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Creating the look of A Complete Unkown with cinematographer Phedon Papamichael ASC

To recreate the world of A Complete Unknown and New York of the 1960s, cinematographer Phedon Papamichael ASC, GSC used a technique that allowed him to film at high ISOs by using the Sony VENICE 2 and leveraging Fotokem’s shift AI technology.

Set in the influential New York City music scene of the early 1960s, “A Complete Unknown” follows 19-year-old Minnesota musician Bob Dylan’s meteoric rise as a folk singer to concert halls and the top of the charts as his songs and his mystique become a worldwide sensation that culminates in his groundbreaking electric rock-and-roll performance at the Newport Folk Festival in 1965. The film stars Timothee Chalamet, Edward Norton, Elle Fanning, and Monica Barbaro and is in theaters now.

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Papamichael characterizes the look of the movie as true to life.

“We were trying to identify the textures and colors of New York in that period,” he explains. “Dylan arrives in the winter, so it’s all more muted. Then, as his personality evolves and his music becomes more vibrant, it becomes more colorful, right down to his wardrobe, and the camera becomes more energetic.”

Phedon Papamichael ASC, GSC

The production applied LUTs they created based on Papamichael’s references, which were period films set in New York that had Kodachrome color, contrast, and saturation, including The French Connection [1971, shot by Owen Roizman, ASC.

When Phedon projected tests shot with a LUT created by FotoKem’s David Cole, he found the results he was looking for. The image was incredibly clean, even at ISO12800.

He liked a clean image as a starting point, knowing that beyond the effects of the LUT, he would gain desired film qualities in post, in which, after the digital intermediate, FotoKem would film out the digital footage onto Kodak Vision3 50D 5203 negative stock, and then scan it back to the DI. 

Papamichael ended up shooting A Complete Unknown’s night exteriors at ISO6400 and ISO12800.

You can read more about how the film was shot on Sony’s website.

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