Grain in certain scenes of older films

[dagon01]

Why is it that in such movies as Dog Day Afternoon and One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest some scenes are beautiful and others are dark and grainy?

Is this due to the film being shot with different cameras or film type and if so which film or camera causes the grain?

Could someone explain this in detail or give me a link that explains it? Thanks.

[pro-bassoonist]

Hello,

A quick answer would be: because of the camera and film stock used by the director/producer. This is as generic of an answer as I could provide without touching on other subjects that will eventually dismiss further generalizations I could add up.

I am going to look up for a specific article that I can provide for you later on tonight but I think that you will find that the more you learn about the history of film (let's assume that by old you mean cinema from as far back as 1910 to early 1980s) the more you will begin to understand why grain, frame overlapping, contrast imbalance, etc are present with films from this large period and why it is imperative that they are untouched when BD transfers are considered.

Pro-B

[SoCalTiger]

When you refer to some scenes being dark and grainy, are you thinking of darkly/dimly lit scenes in particular?

[dagon01]

No most of the scenes aren't even dark just grainy looking when it cuts to another camera.

[alexakajeff]

There is grain in newer films too. Such as:
Hostel
Hostel: Part II
Pan's Labyrinth

[SoCalTiger]

Originally Posted by alexakajeff

There is grain in newer films too. Such as:
Hostel
Hostel: Part II
Pan's Labyrinth

Well except the Blu-ray version of Pan's is almost totally de-grained...

[ryoohki]

Film a ASA level like Film Camera..., Digital also have this but it's only boosting the voltage into the sensor, witch cause noise

Usually a company use 1 type of... like ISO400 for example. ISO400 will give you more grain/noise, but you'll be able to film in the dark without extra light. ISO100 is less grainier, but you'll have to use a lot of fake light to film in the night

Digital Camera work the same way but you can change it on the fly. You usually get Noise with Digital Camera under dark condition. Unless you DNR it, witch is a double blade. Apply too much and people look like Wax Museum...

DVD doesn't have the resolution most of the time to resolve grain, HD have

[PCiAM]

Interesting explanations. I was wondering the same when watching my BD copy of Halloween (1978). Some of the day scenes are quite nicely defined while some of the night scenes are either too-soft, or very grainy, almost to the point of it being distracting. I don't mind a little grain because it can provide a film with an organic, film-like look, but there's a little too much for me on the Halloween BD.

[SoCalTiger]

Originally Posted by PCiAM

Interesting explanations. I was wondering the same when watching my BD copy of Halloween (1978). Some of the day scenes are quite nicely defined while some of the night scenes are either too-soft, or very grainy, almost to the point of it being distracting. I don't mind a little grain because it can provide a film with an organic, film-like look, but there's a little too much for me on the Halloween BD.

Yeah that is just a side effect of the technology used in those dark scenes. This is fair to the original source material.

[theprophecy247]

top gun has some to but i mean i cant complain its an older film, grain is supposed to be there at times