be carried through to post- production but a vintage set of lenses will

have unique characteristics per lens and color reproductions will be different across the whole set films like the Batman the hateful eight Joker and others specifically choose vintage glass that were actually used in films from the' 60s 7s and 80s Tarantino actually resurrected and retrofitted a 60s vintage Ultra Panavision lens that hadn't been used since carum in 1966 Mission Impossible dead reckoning part 1 also used the exact 40mm Panavision lens on its Venice shoot that was used in the very first mission Impossible film The Batman used Alpha anamorphic lenses that fell off drastically from the center

focus and the edges of the lenses were soft and brought the attention to the center of the frame compare this to the re Prime DNA lenses used on countless Productions like rings of power hijack All Quiet on the Western Front Peter Pan and Wendy The Witcher men and black solo Ant-Man and countless others you'll see a vast difference just with the lenses themselves most of these examples are heavily graded and stylized but if we look at these wide shots from All Quiet on the Western Front there's a slight vignette from the Gren post but underneath

the color is super PR pristin crisp and clean something that doesn't seem to match a gripping World War I story From The Trenches and even though it's still a fantastic film imagine if All Quiet on the Western Front was shot like the Batman what an immersive experience it would [Music] become dynamic range and incredible digital sensors combined with advancement and color grading allow for infinite zones and touch-ups on footage today where images are technically perfect but really really just flat many times you can tell they're in a studio lit with LEDs unlike films that use

natural Lighting in a simpler grade great cinematography is all about depth and separation through lighting the biggest mistake I see in film making today is thinking that they should add more light to make the image look better and it technically does look better by not having Shadows on faces or to remove any darker areas in scenes but does it actually make it better for us as an audience let's look at ticket to Paradise it's almost as if Comfort was more important than the visual results the film looks technically Perfect Details In the Shadows and the

highlights exposed and graded well but is it too perfect these Hollywood icons are out in the bright Sun but they're not sweating or squinting we don't want to pay to see unpleasantness but it comes at a cost where we just don't buy that these people are actually on an island we can feel the negative fill that that's systematically added to create depth just like we see in Emma as we cut from this wide shot to this medium shot the negative fill increases because the crew can now bring them closer we start to no longer feel

authentic and just feel fake the Batman was lit very dimly even too dark for some audiences but their use of lamps and lighting added to what really feels like a realistic Gotham City it was lit like you were standing right there whether you preferred the or not you were right there in the middle of Gotham City a film like the Batman can't look like gerwig's Barbie lurman Elvis or Parker's ticket to Paradise because of audience's expectations but you can't argue with the fact that the Batman looked better than all of those films we all love

Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy but comparing them to the Batman are still two vastly different images which leads us to visual effects modern movies are generally more reliant on visual effects than the previous Century of films shot on film shooting imagery with little to no VFX allowed for more choices to be made in camera because you're shooting the world right in front of you rather than building it later VFX heavy films often need basic even plates and modern lenses that digitally connect with the camera to provide metadata are highly effective in streamlining the process this was

very important to rings power and many Blockbusters utilize countless different effects houses to hit their deadlines so it's best not to complicate the workflow yet we can return to the Batman and doom the latter being very effects heavy but their Vision was solidified in development and all choices push a unified style in design forward and did not get lost in the VFX the Batman took a practical approach shooting in the LED volume and trying to capture as much as possible in camera through the glass rather than adding it later on top of the glass this

is a distinct choice that technology like the volume can offer filmmakers to let the lens bring all the elements together which begs the question how can I make my films look authentic or better yet what have filmmakers done to authenticate the world that they're creating one of the main elements of authenticity is dirtying up the frame now this is a term in cinematography that means exactly what it says to take the frame and and dirty it up the purpose of this is the idea of putting you in the shoes of a character again authenticity this

can mean actually dirtying the physical frame and lens or metaphorically with props actors lighting and blocking it doesn't always mean interacting with the camera because usually the camera is invisible unnoticed by the world and characters this could be shooting through something like Windows over someone's shoulder or even just adding elements to the composition this scene from the Batman could be a master class in composition and dirtying the frame this right here is what we're supposed to be focusing on but we have an out of focus table on the bottom a plant taking up almost the

entire left side of the frame multiple lamps people in the background people walking in front of the camera this is not sloppy this is purposeful and authentic it makes you feel like you're really there but sometimes dirtying the frame does in fact interact with the camera rain splatter on the lens in the Batman blood splatter in Children of Men lens flares even condensation on the lens in the Revenant makes the audience aware that there is a camera capturing the moment further connecting the viewer to the world that they're watching almost vois in fact in the

Batman Greg Frasier actually put silicone on glass and put that on the lens this would make sure that raindrops would actually interact and the lens itself would get smudges talk about dirtying the fr frame sometimes the camera becomes the point of view of a character like we experience in the first mission impossible the Batman or even being on the field again in Children of Men the point is as a filmmaker don't be afraid to get dirty with your framing instead of asking how can I improve this shot ask yourself what lights could I turn off

what can I add to my frame to be more authentic How can I block this scene differently don't be afraid to not be perfect what these films have shown us is exactly what we're craving as an audience even if we don't know why a film doesn't look right all of it comes down to authenticity and choices authenticity should be sought after not Perfection to sum it all up film is both an art and a business and when we say that modern movies look clean or fake we're not necessarily saying they look bad they're technically perfect

perfect L exposed perfectly focused perfectly lit you see big studios avoid risk and I believe that this plays into a big part of why modern movies look the way they do Indie filmmakers seem to have a vision that drives their art regardless of a big paycheck which is why we see more soul in independent films than we do out of bigger Blockbusters the best examples that we see of a unified Vision throughout the entire process to escape that clean and fake look begins with Choice making a choice for your vision and sticking to it not

playing it safe audiences respect that and if you make movies that you want to see and not movies that you expect others want from you then you could find your audience and your film could end up cemented in cinematic history if you'd like to learn more about how to take your own projects and stand out from the competition you can check out our full course at tomorrow filmakers dcom we have over 1,200 training videos and over a 100 hours of content on every single aspect of film making taught by Leading Professionals in the film industry

with over 40,000 students from all around the world a lifetime membership to our award-winning online film Academy is only 97 bucks if you'd like to take your skills to the next level check out tomorrow filmmakers decom and learn all the skills that you need to succeed and remember don't be afraid to not be perfect