Miami Vice

[Scott Jaco]

Just saw Miami Vice. Did anyone notice the grainy quality of the night shots?
It looks like they had the gain cranked up pretty hot on those cameras.

I guess I now have a cool selling point for my clients.
"Hey, my HD100 has that cool Miami Vice look! Uhh Yah! I wanted that dark dance floor at your wedding to look hot so I used +18db!"

[Jack Walker]

Here's the link that says just that, with more links that say it more:
http://www.dvguru.com/2006/07/28/the...of-miami-vice/

Some high-end TVs show, e.g. Cold Case and a slew of others, including some notable new ones yet to air, feature the video look: blown out whites, intense colors, blended edges, dreamy feel.

Maybe it's time to start promoting that "expensive high-end video look" you just can't get with those stodgy, old-fashioned film cameras.

[Brian Duke]

I watched the trailor and I didn't note any "video look." Infatc it looks great to me.

[Chris Hurd]

Moved from HD100 forum to Awake In The Dark.

[Scott Jaco]

Originally Posted by Brian Duke

I watched the trailor and I didn't note any "video look." Infatc it looks great to me.

You have to watch it on the big screen to see all the grainy night shots.

That was the first thing that tipped me off, that it was filmed using video.

[Christopher Watson]

Yes, very nasty looking grain on a lot of the shots in general; but some of the scenes were okay. It makes me think that perhaps production was a little overly run and gun at times. But that is just an armchair quarterback call. I liked Collateral for its look and was hoping to see something along those lines.

Chris

[Alan James]

I HATED the look of Miami Vice. Why bother going to the movies to see something that looks worse then what I can shoot myself? I go to movies to see good-looking quality work that took talented people to bring it to life. People spend many years learning how to artistically make film look nice. The lighting shown in this movie tells me that I don’t have to know anything at all to make a movie. All I have to do is point and shoot, probably with auto settings and everything. This is not saying that I don’t like HD. Superman returns looked great (yet was also a bad movie) and was shot completely on digital. Further more, I hated the story mostly because they treated it like a two-hour episode of the show, rather then introducing the characters like any other movie would. If this was a directorial decision by Mann then I no longer have any faith in his abilities. I wish I could find one good thing about the movie but unfortunately I can’t. Maybe the credits, I liked seeing them because I knew the movie was finally over, and they were a cool blue color, which was easy on the eyes.

[Christopher Hughes]

Likewise I saw the movie and thought it had a terrible script and story. Whats happening to films these days? both Superman and Miami Vice had all the exciting action in the trailers. In MV there was more action in the bedroom than there was with criminals. What happened to good explosions and fighting against the criminal underground?

Miami Vice was a bit wierd on the big screen. When it was nightshots it just looked flickery like video and seemed very digital, but the day shots didnt seem to appear too digital. Perhaps they changed the shutter for nightshots or something, but anyone who watches this on the bigscreen will see straight away on night shots how digital it looks, especially when there are under streetlights and in the Quays.

[Simon Wyndham]

I find most of the films these days to be far too long. So many of them are around 3hrs long! Its completely absurd. As if the art of tight editing has been completely forgotten. Its okay to let a film breathe if it is worth it, such as a huge epic. But for throwaway action movies the length is getting silly.

I hate to think how long the directors cuts of the future will be!

[Simon Wyndham]

I have trouble with this comment;

And the Miami Herald (my hometown paper) says, "Shot on high-definition digital cameras, the film's cinematography often looks grainy and drained of color -- a marked contrast to the vivid, MTV-slick style of the TV show."

The trouble with this is that the Viper is perfectly capable of making images that most of the general public would never know was digital. What made Miami Vice look as it did was the grading, not limitations of the camera.

Hopefully the 'grimey look' fad will be over soon. The last film that I saw at the cinema and really enjoyed was Terminator 3. And before that perhaps The Mask Of Zorro (I'm talking about American popcorn entertainment films here obviously). And before that Terminator 2.

Now, I've been a complete Hong Kong cinema nut since as long as I can remember. I've seen some of the oldest and rarest kung fu movies in existence, so when it comes to martial arts fights on screen I know whats good and what isn't. So I can thoroughy, thoroughly recommend a film called SPL. Hong Kong cinema has been pretty much dead as far as films with good fight action is concerned since the early 90's. Now with SPL not only is it a great film with fantastic cinematography and acting, but is also has some of the best fighting action I have ever seen. You WILL be blown away! If you've only seen Sammo Hung in that terrible series Martial Law, you will be doubly blown away.