How They Created the Naturalistic Look of 'There Will Be Blood' (1/2) | Cinematography
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 27 ก.พ. 2019
- BONUS FOR PATRONS: Rare Crew Photos on the Set of There Will Be Blood - bit.ly/2Eqpa5l
Aside from the brilliant performance of Daniel Day-Lewis as oilman Daniel Plainview, Paul Thomas Anderson’s 2007 film There Will Be Blood is perhaps best known for its beautifully naturalistic cinematography, which was nominated for over 20 different awards including a win for Best Achievement in Cinematography at the Academy Awards. So, how did they do it? Today we will take a look at what cameras, lenses, and film stock they used, as well as the real locations, naturalistic lighting, and how they got some of the tricky shots. This is Making Film.
#RobertElswit #PaulThomasAnderson #Cinematography #ThereWillBeBlood
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This video essay was written, edited, and narrated by Tyler Knudsen.
Sources:
“Blood for Oil” by Stephen Pizzello - American Cinematographer - bit.ly/2SSqJmm
Mental Floss - bit.ly/2qPrSLx
Giant Ambition by James Ponsoldt - bit.ly/2F5Hlvg
Cinephilia & Beyond - ’There Will Be Blood’: Paul Thomas Anderson’s Epic Take on American Identity with Day-Lewis’ Performance of a Lifetime - bit.ly/2mLaFRM
15 Things You (Probably) Didn’t Know About There Will Be Blood - bit.ly/2Jd52UK
There Will Be Blood - Interview with Daniel-Day Lewis & Paul Thomas Anderson (2007) (Charlie Rose) - bit.ly/2SWPxd5
Mental Floss - bit.ly/2qPrSLx
INTERVIEW Paul Thomas Anderson by Josh Modell - bit.ly/2HjMpSD
Reel Pieces with Annette Insdorf - Daniel Day Lewis and Paul Thomas Anderson on There Will Be Blood - bit.ly/2AKaudJ
LowLightVideos - Choose Cinematography Lenses to Suit the Story - bit.ly/2Ei4r3B
Light The Fuse Podcast - Robert Elswit on There Will Be Blood, Punch Drunk Love and Not Working With PTA Anymore - bit.ly/2SSt1ls
Clips:
There Will Be Blood (2007 dir. Paul Thomas Anderson)
Hard Eight (1996 dir. Paul Thomas Anderson)
Boogie Nights (1997 dir. Paul Thomas Anderson)
Magnolia (1999 dir. Paul Thomas Anderson)
Punch-Drunk Love (2002 dir. Paul Thomas Anderson)
Waterland (1992 dir. Stephen Gyllenhaal)
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948 dir. John Huston)
Once Upon a Time in the West (1968 dir. Sergio Leone)
Good Night, and Good Luck (2005 dir. George Clooney)
Solaris (2002 dir. Steven Soderbergh)
Memoirs of a Geisha (2005 dir. Rob Marshall)
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007 dir. Andrew Dominik)
Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation (2015 dir. Christopher McQuarrie)
Nightcrawler (2014 dir. Dan Gilroy)
O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000 dir. Joel and Ethan Coen)
Guardians of the Galaxy (2014 dir. James Gunn)
Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002 dir. Peter Jackson)
Music:
Epidemic Sound - บันเทิง
This film was brilliant. The editing, the cinematography, the music, the acting, the dialogue, the set design, and the casting. Flawless.
The story
CORRECTION: at 9:37 Two sentences in the film stock section are completely wrong.
For shooting on daylight-balanced film: "This means the darker the location that you are filming, the bluer or cooler the image will be.' This is the opposite-- the darker the scene on daylight-balanced film, the oranger or warmer the image will be.
I go on to say that Tungsten light is "more of a bluish or cool light." In fact, this is the opposite. Tungsten light is warm/orange and shooting on Tungsten film with daylight balanced lights will give a blue/cool look. Apologies.
Daylight-Balanced Film = Orange/Warm
Daylight-Balanced Light = Blue/Cool
Tungsten-Balanced Film = Blue/Cool
Tungsten-Balanced Light = Orange/Warm
Many thanks to Wing Flanagan and Nick Toss for pointing that out.
its all about colour temp compensation.
See also: color correction gels to round out your basic lighting knowledge. These are gels placed over lights to correct the color temperature of the unit (so you can mix HMI and Tungsten units). You don’t need in depth knowledge of this aspect of lighting for what you do on TH-cam, but knowing about it in general might be helpful.
Also, fwiw, color correction gels are usually placed directly on the unit (clipped onto the barn doors), and thus are the responsibility of the electricians/lighting technicians (whereas diffusion gels are generally the responsibility of the grip department). This generally holds true on sets with clear division of responsibilities between departments. On your lower budget shows with non-union (and smaller) crews, this isn’t always the case.
Thank you
There's also more to correct exposure than just ISO. There's also aperture and shutter speed.
"As strange as it sounds, simplicity can often be a difficult mindset to stay in"
Especially in this day and age! The hard part is to keep it simple when editing.
FACTS
@@DeanHarringtonimages I think it was Sterwart Copeland who said the best way to play music is to hear as many notes as you can and then choose to only play half of them. It's applicable in any field I guess.
the shot at 8:46 is probably my favorite shot ever in modern cinema (if not in cinema history) it's just so perfect and so narrative.
Issa feel
It's one of my favorite shots, too. I always thought it would make a great movie poster for the film, but then I thought it might mislead people about the film. Very complex shot- like you said, very narrative. It says everything about Plainview's character. I saw this film 4 times in the theater in 2-3 weeks when it came out. That shot stayed with me.
As a pleb who knows nothing about the technical aspects of cinematography, I found this video incredibly educational. I paused several times to look up and understand terminology. TWBB is my favorite film of all time from a storytelling and character standpoint, and now I can appreciate its technical prowess as well!
Actually, tungsten light is warmer (more orange) than daylight. Its black-body color temperature is nominally 3200k, where daylight is about 5500k. In real life, of course, there are variations. Perhaps you were referring to the fact that shooting with tungsten-balanced film in daylight looks really, really bluish. But that's because the film stock is shifted blue to compensate for the warmer tungsten color temperature.
To make tungsten look orange, you use an 85 filter which is normally used with tungsten film when shooting in daylight to compensate for the bluer light from the sun and sky.
Excellent, video, BTW!
Thanks for the correction! I pinned a correction at the top. I think playing around with RAW clips in DaVinci Resolve confused me because changing the white-balance to Tungsten when shot in daylight makes the footage look blue/cool.
@@CinemaTyler Glad I could help! I love your videos, and appreciate that you understood my observations in the spirit with which they were intended. :-)
@@wingflanagan Absolutely! This channel started as a way for me to teach myself filmmaking, so as tricky as it can be to get into some of these more technical areas, I always come away with extremely useful information (usually by comments like yours!).
Tungsten, or Wolfram, is the filament in the classic light bulb.
Light is a tricky mistress.
as a pastel artist, i have never seen a movie that offered so many opportunities to paint from an image. it could keep me busy for many lifetimes. beautiful. even the simplest of images are mini masterpieces
Loved the video but please do 'THE MASTER'!
Nikolas Harris agreed - the Master was a painting
If he does The Master, I'd prefer he take a different angle on it than the cinematography - not that that one isn't beautiful, but for the sake of variety. He could approach it from the perspective of writing and editing, and the way in which films find their own shapes (there is a fascinating amount of material in the script of the master which was never even filmed).
Yes,,maby even go into what of it is truth with different names and what is made up.
P.S.Hoffman outstanding.
Nikolas Harris great film, I’ve always liked somewhat “disjointed” or “loosely” defined slow moving films without much conclusion. In fact I’m not a fan of endings.
I do love when Daniel Plainview MURRR-DURRRRS Eli. “I’m FINNNNNISHHED!” Lol reminds me of me.
Always thoughtful and worth the time. Thanks.
I really enjoyed this episode and I'm looking forward to the next part!
Absolutely fascinating, thank you for this Tyler. One of my favorite movies, and this added even more awe and appreciation!
incredible work by PTA and Elswit, One of my fave directed and photographed films of all time
Fantastic job on your research. Loved all the information about the lens choices and film stock.
I loved every bit of this essay, you just rocked it as always Tyler! gogo 100k subs!
What a brilliant video. Thanks for putting so much effort in
Paul was clearly paying attention to all Elswit had to teach because the photography in Phantom Thread is exquisite!
I wonder if the Truck rolling down the hill scene in Licorice Pizza is worthy of examination? That scene is epic!
Thanks for doing this! One of my most favorite films
These videos are invaluable. Thanks so much for the time and effort you put into them.
Please continue all his films! The Master might be the best film ever
I bought my first issue of AC in 1985, and still love this stuff as much as the first time I learned about it. The options that we have when creating a look are mind blowing . Flashing, The ENR process, and so many other innovations were things that I saw come into use, and now we have Digital Grading, and the ability to add any background we want. This is the time for anyone who is serious about film to do something. You can get your work seen by millions of people in a week and the excuses for not doing it have disappeared.
thanks man, great essay, i'm waiting for part 2
Despite all the great movies and classics I’ve seen since I’ve watched TWBB, it’s still my favorite movie. Perfect acting, characters, cinematography, etc.
Same. TWWB is a masterpiece.
Fantastic film. My favorite of PTA. His other films do nothing for me.
awesome video, amazing how much research you put into this
Great work as usual. Very insightful. Cheers
wow man - this video just blew my mind. i love this stuff - and "there will be blood" is a masterpiece - in my opinion. if you keep making videos like this - i'll keep watching them.
Such an amazing amount of research deserves a standing ovation.
Such a great video man. Very well explained, it seems you have done a huge investigational work. Congrats.
Thanks!
Great channel. Thanks, Tyler.
Thanks for the amazing content!
Absolutely phenomenal as always!
You have a lovely sound to your prose Tyler, great video as always!
I love this channel, man. Thank you.
Great video. Really educational
Amazing video. I usually learn more from this videos than going to class. Fourth semester film student here...
Really great analysis for a really great film!
Awesome video!
Wow, this was truly fantastic. It's been highly interesting watching your videos from the beginning and sharing your evolution. I found this one exceptional, well-researched, and highly informative. Kudos, Tyler.
This film remains one of my all-time favorites, I was utterly enthralled the first time I saw it and the multiple viewings since has not diminished its magic. Part of this, of course, is the acting and direction, but the filming techniques they used is a very big part of it. You enlightened a great deal of those specific techniques I was unaware of, along with other details.
I think the Anamorphic format is easily the most visually riveting in film, at least for me; there is something about it that goes right to the core and holds you there in a way that goes deeper than words. Appreciate the upload, I look forward to future installments.
Thanks so much! I totally know what you mean. This is one of the 10 or 15 movies that I can jump into at any moment in the film and I HAVE to watch it to the end.
Surprised we don’t have black bars instead of this weird background image. Especially given the subject matter
It might be to fool the “automated blockers” employed by copyright holders to take down TH-cam videos. It doesn’t matter to them that the use is valid-it puts the onus on the TH-cam creator to appeal the takedown and justify their usage of the material.
This was great, thanks. Would you consider researching/ breaking down Jodorowsky's "The Holy Mountain" or "Santa Sangre"?
I actually need to get into Jodorowsky. I saw El Topo for the first time at a midnight screening a few months ago and loved it.
Fascinating! Thank you so much. I subscribed when you had less than 3k subscribers, witnessing your growth makes me proud.
Thanks! It has been quite a journey! I just hope I'm getting better at this ;)
CinemaTyler You are! Your videos became much more detailed and informative
Bravo 👏 Bravo 👏
158 minutes long yet I could watch it every single day from here till the end.
It's so engrossing I didn't notice that it is a long film.
Every which way you look at it, There Will Be Blood is one of the best films ever made. Hail PTA
Well damn this is a good channel. Well done.
You deal with the movies I like most
I always look forward to your videos. TYVM ! I take many pics using old camera's and even old film I find on e-bay, which I develop myself... doesn't always turn out well. People say, "why don't you just use your smartphone" ? ;)
Your videos are gems. They are of professional quality. If this was a special feature on a DVD of There Will Be Blood I had purchased, I would not be disappointed. But especially your videos on Dog Day Afternoon and Network. Incredible. Please do something on Serpico, another Sidney Lumet classic.
Best film analysis channel on TH-cam.
Not sure how you could watch the work of Deakins or Lubezki, or Cuaron's Roma and remain a film purist. Honestly I think one of the greatest things that has come from digital is the way it has forced creativity in those who still want to use film. Like if you wanna do it you've gotta justify it. So whereas in the past filmmakers were often striving to hide the imperfections of film now we get more people embracing them and exploring what is unique and harder to reproduce digitally. Plus we can appreciate them more now that we have a different medium to compare to.
Personally I prefer a bit film look for daylight or well lit images, digital however allows you to work with condition where film would simply produce an unacceptable quality.
Lubezki makes great digital images, but personally very digital cinematography feels fake and kinda ugly. Even Roma or 2049
Using PTA as an example again, he used film stock from the 70's to shoot Inherent Vice on. I even heard stories of trampling on the stock to rough it up that bit more, but that sounds a little exaggerated!
But even then, Lubezki’s best work imo are his films with Malick, which are all shot on film. However, I would say being a film purist or denouncing film for digital is a very narrow way to look at things. It reminds me of the online videogame console wars haha. Just do what you think is best for your film, not need to be an absolutist about it.
That is kind of what people are saying, if you read more carefully. The use of film on a movie is often justified by the film maker. It is more costly than digital, so if a film maker chooses it, it will be for good reason. If you have good reason why it is being used, then it i ceases to be 'absolutist' as that suggests mindless inability to differ from what is normally done. @@LordJagd
"I can't stand lens flare" -- Roger Deakins.
Me too Roger! Me too......
Why? They look beautiful!
@@nathanaelmarklew8818 It all depends on how they look and how much there are of them. Some flaring or blooming _must_ be had or else it will look unnatural, but also if you go full Michael Bay hand have flaring all over the place it will look distracting and also unnatural. Balance is always the key, with the balance leaning towards what Roger Deakins do of course ;)
Shooting 200ASA indoors at night.
Crazy stuff.
Great video
You've got a cool channel, and so far have covered seriously amazing films!
excellent, as always
I like how u put the imputus on the commenters to add more insight to your video. First time I have seen that done on TH-cam.
Thank you for this!
this film was made by someone who really loves films, amazing.
Great analysis! Really liked the part about lens characteristics. As far the the film stocks go tungsten lights are actually more towards the orange side of the spectrum, so if you use non tungsten lights on tungsten film it will be bluer. Think about what happens when you set your white balance on a digital camera to 3200, the daylight coming in from the outside will look very blue.
Great work Tyler!
Thanks!
The way this movie was filmed gave it the look of a colorized photo from the turn of the century and it’s perfect. Especially that scene on the train with baby HW. If you pause it, it looks like a photograph taken in the late 1800s that’s been colorized.
this was amazing, thanks. I do have one advice to give: since you put so much enphasis on the stylistic choices of the filmmakers, and on composition, lighting and other important visual characteristics of the image, i feel like your videos would get the message across much more effitienly if you din´t "complete" the frame of the video with those added images where the top and bottom black bars would be. I think that the selection of shots that you showed alongside the interesting ideas about the filmmaking are perfect, and show that you realy have a strong sensitivity to the plasticity of the images, you seem to know what works, but i feel that it would´ve been much easier for me to appreciate it without that orange background.
Sorry if my english is not correct and, again, thank you for the video, you have a new subscriber.
I was recommended this at a good time. Just last week was my first viewing of The Treasure of the Sierra Madre.
This movie is just PERFECT
thank god for this video. every one of my niche interests crammed into a single video
Very interesting. Thank you.
Awesome !
"That was one goddamn hell of a show" love your videos man
New Cinema Tyler video: 👏
On There Will Be Blood: "I'm Finished!"
One of the best movies ever made. Gets better everytime i watch the movie
Thank you for doing something other than KUBRICK.
This is very nice work, insightful, and adds to our current knowledge. It is well researched, well written, and well planned and has excellent flow. There are zero jarring jump cuts or other 'youtubey' cheapness.
Kudos on a masterful effort.
Kubrick videos have become cliche, trite and a dime-a-dozen and nothing new has been offered by any takes in the last 10 years. As a culture, we need to let it rest for a while and maybe revisit it all again in another generation. There are so many other brilliant artists out there it makes zero sense to continue obsession with Kubrick at this stage unless one is just dipping into the well again for cheap view counts and to spike viewership. Your long series on 2001 was just fantastic but going to it again and again becomes derivative and each subsequent efforts is weaker.
You have some really brilliant work ahead of you! Good luck.
Where do you get all this info from? Do you just watch a ton of interviews or is this information collected anywhere?
I just take notes on articles and interviews/clips/commentaries and organize them into categories for potential videos. Then I separate the info into subcategories and that becomes the segments of the video.
Damn! Excellent work
One of the best films ever made!
It's absolutely worth watching There Will Be Blood in black and white if your TV can switch to that mode, it's arguably a better experience that way, some things are lost but plenty is gained. It's just another way of enjoying a great film. Not sure what PTA would think of the practice though aha
As someone that works within the industry as a camera assistant you’ll find a lot of DP’s, at least the ones that are any good, argue that it’s better to allow the equipment to create the ‘look’ rather than any post production. However, in doing that the production costs of shooting film and even renting glass such as the ones used here are astronomical.
Awesome video
Cool Video ! 👍 You're my favourite channel on TH-cam. But one question: Would you consider making a video about "Vertigo", "Blue Velvet", or "Eyes Wide ? 🤓 Shut" ?
Film looks georgous but man am I ever glad digital is an option now. Choosing the right film stock sounds like a nightmare.
thanks for the interesting video
btw orange background image is a little bit distracting
Thanks for the kind words and the suggestion! I usually throw in a background image to help trip up Content ID and make the video more cohesive. I also feel it kind of lends itself more to the feeling of deconstruction and analysis as opposed to the immersion you get with the film image being the only thing you see. Perhaps this background image is a bit too busy at the bottom though.
@J.T. Agreed. The orange is fine.
@J.T. I actually stole the idea from Art of the Scene on CineFix ;)
This is one of the greatest films ever made.
Before watching this video I knew absolutely everything there is to know about There Will Be Blood.
After watching it I *actually* now know absolutely everything there is to know about There Will Be Blood.
This is incredible! Thank you so much for this amazing video. It really is a beautiful film.
I am very interested, would you ever do a video on how the Coen brothers achieve that almost fake-looking stage play like cinematography in Hail Caesar and The Ballad of Buster Scruggs?
Thanks! I was just thinking about that while watching Buster Scruggs. The whole movie has this staged look that really adds to the whimsy of the story.
Tungsten means more warm, so they were using film for tungsten light in those night scenes to take the orange OUT and balance them to look like the rest of the film. That means they were using a ton of strong orange lighting on the set when they filmed, as motivated by the candlelight and gas laterns in the scene.
I don’t think anyone could accuse me of being a technophobe, and I generally hate to be an absolutist or a purist about anything. But having watched a steady diet of television shot on digital cameras lately, clips like these remind me of the luminous beauty of film that we’re still in danger of losing. High resolution cameras are looking better these days, and we’re starting to see more examples of them used well, but higher and higher resolution isn’t going to overcome what they lack. The blooming, luminous quality of light and shade-I’ve never seen a digital camera do that in the painterly way that film can. Maybe more significantly, there’s a quality film has when the camera is moved, I don’t know either technically nor subjectively how to describe it, but there’s a kinetic energy to the way film captures or reacts to movement. You can see that even in the slow tracking shots in these clips. It’s magical. And it isn’t about digital cameras not properly capturing or imitating film’s aesthetic, it’s about them lacking the intrinsic qualities which make film feel alive, and which have made the art form of cinema what it is. It would be like doing away with canvas for oil painters, saying that some new completely neutral or digital material is a suitable replacement because it’s more flexible and accurate. But you can’t just sever an art form from its roots and expect not to loose something essential. It would be a tragedy for the world to let film die.
I think a movie can't look any more beautiful
Shame the blu ray doesn't do it justice
Nice!
For those that do shoot film and want a more cinematic look. Try cinestill film. They’re reasonably priced and use rebadged movie film stock. They have tons of different stocks to create different casts like those mentioned here. Lots to explore there.
Daniel-Day Lewis gave the best performance of all time in this movie. Period
The important part about the light at golden hour is not so much its color of the light but its angle. We perceive lighting as aesthetically pleasing when the angle of incidence is about 45° because it makes it easier to see into people's eyes. Or, at least that is my theory...
Would have been nice to know if/when they used studio lighting. Also shooting daylight balance doesnt mean dark areas are more blue than light areas, it all depends on the colour of light coming out, and daylight balanced images are warmer than tungsten balanced ones. Otherwise great as usual!
Love this movie
My favorite movie. DDL is a beast.
got that wutang song playing in the back
or is it tribe called quest?
Why did you cut the aspect ratio?
Please answer this question, at 5:30 you describe the different focal lenghts 40, 50, 100...etc, and show the corresponding shot. But how do you know that one shot is precisely shot with that specific lens ? How do you recognize a 50mm shot by sight ? thanks
I've included a little note at the bottom saying that I'm just guessing, but I made my guesses based on how compressed the image looked. The ones where the bg seemed to be much closer to the subjects than in other shots must have been shot on a longer lens.
@@CinemaTyler ok thanks I didn't catch the note. But I remember Guillermo Del Toro talking about that, and saying that he could tell which lens by sight. I find it impossible to tell the difference between 40 and 50...etc. Maybe it's possible.
I understood nothing, yet this was cool
ANOTHER CORRECTION(?) -- For the 50D film stock, if it's balanced for daylight (which is blue light) then the film stock would have an orange tone to counteract this. I believe you said the opposite at 9:04 "the darker the location you're shooting, the bluer or cooler the image will be." If it gets dark, the blue light will go away and all you should be left with is the orangey film stock color. Please someone check me on this.
Awesome video!
Thanks for the correction. I think you're right because, in order to counteract the blue of the daylight, the film stock must then be warmer. I've added the info to the pinned correction. Thanks!
@@CinemaTyler Thanks Tyler!
Will You ever cover The Master?
Would you consider doing a video on the master ?Great essay though 🙂
I’d love that, especially one on the film’s elliptical narrative structure.
I love The Master! I've actually visited some of the locations around the Bay Area. I'll definitely do something on The Master someday!
@@CinemaTyler Really! That's cool. I love visiting Point Reyes National Seashore and spotting all the locations in John Carpenter's The Fog.
Robert Elswit is my spirit animal.
Their will be blood, for me the 2nd best film of 21st century .only second to Mulholland drive
What's your view
What about LOTR
I'd have to put it at #1, though I haven't watched Mulholland Dr. In many years and I've acquired a taste for Lynch since. It's top of my list for films to revisit and I'm pretty sure it will be a fast favorite. Off the top of my head I would throw Requiem for a Dream somewhere in the top 10 or 20 of the century so far.
The Tree of Life and Antichrist are up there for me.
@@Thespeedrap good film but their are several other great films
@@thomasmacisaac1503 my list is
1. Mulholland drive
2. There will be blood
3. White ribbon
4. City of God
5. Synecdoche ,New York
6. Blue rain
7. A field in England
8. Tree of life
9. Django unchained
10. No country for old man
50 iso? O my. How fast was that lense? 😳Was the film pushed in any way?
Can your next film be about tree of life. Its editing, filming and staging. Please!!
This please
Definitely want to do something on Tree of Life someday!