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Black Snake Moan HD Post Update

Jan 9, 2007 8:00 AM, By Michael Goldman

Almost a year ago, Editor Billy Fox preached to HD Focus about the joys of using HD dailies and HD previews for Craig Brewer’s feature film, Black Snake Moan. (See digitalcontent
producer.com/e-newsletters/hd_focus_022806/ to read more). Now, the quirky sexual drama is set to debut this month at the Sundance Film Festival (See our coverage of the festival here.), and Fox, Brewer, and the film’s co-producer, John Singleton, are singing those HD praises louder than ever. In the upcoming January/February issue of Millimeter, they detail the film’s workflow, the key role played by HD dailies and HD previews, and the entire digital intermediate process, performed at FotoKem, Burbank, Calif., for the project.

Singleton insists “this method is the best way to make movies.” He’s quick to emphasize he’s referring to HD dailies and HD post generally—how images are manipulated after acquisition, since he still prefers to shoot film.

“I’m not curious about HD cameras for making movies, because I generally like the way film looks, and I think video is too sharp for what the eye is used to seeing within feature films,” Singleton says. “But having said that, [once we transfer film], we now have high-end HD dailies and previews, and the previews are phenomenal. Back in the day, when I started, everything was analog and on film, and you had to send stuff to the lab and wait a couple days to see how the optical would turn out. Now, all that has changed. This project exemplifies the interesting things that have happened with post in the last seven or eight years. Now, the negative is just a springboard for everything else.”

Brewer, a protégé of Singleton’s and his producing partner, Stephanie Allain, concurs wholeheartedly.

“Before now, the problem with digital dailies was the fact that it was distracting seeing burn-ins and artifacts,” Brewer says. “Now, we have HD dailies coming in on DVD that are amazingly clear, and they get to us far quicker, letting us to work the way we want to work. We can project the [evolving] movie digitally for an audience and get instant reaction that you can immediately take back to the editing room.”

Fox, who worked closely with engineers at FotoKem to help Black Snake Moan filmmakers perfect a workflow that he has been promoting for years, concedes there is an industry debate going on right now about the quality of HD dailies for film-acquired projects, and whether they do, or do not, give filmmakers sufficient visual information to understand what their final imagery will look like when exhibited on film. But, from his point of view, he suggests that debate is moot because he says the advantages far outweigh the disadvantages in terms of workflow efficiency and the resulting creative flexibility that efficiency normally leads to.

“One factor was the fact that we were working with FotoKem, and doing everything in one facility, under one roof,” Fox says. “They did a phenomenal job with the HD dailies, along with everything else. Obviously, you need to work with people who know what they are doing [when it comes to HD dailies]. But beyond that, when I worked for John Singleton on Four Brothers [as co-editor, along with Bruce Cannon], we screened film dailies. We used the old way of temp dubs, conforming work prints, locking a cut two weeks before a preview screening, and all that. We were viewing dailies at two in the morning. Today, we are screening the movie digitally on a 50ft. screen the day after [seeing HD dailies].

“Are there differences between HD and film images? Sure—color space is different, and there are some colors and tones that don’t translate between the digital and photo-chemical processes. But we know what those are now, and we grade everything with those concepts in mind from the very beginning. So, for me, it’s a moot point. We shot [Black Snake Moan) on film, but I don’t really care how you acquire the images. When it comes into my [Apple Final Cut Pro editing] system, it will all become transparent. If you shoot on film, that is the last tie the movie will have to film, especially once we fully transition to digital cinema, which is continuing to creep up on us.”

For a detailed look at the making of Black Snake Moan, see the upcoming January/February issue of Millimeter.

© 2008 Penton Media, Inc.