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Kevin and David Make a Porno
A conversation with Zack and Miri Make a Porno director Kevin Smith and cinematographer David Klein
(Page 2)
Zack and Miri Make a Porno was filmed on the streets of Pittsburgh and at the Monroeville Mall (where George Romero filmed Night of the Living Dead) during the winter months of 2007 to 2008. A cold, urban setting was the perfect backdrop, Smith explains, because it is the last place you would expect someone to make a pornographic movie. It also visually punctuates Zack and Miri’s naiveté and provides contrast for the heat of their evolving romance.
That romance was also emphasized with a 1.85:1 aspect ratio, which Smith and Klein agreed was perfect for an intimate story that frequently plays on the actors’ faces. “As a romantic relationship evolves between Zack and Miri, there is an intimacy that plays on their faces that is very moving,” Smith says. “When that happens, the rest of the world disappears for them. That’s a testimony to the talent Seth and Elizabeth brought to the film. You can feel the heat in the love they have for each other. It is a very powerful and emotional drama in the midst of a bawdy comedy.”
“I never light a comedy differently than a drama,” Klein explains. “There are a lot of single camera shots, which enables the audience to see scenes through a character’s eyes. I used small sources to put a little light in their eyes. It’s very subtle… just enough to get the audience to look into [them] and see what they are thinking and feeling.”
After the film was edited offline, the conformed negative was scanned at 4K resolution and down-sampled to 2K to speed up the workflow during interactive DI timing sessions. DI colorist David Cole, of Los Angeles-based LaserPacific, explains that over-sampling scanning resolution is relatively inexpensive and it renders a truer range of tones and colors.
Cole had previously collaborated with Smith and Klein on Clerks II. “That helped immensely because we had developed a shorthand for communicating,” Cole observes. “I also saw tests that had been shot during pre-production and had a sense of their vision. David could say things like, ‘Zack is looking at her in a romantic light in this scene,’ and I knew he wanted me to bring the background down a bit and emphasize the light in her eyes.”
“If an actor is flatly lit, we can try to fix it in DI, but it never looks as natural,” Klein warns. “It has to begin with properly lit shots that have the right contrast built into the exposed negative. DI is an extension of cinematography. It’s more about enhancing moods and feelings than fixing technical things. We also made exterior locations in Pittsburgh look even colder than they were.”
The cinematographer’s palette included KODAK VISION3 500T 5219, which allowed him to push the negative one and two stops, to cover the darkest night scenes without creating grain. He used three-perf 35mm trimmed raw stock to maintain image quality and rein in lab costs.
“Zack and Miri live in a very drab world in the beginning,” Smith says. “Everything is colorless. Zack works in a place where the background has kind of a drab brown tone with some brighter colors in wardrobes. As the love story evolves, the colors in settings and costumes get subtly brighter. I never used to think like that.”
Interjects Klein, “Making a movie with Kevin is a fresh, new experience every time.”
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COMMENTS | POST A COMMENT 
- Comment by sikiş izle on 7/30/09 at 5:03 am
it is interesting. Good. i like it.
- Comment by vidyo izle on 5/26/10 at 3:48 pm
good job. thank you…
- Comment by صور on 12/21/10 at 2:35 pm
thank you very much
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صور للماسنجر- Comment by صور on 12/21/10 at 2:35 pm
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