There are generally two means of creating "darkness," "dark," black," or as you refer to it in a digital sense "RGB color code 000000."
If one is as brave, dedicated and knowledgeable as cinematographer Gordon Willis, you expose your image so that it can only be printed for density as you intended it to look, and by that I mean nearly clear areas of exposed negative, when what you want in the final product is black or near black.
The other way, which is more sound in a strict archival sense, but can lead to a myriad of problems in translation throughout decades to come, is to fully expose your image and print it down -- as far down as you wish it to be. To black or near black if so desired.
Most have seen productions on TV or home video (or occasionally in theatrical re-prints) that are inclusive of scenes with cars driving during the day with their lights on, or possibly villagers climbing a hillside toward the monster, escaped convict, little lost girl, whatever... and they're carrying torches in broad daylight.
These are typical timing problems that arise when a technician either chooses not to follow earlier timing numbers, not to inspect and compare to an answer print, or not to bring in a director, DP or other knowledgeable crew member to approve what they've created.
The fact that information exists on a negative does not mean that the viewer is intended to see it.
A simple technical example. During the
I Could Have Danced All Night sequence in My Fair Lady, Audrey Hepburn reaches over and hits a light switch, taking the illumination in the room down to near dark, but still visible. This does not exist is the original negative. The effect is dealt with in printing as exposure jumps right on frame to yield a far heavier image.
Here's another rather simplistic, and frustrating example. It was 1975 and I had gone to a local cinema to see a new film entitled Jaws. Every reel projected on machine 1 was incorrectly racked so that the frame line was showing at the bottom of the screen, along with a bit of the top of the adjacent image. Several times I requested that an usher go to the booth and ask the projectionist to make an adjustment. The third time they returned with a bit of accurate information that didn't solve the problem.
A motion picture is made of up of frames that run down a very long strip of film. The frames are separated by frame lines. And yes, that's what I was seeing -- the frame lines -- which as the usher explained, were a part of the film. I recall staring incredulously as this was explained to me, obviously passed down from the mount above, behind the port holes, from which the wizard controlled what we were allowed to view.
And I agreed. "Yes," I said. "I understand the concept of frame lines. The problem is we're not supposed to see them."
And a third example. When Citizen Kane was brought out on DVD, it was incorrectly timed. There is a sequence early in the film when a newsreel is run in a small projection room. Mr. Welles was not accorded a huge budget by RKO, and rather than hire extras to be in the group viewing the newsreel, he placed lead Joseph Cotten in a seat. He and his DP, the great Gregg Toland knew that the seen would be timed down and that Mr. Cotten would be nothing more than a shadow.
You know where this is going. The DVD arrives, and brightened to create a pretty image, we suddenly have a odd plot point. Why is a very young Jedediah Leland sitting in on the screening of the newsreel?
Because something is exposed to a film negative's emulsion does not mean that it is intended to be seen during projection or electronic viewing.
Such is the case with FFC's Dracula. BTW, this film was designed to be viewed with lights off, as in a theatrical setting. It should not be treated as a CBS Movie of the Week.
RAH
Quote:
Originally Posted by Xorp
Sorry for bring "science" into this, but I've analyzed frames (correctly captured) I have taken from the Blu-ray in Photoshop and often large parts of the image are indeed completely gone, akin to cropping. They aren't "hidden" a dark transfer that needs a high quality calibrated display to bring out, they are simply nonexistent. There is only the color black (RGB color code 000000) in the dark areas.
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