We're getting set to start filming a new Retro Science Fiction adventure series and want the film to look like the stylings of Metropolis. What digital camera and filter program would be out there to do a convincing job of this?
Cinematography : Retro scifi - the old school bw look by Kirk Johnson
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Hello Kirk, when I read your post I immediately had a thought in my mind... I think you should make a camera test with a 16mm Digital Bolex camera in black & white.
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HitFilm has the plugin you want for old, aged, damaged film stock. Also Magic Bullet Looks has great effects for that. There are some LUT's from Impulz that are good high and low con B/W.
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Thanks for the input I will look into these suggestions :)
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Any camera will work as long as the resolution and colour allow you to finish the images to your quality requirements and taste. To get B&W from colour footage, whatever program you are using has to be able to do 2 things; convert to monochrome and allow you to change the Red, Green and Blue channels independently. Adjusting the colours allows lots of range in ending up with the image you wish. When shooting in B&W we use lots of oddly colored filters knowing from experience what we would get. The ability to dial in the tones in post is both easier and better.
Metropolis is a wonderful movie and a great example to follow. Art direction was incredibly important to the impact of the images and the story. The colour of sets, costumes and make-up may be different in B&W so experimentation will be needed. I sincerely hope you are not adding some phony dirt and scratches. The last time I watched Metropolis online, it was clean and beautiful. Pay careful attention to the framing and size of the shots emulating what was done in Metropolis.
One click corrections are only good for the image they were designed for. Take the time and correct properly, one shot at a time to get to your desired images for your finished picture. Off the top of my head, Resolve 12 on the colour correction page in the RGB Mixer setting, allows a click to monochrome then the ability to adjust RGB individually. You can see the changes as you do them. A really easy to use method to get great B&W. Resolve 12 is a free download.