New Frontiers in Digital Moviemaking

Richard Kelly and Kevin Smith take a giant leap into the future

by Bob Fisher | Published June 22, 2006

At first glance, it would seem hard to find two films more different than Kevin Smith’s Clerks 2 and Richard Kelly’s Southland Tales. But if cinema has taught us anything it’s that looking beneath the surface of things can often yield surprising results. For example, both pictures were shot in practical locations in Southern California and feature Smith in a supporting role. Both films also took advantage of the latest technology and explored the benefits of using a digital intermediate, or DI process, whereby a conformed negative is scanned and converted to a digital file.

There are two primary advantages to using a DI: One is that the cinematographer and director can isolate and alter any element of a frame. So skin tones can be made paler, the hue of a candle can be made warmer, objects can be removed or backgrounds can be made darker. The second advantage is that the digital files are recorded directly onto the film, eliminating the need for optical blow-ups for films produced in Super 16 and Super 35. In 2005, an estimated 200 films were timed at some 20 U.S. facilities offering DI services—Clerks 2 and Southland Tales among them.

Clerks 2 begins in New Jersey, where the two main characters from the original film are now working at a fast food restaurant. Smith dreamed up a character-driven comedy where the camerawork is subjective, as though the audience is an invisible character observing the antics of old friends. Southland Tales is a surrealistic journey to the year 2008, where L.A. stands on the brink of social, economic and environmental disaster. With elements of drama, science-fi ction and music, the story is set over the course of three days and features a large ensemble cast.

Clerks 2 marks Smith’s fourth collaboration with DP David Klein. Smith and Klein met while they were students in a oneyear moviemaking program at Vancouver Film School. Clerks, their first professional venture, was filmed during the late evening hours at a convenience store in New Jersey, where Smith worked during the day. The film earned critical raves when it was released in 1994 and quickly attained cult status.

One of the first conversations between Smith and Klein was, of course, whether to shoot on film or digital. (The original Clerks was shot on black-and-white, 16mm film.) “I didn’t feel that digital was right for this film for several reasons,” Klein says. “One reason is that an entire wall of the set consisted of a window that would be in the background on many shots. We needed every stop of latitude that film offers. If we were shooting with digital cameras, we would have had hard gels coming on and off windows all the time; I didn’t want to waste precious time.”

David Klein shoots Kevin Smith’s Clerks II (2006).

In contrast, Southland Tales is only the second go-around for Kelly and DP Steven Poster. The two met in 2001 when Poster lensed Kelly’s cult favorite Donnie Darko. Like Smith, it was the writer-director’s first foray into professional moviemaking after graduating from film school at USC (Poster already had some 40 narrative credits).

With a six-week shooting schedule for both films, both DPs suggested DI as a solution to the time crunch. “We had a scene with one of our main female characters sitting on the steps at the bottom of a staircase,” remembers Poster. “Richard and I agreed that we wanted a darker look in the background. Instead of spending time flagging ambient light off the background, I decided we could do it much faster in DI.”

Southland Tales presented a unique visual challenge in that a large portion of the film was shot as surveillance footage. “The surveillance issues/64/images have a distinct video look that is very different from the rest of the film,” Poster says. “It sets an emotional tone that audiences will recognize on a subliminal level.”

Poster recorded issues/64/images onto Kodak VISION2 5218 film, which he describes as a relatively fine grain 500-speed film that renders a texture that he felt was right for the story. For Clerks 2, Klein chose the same negative, “pushing” (or manipulating) it a stop for night scenes. Black-and-white negative constitutes the opening shot, and Klein also opted to record a romantic dance sequence on Kodak VISION 5274 film for its ability to record richer colors.

Poster describes the DI process—which took 15 days to complete— as an interactive experience. The digital issues/64/images were projected onto a cinema-sized screen and Poster worked with colorist David Cole at LaserPacific to bring his and Kelly’s original vision to life.

“The main advantage of a DI is to allow the cinematographer to editorialize the issues/64/images just like a director would do in the editing room,” says Poster. “You have the ability to focus the attention of the audience on the elements that are important to tell the story. I believe that every part of every image informs the audience. Therefore, the importance of this process cannot be overemphasized.”

Sarah Michelle Gellar in Richard Kelly’s Southland Tales (2006).

Aesthetic aspects of Clerks 2 were also subtly enhanced during the DI sessions, which lasted nearly eight days. The film opens and closes in black and white, paying homage to its cinematic predecessor. Those issues/64/images were desaturated and grain was added in DI as the last shot gradually fades from color to black and white.

DI also enabled both productions to trim 25 percent of film and lab costs. Poster explains that issues/64/images were recorded onto frames of 35mm film that are three (rather than four) perforations long. After the offline edits were completed, the scenes were scanned and converted to digital master files to be graded during the DI. The resulting digital master film was then recorded onto four-perf 35mm film, which was used to generate final prints for the cinema.

Though it has its place in the world of moviemaking, both Klein and Poster think it’s dangerous to think you can fix anything in DI. Just like in the editing room, having an ample amount of material to play around with is the key to completing a film just as the director and cinematographer envisioned it.

Both DPs suggest getting as many details in colors, contrast and resolution as possible on the original negative, to give more flexibility for manipulating issues/64/images while amplifying emotions and creating a sense of place and time. After all, a film is only as good as its best footage. Concludes Poster: “You can’t enhance what isn’t on the original negative.” MM

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