american independent film

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AMERICAN INDEPENDENT FILMA LOOKS COLLECTION BY ERIC ESCOBAR

Thanks so much for buying my collection of Magic Bullet Looks. This is the first in whatI hope will become an on-going series of original Looks.

The inspiration of this collection is, you guessed it, American Independent Filmmaking,specifically films made in the last decade. The last ten years of indie filmmaking inAmerica has been dominated by both the quirky, “heart-felt” comedy and the serious,“heart-felt” drama. A personal, emotional search for authenticity has been the zeitgeist.

In the movie-tech realm, itʼs been a decade that has seen the transition from film todigital HD video for image acquisition, as well as the end of the traditional lab “colortiming” to the rise of the DI (digital intermediate) process of computer based color

manipulation.

It has been a weird time for cameras and coloring. Film purists have been afraid to letgo of how things have been done; while newbies shoot badly lit video and drop garishpixel smashing plug-ins on their movies. Everyone is still kind of freaked out about it all.

Color grading in Magic Bullet Looks is a process of artful destruction. The moreprocesses you pile on to your image, the less of your original image remains. But thatʼsa fine thing to do. Coloring, to me, is about deciding what parts of your imagesʼ tonaland color range are essential, and what parts are superfluous.

Color is visceral. I think of coloring as editing the hue and tone of the raw image toreveal the emotion of the frame. My goal has been to balance that emotion whileminimizing process -- preserving what the story needs. Each family of Looks helps tella common story that you will make unique when you add it to your image. Some ofthese looks are complicated, some are really simple. Please use them as a jumping offpoint to create your own.

This collection of Looks if for your next festival submission. So crank up the SufjanStevens, or Arcade Fire, and get that pot of Fair Trade coffee brewing. Deadlines arelooming, better hurry up.

Best of Luck,

Eric Escobarprepshootpost.blogspot.com

MODESTO MOTEL

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MODESTO MOTEL

Gratuitous use of the Swing-Tilt effect -- a nice way to let everyone know that thisisnʼt happening right now, rather itʼs from way back in your past of three monthsago.

Wouldnʼt it be great to just shoot this thing through coffee grounds, and then runit, one frame at a time, through a late 90ʼs color copy machine?Process is art.

REMENTO

FADE INTO YOU

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MODESTO MOTEL

Super punchy and saturated. Cool in the shadows, warm in the highlights, a littletouch of blue-green in the mids. It was so awesome for Fuji to donate stock toyour grad school film program, too bad it was only 400 feet.

Sooner or later youʼre going to have to move there. And yes, in this Look called“Los Angeles” there is a smoggy colored gradient, and smoggy colored diffusionon the highlights. While not every day is smoggy, many days are.

FILM(SCHOOL)STOCK

LOS ANGELES

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MODESTO MOTEL

In the central nervous system, serotonin plays an important role as aneurotransmitter in the modulation of anger, aggression, body temperature, mood,sleep, human sexuality, appetite, and metabolism, as well as stimulating vomiting.

LoFi, like a brown paper bag. LoFi, like no script and a vague notion toimprovise everything. LoFi like unemployment and checks from home.

SEROTONIN

MUMBLEFISH

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MODESTO MOTEL

I know we all under-light our interiors, not because we mean to, but because we don ʼthave the cash for a genny, and weʼre really worried about popping circuits in our

friendʼs apartment building. We

ʼd so lose our location if anyone catches us shooting in

here.

Thatʼs why I came up with these Looks for all of you auto-gain maniacs. Check out thesample footage, and my how-to videos on lighting with a single light and practicals. Imean, you do need some light, right?

Open the blinds for crying out loud!

INT. DAY - UNFURNISHED APARTMENT

ORIGINAL

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BEDROOM

MODESTO MOTEL

Your days are numbered. But what amazingly numbered days they are.

This is the kind of a color grade Anthony Bregman* would approve of.

*I have no idea what kind of color correction Mr. Bregman would approve of.

BEDROOM

SPOTLESS

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MODESTO MOTEL

According to some film theorists, the color red is short hand for caution, ordanger. It could also just mean your print has been sitting around for a fewdecades.

Movies about drug addicts are boring. So you better do all kinds of cameratrickery to keep everyoneʼs attention away from the inevitable and predictableending of your meth-tastic epic.

ROSE GLASSES

SPIN

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MODESTO MOTEL

For close-ups, use this as-is. For wides and mediums disable the swing-tilt.Moody, preserves skin tones, but pushes blues into the bloom around your lightsources. Itʼll make you want to backlight every shot with a window.

GUS

RYAN

“Iʼve seen your picture on a hundred dollar bill.” Your lead actress is about tomake the most important speech in your short film, itʼll make or break your career,better use the edge defocus on the her.

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MODESTO MOTEL

Then there are those times when youʼre shooting everything in your parentʼs basementthat youʼve made into a “set”. Which means no sources of natural light, just practicals

(aka a desk lamp stolen from your momʼs office) and a small light kit borrowed from a

friend. Donʼt despair!

Here are some looks to add some flavor to your bare bones production package.

We can get through this together.

INT. DAY - WINDOWLESS OFFICE

ORIGINAL

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MODESTO MOTEL

You decide to take that trip up highway 5 to San Francisco. Then your car breaksdown and you have to check into that little motel in the San Joaquin Valley. Thiscould be the start of a bad genre film, or a great character drama, or both.

Who says you canʼt make a film by computer design?Developers can do anything. Take your time, measure the light, plan it down toa science and shoot it on 16mm reversal, one take per shot. No mistakes.

MODESTO MOTEL

SOFTWARE DEVELOPER

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MODESTO MOTEL

There is a reason why they dim the lights in bars.

Drain the color off the walls, make sure skin goes pale and blood is really red.Rubber hose is optional.

CHEAP DRINKS

3RD DEGREE