@@noem.7430people have and experience serious lives and situations in colour every day - it's actually more unrealistic to have everything bathed in greys and muted tones
I had to ask where we are that this even needs to be said... If the underlying themes in the film are serious, the seriousness will shine through on its own. You don't need to overbearingly quash all the opportunities for depth just to bludgeon the audience with the conclusion you want them to make. Not only can this have the opposite to the desired effect, but feels insulting too. Apparently I feel quite strongly about this phenomenon XD I have seen this sooo much in recent film
@@bromleykatlyby that logic, they could have made Insidious over saturated, bright, and colorful and still have the horror elements shine through…. Maybe that’s true, though I doubt it…but it begs the question…why? We’ve seen Harry Potter and lord of the rings. We are all well aware that fantasy exists outside of whimsical, bright, unrealistic color schemes. Not sure why this one NEEDS to be so bright when neither the musical nor book are particularly colorful. The book is dark and gritty and the musical is literally steampunk gothic rock opera.
I guess what gets me is that The Lord of the Rings feels very real, despite the use of a strong blue filter at night and a mix of strong colour and earthy tones all over. The mind doesn't need ultra realism, we can fill in the gap acknowledging that a real night isn't blue. And the light? It's coming from the same place the music comes from. As long as it feels close enough, our brains gladly accept it as real.
i'm ngl when i worked in a cinema multiple people complained about a film being too dark and i was like 'well that was the director's choice obviously' and ignored them but it turned out the bulb in the projector just needed to be replaced... i guess sometimes the customer is right...
I'll never forget the chills I felt when Dorothy stepped out of the greyscale, mundane world, and landed straight into technicolour Oz. The effect is very impressive, especially for the 1930's.
Ok, well, if you had even a single brain cell you'd know that a Wicked movie that looked identical to the Wizard of Oz would be a *failed* Wicked movie. That's the whole fucking point! If you want every movie to be the wizard of Oz then *just watch the fucking wizard of Oz*!
I think people are taking out their frustration on Wicked because they're just so fed up with dark unwatchable movies and shows. It's definitely not one of the worst offendors but people had high hopes based on the source materials. The movie theater technology definitely didn't help.
You’re right about like everything you just said lol esp the comparison between source materials. That’s definitely what I think. I don’t have plans of seeing wicked but I was rather surprised when I saw it next to the wizard of oz
@@hawktalon7890Ah yes, when I think of gritty realism in set decoration, I think of...whimsical elaborate technicolour beautiful sets. Like every set in Wicked. You obviously didn't watch the movie at all.
Aside from the fullness of movies I just can’t stand the immensely dark scenes, especially in Netflix series. It’s not even a dark palette, it’s just so damn dark in a badly filmed and lighted way that the viewer can’t see shit!
I thought ppl were exxagerating GOT's darkness but I watched it for the first time recently and had to keep turning up my screens brightness. I get setting the mood in a pre-electricity world, but you want it to be watchable @@StressedDepressednOverdressed
Way back when, binging The Vampire Diaries I just gave up S4 ish because my brightness was always the highest. Scenes were always in dark rooms, overcast or night skies, characters wearing dark or muted colors. Like yes, its about vampires, but dont put them in essentially camo with the terrible color grade.
We just saw Nosferatu 2024 in theaters and while I understand why it was a very dark, high contrast, and expressionist, it really affected my viewing. It was dark to the point of being an issue to me
@@StressedDepressednOverdressed i thought ppl were exxagerating how dark GOT is, watched some clips for the first time and literally kept having to adjust brightness. I get trying to mimic a pre electrcity world but I wanna be able to see
i saw a post from a color grader that said that part of the reason films feel less colorful isn’t necessarily about saturation but about the actual color scheme which was interesting. he showed it with examples of shots with a very strong color palette such as la la land or blade runner vs ones where they just throw many colors in and pump up the saturation and the ones with one or two colors dominating definitely did feel more “colorful”
@@BbGun-lw5vilook up the 60-30-10 rule. Sometimes sticking to a few colors makes films seem more colorful because it’s more vivid and not over saturated
makes so much sense. one of my favourite films is Moonlight, which i think is colourful. and yes the saturation is increased, but in a single shot there's usually not a dozen bright colours, there's a very thoughtful choice of 2-3 main colours. i'm a painter, and i use this in my art too. if i want the effect of my painting being colourful, i focus on emphasizing 1-2 colours (e.g. yellows an blues) NOT just making everything super saturated cause then it just looks garish, not colourful.
Lol sounds like London. That does raise the issue though of why film in London if you know you want to film outdoors. Why choose overcast skies rather than filming elsewhere
@@mrggythe production required a ton of backlots and soundstages that Sky Studios Elstree had access to. So they ended up using existing natural landscapes around the UK for Munchkinland and Shiz
I've seen Wicked 3 times now in 2 different theaters. I completely understand what you mean with the equipment. The first time I saw it was in a chain theater. I had no problem with it, I just wished they pumped the volume up. The second and third time were in a smaller theater chain that prioritize the movie experience. It was much brighter and the sound really hit you! I feel bad for anyone who only have the option of seeing it in a theater that doesn't keep the maintenance up.
I had a similar experience, seeing the movie in 3 formats: Dolby, Laser, and IMAX. It was astonishing how washed out the laser format was! It took all the life out of it. I think out of the 3, IMAX looked the best. Learning about this is gonna make me notice projection quality now every time I watch a movie haha.
I had the same experience! First time I saw it was pseudo-IMAX the day after release that was pretty spendy, but the screen was muted and so was the sound. The second time was at a local theatre that had really good sound and image looked really good, that was much less spendy. So like wtf ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Yes this was my experience as well! I also saw it three times in two different theatres and my first experience in the Laser was washed out and the orchestration was so muted. I saw it the next two times in an Imax theatre.. so much better! The sound was so much more crisp and clear as well.
Personally, I find the whole 'realism' argument more of a pathetic excuse because real life is full of colour and contrast and lighting can be used in really interesting ways to serve a realistic background (like you mentioned with la la land). More infuriating for me was the fact that they had actually made all of these massive sets and beautiful practical effects (heavily emphasised in a lot of the marketing) but then these weren't able to show their true glory as a result of the way in which it was filmed and processed. But otherwise, some very interesting and enlightening information about why cinema doesn't look like it used to, as per usual!
It reminds me of how jon favreau was saying that they cannot have beautiful sky in opening scene of live action lion king because sky like that "is unrealistic". maybe these people should actually go outside and see for themselves how beautiful and colourful the world actually is
@@ohimdyingWe're watching a movie where animals are talking and acting like humans, but hey! The sky needs to be "realistic"! Seriously, people in cinema are taking fantasy down with this pursuit of "realism". I would like to understand why
@@Gustavo.de.Camargoon top of that, the main character is a green skinned magic user that was raised by a nanny bear and whose BFF floats down in a pink bubble at the beginning of the movie💀
frrrr have these people never seen a beautiful sunset or a bunch of flowers or what like real life is full of colour and that too all sorts of colours. real life is not drab and grey in the first place. i find the realisim argument offensive frankly. like they're trying to pretend real life doesn't have full saturation for some reason???
So well researched as always- I was SO relieved when the internet had hundreds of forums dedicated to "why is everything so dark". I thought my eyes were failing in my 20s.
Dang, I work in the preservation side of the industry and literally had never considered the degredation of projectors in public theaters as a factor in the loss of color! We have standardized screen specs we use to preserve media, but it only makes sense that different venues wouldn't be following (or be able to follow) similar guidelines. Thanks for this fantastic video!
What’s missing in modern film today is that color is part of the story as much as other visual elements. That’s probably the biggest lesson to take from the original Wizard of Oz. I loved the Wicked movie, and I didn’t expect it to be full “technicolor” because it has a different tone in its story than the original Wizard of Oz movie. But I do feel there was a missed opportunity to play with color as part of the story and as an homage to the original Wizard of Oz. Imagine if the movie started out more vibrant, and when Elphaba realizes the wizard is bad the color changes because suddenly her idealism and innocence about her world is lost. Maybe not a full color to black and white moment, but some color variance could have been part of the story telling as it was in The Wizard of Oz.
Exactly. Even Marvel has played with both color grading and video dimensions, at least on WandaVision the tv show so I’m not sure what modern film is doing 😭
Honestly, I've also noticed a lot of filmmakers either don't understand this or simply don't care due to their commitment to their own aesthetic and vibe. A fresh example Villeneuve with Dune. His minimalist, high contrast, dark aesthetic works really well for Arrakis and the desert, but you completely lose the very much intended contrast from the Atreides home planet and their insane wealth and over the top home (as well as other Uber rich families homes). Because he doesn't do that. Even their home is kinda dark and muted and minimalist and completely loses the contrast between them and the people they exploit.
I was a a manager at a cinema, and when it came to bulbs, I had to force my owners to change the bulbs , because they would literally go 10 thousand hours over, the picture would just be terrible
@@jrojala also, these movies are shot by mandate in lens and cameras that have to use 4K that muddles the picture. And a lot of cinema projectors across the world doesn't present anything past 2k/3k unless it's a very state of the art cinema (or laser projectors like in most amc's now) their made for tvs now or tech demos
14:39 another fun fact about how dark to shows are nowadays (from someone who works on that side of the business): the evolution of equipment such as the LCD Camera displays and the specialised color grading and post production screens, which make pretty visible even the darkest of shots, generate media files which are not compatible with consumer-grade displays, such as a laptop or even the most high end TVs. The professional, industry-standard equipment has a much more wider color space and highlight/shadow range, which is measured in nits (professional grade equipment has a much higher nit count than consumer-grade displays). These shows might look great when filming and grading but will always, inevitably never fully translate over streaming or broadcast.
Friends in the industry have told me they never check against lower quality screens, either. This is a huge miss, as most people aren't watching on the super high-end equipment.
I edit on a new iMac with an extra 15 year old Samsung monitor on the side and whenever I have to colour grade clips and try to make them look good on both screens to account for diferent viewing experieces I just want to quit the project on the spot
Well, then they need to do a crappy equipment test before releasing it. Like do you remember that scene in the movie Once where they record a song in the studio and then go play it on the crappiest junker car sound system they can find, just to make sure it still sounds good? Why can’t the film studios do that?
That just seems so incredibly lazy for a billion dollar industry. Figure your tech out to match the format your consumers watch your products on. On the other hand, the consumers keep consuming so, whatever. But my cinema loving heart is mad.
Just came out of the cinema with no complaints, very bright colours that popped on screen, confused about the discourse, and home to a video from Mina Le explaining it all! Perfect 🎉
Small anecdote: Suspiria (1977) was shot in technicolor. The director had to search for like the last technicolor camera in Italy, but the result is sick.
Games have a slider option along the lines of “increase brightness until the X is barely visible” and I tell you I turn it WAYY tf up, feels like I can’t see half the stuff in films because it’s so dark, and can’t hear most of it until a helicopter comes on and deafens me.
The sound really gets me; all the dialog seems like they are mumbling in another room, but those gunshots are turned All the way up! It feels like I'm at a stadium concert up against the speakers!
liked that you incorporated the part of the video where you explain all of the mechanics of how film and technicolor works, it shows how thought out these videos really are
Most films these days are either very desaturated and/or have no tonal range, which makes them look flat and bland. It's like having rich colours and actual shadows is a crime.
I truly disagree at the argument of making more “realistic” a non realistic world in the first place. Taking color off doesn’t mean it’s serious, it’s dull and lifeless, directors need to understand that. As you say girl, color can be used to tell stories but they rather play it safe 😢
man this was an *incredibly* well-rounded look into the whole issue from dull coloration trends to the actual technology and creation process behind everything. I didn't even realize that movie-theater tech isn't as long lasting as I had always imagined it. I mean, as someone who doesn't even go to the movies that often, it's easy to just walk in and assume that things work because they're supposed to. Though of course I've been privileged enough to have always gone to pretty high quality theaters, so I assume that I've never actually seen a *bad* movie projection. I'll check out more of your videos if this is the quality to expect. Good job 👍
While Wicked's coloring is not really dull by modern standards I do think that the current visual language is more muted, softened and and with preference to light / medium contrast. This is very apparent in cinema, social media, fashion (especially fast fashion) and general Western makeup trends. I'm obviously oversimplifying but more 'colorful' colors are perceived as loud and more of a 'making a statement' then black, white and what are commonly called neutrals and therefore they just don't really fit the trends such as e.g. realism in films and natural makeup looks (which is kind of silly, because the nature itself is so colorful).
@@jrojala yeah idk why some people downplay how dull this movie looks. There's a reason the poor cinematography is getting so much discourse, it looks more washed out than normal blockbusters these days
Bring back colors! I hate these realistic standards post-Nolan crap movies. And I hate hate HATE when these standards influence even the restorations of movies like Suspiria, Autumn Sonata and Ran, whose original color saturations wasn't there for no reason. And I love the painting textures of some Technicolor pictures like Johnny Guitar. I miss them.
I'd argue Nolan is not the main enemy here? His movies have a very defined hyperreal and contrast filled look. He uses colors quite a lot, and fits the color scale and look to the movie he's making.
I get what you're saying about musicals. Wicked made me cry several times in the theater. I loved the choreography and the musical numbers. Loved that you saw Wicked onstage and read the original book! My only nitpick is the lighting.
Mina, you are so good at what you do. I am continually impressed by your journalism and articulation in these videos. Thank you and keep up the great work! ❤️
i usually just listen to video essays but i love the way you edit your videos and dress up, you (+contrapoints) are one of the few youtubers i actually sit down and watch !! love from brazil
Dancing through life was hard to watch because all that backlight you couldn’t see the faces of the actors. It’s a pity because the set and choreography was spectacular but I couldn’t full appreciate because of the lights :(
Ok now I’m definitely confused. Are 80% of cinemas just using broken projectors or something? I never understood the discourse regarding this stuff and just chalked it up to a difference of opinion, but now you’re saying you literally couldn’t make out faces on screen?? It sounds like the movie theater you went to is just terrible then. I had absolutely no issues seeing anyone. No scenes were too dark. No scenes were washed out. There was a lot of color, particularly munchkin land, the emerald city, the ozdust, musical numbers like popular, one short day, what is this feeling. I’m not sure why people expect it to be bright considering the book is very dark and gritty and the stage musical is a gothic steampunk rock opera. I mean the ending of defying gravity on stage is literally entirely black.
The last section is so interesting because, like you said, it feels like everyone's seen a different film! When I saw wicked in the cinema I was astounded; I thought, "this is the most colourful film I've seen in ages and I LOVE it!" And then all of the reviews are talking about it being colourless? Did we even watch the same film? Turns out, visually, apparently not - lol
"laptop screens that are never as clean as they should be" okay mina you didn't have to call me out watching this video on my fingerprint-coated macbook
but at least u have a macbook. Only few of us are blessed with high contrast gorgeous screens 😏. Windows laptop users even with their '4k touchscreen' trash could never lmao
The Technicolor explanation was awesome! Also, I'm glad you added the bit about how dark scenes look now and days. I found myself having to turn up the brightness on my TV.
I often find myself wondering if I was watching the same movie from some of the online discourse. I found it vibrant and beautiful. The stage version is very dark and drab looking, and it's one of the things I preferred about the movie.
It’s not just modern cinema, it’s modern life itself that feels devoid of color. The modern aesthetic could benefit from some natural and colorful elements, even in modern architecture
24:34 I literally turned my screen brighter and noticed the movie actually looked more vibrant than the previous few shots. Given how much media is consumed via phone screens, this could be an actual issue productions and companies should consider.
I agree. When I was watching Arcane, which is super vibrant and has incredibly good color usage, I noticed I needed to turn up my brightness on my phone to really appreciate everything. Some was a little too dim, even for an oled screen to properly display all the way, and other things just didn't convey as well with low brightness
i agree with this sentiment for most movies nowadays but wicked looks amazing imo and all the ppl “fixing” it by turning the saturation up to 100 have no taste
The difference between filmmakers who care about the craft vs people trying to put out commercial projects really shows when it comes to artistic details like lighting, color grade, blocking, camera movement ect. Filmmakers who understand that film an art treat it as such, making artistic choices which in turn act as narrative tools.
this is why the love witch is a go to movie for me. some people love it and some people hate it but it’s so beautiful and literally hypnotizes me. i’m a sucker for movies that just look gorgeous.
Where I live there's a theater that's not a big movie chain and it emphasizes the movie experience! The colorization was bright and vivid and the sound resonated through me the entire time. It felt like I was in the movie lol. I went again a few days ago with my friends to a bigger movie chain theater in the mall. The colors were a bit dull and the sound didn't really reach my ears. We all still enjoyed the movie, but I wish we had seen it at the smaller theater.
Okay, this maybe explains my experience too, because I've seen it at a small theatre like 3 times and have no complaints (well, apart from the munchkin outfit blue/orange, criminal) I wonder how much variation there is between different cinema screens?
I do natural light photography and although lighting and contrast is a perfectly valid artistic choice imo, flat out lazy colouring in movies drives me up the wall. If you get a colour wheel which shows complimentary colours you can instantly spot why that brown has been put with that cream and don't even get me started on That orange and blue. From what I've seen of the Wicked clips it seems perfectly fine, if anything I've seen more distinct pallets than just the technicolour we saw in Oz.
Mina this is your best video yet. I never comment but I watch every single one of ur videos. Congrats on this masterpiece of a video. From the technical information to the details of the “Oz” paper notes, you made a 30minute excellent production. Thanks!!!
FilmSpeak got crucified in the comments for fairly criticizing this exact thing in his video essay "when the movie is good despite looking like literal concrete" even though he praises other aspects of the movie even in the title of the video, but you can't tell the girlies their new obsession isn't perfect on the internet.
I loved wicked when i saw it with my sister but i also had this thought at the back of my head that the lighting and colours just kinda looked like dogwater which is a shame because the costumes and sets were real pretty. I didn't know others were commenting on it so i guess i just convinced myself it was my cinema making it look grayer than it should've been😅 Edit: Hey she mentioned it in the vid! Super informative, explains a lot🥲
she spent 34 minutes explaining why opinions on the coloring will vary but you’re complaining about how some people didn’t share the same feelings about the movie…
I think this is one of my favorite videos of yours. I studied cinema a long time ago so it was delightful to hear you explain technicolor and how these films were made, but I've also learned so much about how things are working now! Also I was wondering why people were talking about Wicked's coloring being dull, because the movie was pretty colorful in my theater. But turns out it has been reworked recently, so they probably changed their screens and projectors.
I miss Pushing Daisies so bad not just for the great storytelling but the ways the set was vibrant and full of funky life that made it seem even more magical yet still grounded in reality. Like yes there really can be a piemaker who is able to bring people back to life and he lives in a world that has color everywhere. Also I think the lack of color is sadly being reflected in our everyday with the shift toward minimalism and modern aesthetics, which I think many of us don't want.
Honestly, Bryan Fuller using colour and light to tell his stories is absolutely so spot on! The greens and yellows in Pushing Daisies, the blues and reds in Hannibal- he really captures the way light can tell the story.
Loved this video Mina, it was so so interesting!!! 👏 I agree about the desaturation with CGI elements, it's interesting to re-watch live action movies from the early days of CGI, and how different the coloring and lighting appear, it used to stick out like a sore thumb!
Man, Mina, it's mentally stimulating to listen to you! Like I've always had such hard time to sit down and concentrate on essay videos but every video of yours are so well-balanced and sucks one right in, till the end.
Your editor makes a fantastic work. I got distracted at some parts thinking how an amazing editing this video has. I have become a really big fan of your work Mina, the way you research, communicate and then edit your videos is really really good and I'm glad your channel continues doing well
I feel like I'll love this movie and I'm STILL dragging my feet to see it because of the visuals. Loving the videos lately!! That closing statement hit different. I also hate to think that criticism of the movie is motivated by bad actors, and yet how discouraging and alienating that things just aren't as good as they should be/used to be.
My fiance is a colorist for film and TV. He ALWAYS runs into the problem where directors will just view his color passes on their iPhones and not a properly calibrated screen and be like "this looks off." But as soon as they sit down in his color suite (or even just their office/editing computers) and view the shots as they are intended to be seen, they're like "oh, I love how you fixed it." He gets a chuckle out of it sometimes, but ultimately it's frustrating. The reason you use a colorist - use a post-production house - and go through them first is, besides their skill and services, because of the inconsistency with different screens.
grateful that he posted those unedited early photos and that the trailer wasn't brushed up yet because the conversations this opened about cinematography have been wonderful to experience + wicked as a musical is just a great and fun story to analyze.
Woah! I learned so much more than I was expecting to with this video. Thanks! So fascinating. Everything seems to stem back to “cheaper, but with more gains” Great work!
Omg La La Land’s Beauty will never not boggle ❤ also edit to say, I also thought Wicked’s colour grading was totally fine if not better than fine. It did the trick, and didn’t look like a Marvel movie which was all I hoped for. With the bar so low, I’d say my expeditions were far, far exceeded.
Love the history lesson on the use of color. I have heard people throw around the fact that the Wizard of Oz championed Technicolor but you broke this down for us. Such a cool listen. Thanks Mina!
I loved the lil history lesson about color grading in films and the evolution of it over time. Honestly forgot we were talking about Wicked for a moment.
I think something happened between Chamber of Secrets and Prisoner of Azkaban that changed film lighting and color grading forever. Harry Potter films (such as they are) went from nice, warm oranges and blues, and stage lighting to drab greens, grays and blues with barely any lighting. You could argue that's a directorial change, but it's pretty noticeable.
I saw Wicked in a theater a couple days ago & personally throught it was beautifully colourful! There were softer, less-saturated light scenes when the storyline was more light-hearted, there were darker more vibrant scenes when the storyline got more dramatic & I throught it worked really well as part of the storytelling of the movie overall. Maybe that could just be because I went to a cinema that happened to have a fresh bulb so it showed everything properly? IDK, but I had a wonderful time watching it! Definitely way more colourful compared to most other movies I've seen over the last few years
One of the big issues with film in current year is that the critique content-mill is endlessly hungry for moar grist. So "hard-hitting" critiques are being generated based on promotional images from movies that are still in production or from teasers, trailers, creator Tweets, or leaked photos. Basically, a ton of discourse is generated on disassociated fragments of a movie before the actual movie is released, and then there has to be discourse on the discourse followed by discourse on the discourse about the discourse, and the noise level is so deafening that many people have already decided what they think before they even sit in the theater.
22:22 I completely agree. When I went to see Wicked, my only complaint was how intense the lens flare was for one or two shots. Other than that, I thought the color palette was good considering the backlash online, and the lighting was overall alright, with the exception of the library scene & the part of defying gravity at the top of the tower, but that was only a teensy tiny portion of a near 3 hour film, so I put those criticisms aside to adore the movie for everything that went so well.
Between the decline in screenwriting, directors unable to block anything but the most basic shot, & editors jumping from one angle to the next so fast that it is sometimes hard to follow, we can now add this greige (grey & beige) to the heap of reasons that make it difficult to enjoy modern offerings. But, you, Mina, always shine through. Keep up the great work. All hail the Mighty Algo.
Cinderella looks excellent with film cameras, even back in 2015! It seems like a fairytale! I wish B&TB and the TLM remakes could've looked as magical!
This reminds me of Marvel vs DC cinematic universe aesthetic. I think Marvel captured a larger marketing with more inviting, brighter films (myself included). Especially the Spiderman films, which are centered around a teenager, so the brightness feels like it’s supposed to bring forward a youthfulness with the cinematography. DCU movies start from a darker baseline premise, so the color follows suit… like they’re trying to yell at you “THIS IS GRITTY ART!” with the color.
what i don't get when directors believe that darker/less saturated/less colorful images means more grit and realism, is that life, the world, is an extremely colorful place, even in the darkest moments and covered in dark colors. contrast and depth exist in the real world and your movie being properly lit and colored instead of looking like it was shot in the dark and putting a lame blue or green wirh yellow subtones filter over will not erase the seriousness~ of your project. i need to see wtf is going on! i also need to hear! (directors these days are also fucking up with sound mixers)
I think it's just the Edgelord Mentality creeping in, especially in the post-Nolan Batman era. Ever since Batman Begins I've noticed that any guy-oriented film that wanted to be taken seriously typically has a very dark and gritty style to it, and they all label it 'realism' no matter how unrealistic certain aspects of it are. It reminds me of the 'I'm 14 and this is deep' meme where very shallow thinkers think that something being literally dark will make it adult/deep/cinematic and therefore 'good' in their eyes. The odd man out like Bullet Train that does use relatively well lit scenes and bright pops of color are certainly not the norm, even the MCU kind of fell down this rabbit hole and if you compare their earlier movies to their later ones you can see the general color grading and lighting get darker and duller as they go on. Iron Man goes from like bright red to a sort of deep muted burgundy red color, and it's supposed to be more colorful overall than DC in terms of comic book world styles and choice. It's like a shortcut for being 'taken seriously' that they desperately want to have but aren't willing to put in the leg work to earn by just making good work.
On a related note, apparently, which theater you saw Wicked in effected how it sounded, too! Chu tweeted that many were reporting it was too quiet. I saw it in 3 different theaters, and it was different every time.
this video was SO informative, I had no clue that the projector could impact the colors in a movie so much but it makes perfect sense!!! Thank you for your research
I’ve been watching a newish show with my parents that is SOO DARK and dull, but it really fits the vibe and the story. I wonder if that would have more impact subconsciously on our perception of the story if other new shows that call for brighter colors had them.
I thought the movie was bright, colorful, and beautiful compared to a lot of other newer movies and shows I've seen... it sucks not everyone had the same experience; it is a gorgeous film.
“I think it’s possible to tell a serious story a in colorful way.” THANK YOU!
but it is??? i mean color can enhance emotions....
@@noem.7430people have and experience serious lives and situations in colour every day - it's actually more unrealistic to have everything bathed in greys and muted tones
I had to ask where we are that this even needs to be said... If the underlying themes in the film are serious, the seriousness will shine through on its own. You don't need to overbearingly quash all the opportunities for depth just to bludgeon the audience with the conclusion you want them to make. Not only can this have the opposite to the desired effect, but feels insulting too. Apparently I feel quite strongly about this phenomenon XD I have seen this sooo much in recent film
@@noem.7430 Emotions aren't unserious.
@@bromleykatlyby that logic, they could have made Insidious over saturated, bright, and colorful and still have the horror elements shine through…. Maybe that’s true, though I doubt it…but it begs the question…why? We’ve seen Harry Potter and lord of the rings. We are all well aware that fantasy exists outside of whimsical, bright, unrealistic color schemes. Not sure why this one NEEDS to be so bright when neither the musical nor book are particularly colorful. The book is dark and gritty and the musical is literally steampunk gothic rock opera.
Even though technicolor is very contrasted, it’s still so comfy on the eyes
it also has this softness to it
It's just so warm and welcoming!
It's like colouful christmas tree lights.
I’ll take Technicolor any day over digital flatness. Even the other processes like Eastmancolor & CineColor are way more visually appealing!
Comfy for who?
I guess what gets me is that The Lord of the Rings feels very real, despite the use of a strong blue filter at night and a mix of strong colour and earthy tones all over. The mind doesn't need ultra realism, we can fill in the gap acknowledging that a real night isn't blue. And the light? It's coming from the same place the music comes from. As long as it feels close enough, our brains gladly accept it as real.
especially if it looks good, we don’t care if it’s not super realistic
The light coming from the same place as the music is the best line ever
Can you imagine if the Battle of Helms Deep was shot like the last season of GoT?
This👏
@@EatinPastedon’t even, that would be awful. Thankfully the LOTR team knew better
i'm ngl when i worked in a cinema multiple people complained about a film being too dark and i was like 'well that was the director's choice obviously' and ignored them but it turned out the bulb in the projector just needed to be replaced... i guess sometimes the customer is right...
😂😂😂
I'll never forget the chills I felt when Dorothy stepped out of the greyscale, mundane world, and landed straight into technicolour Oz. The effect is very impressive, especially for the 1930's.
For that one scene they painted the interior in that sepia black and white and shot in colour. So simple.
How do you comment on every youtube video??😭
Ok, well, if you had even a single brain cell you'd know that a Wicked movie that looked identical to the Wizard of Oz would be a *failed* Wicked movie. That's the whole fucking point! If you want every movie to be the wizard of Oz then *just watch the fucking wizard of Oz*!
you're everywhere
I think people are taking out their frustration on Wicked because they're just so fed up with dark unwatchable movies and shows. It's definitely not one of the worst offendors but people had high hopes based on the source materials. The movie theater technology definitely didn't help.
Yeah that is how I interpreted it as well. I'm just tired of the "gritty realism" trend in modern movie lighting and set decoration as a general.
You’re right about like everything you just said lol esp the comparison between source materials. That’s definitely what I think. I don’t have plans of seeing wicked but I was rather surprised when I saw it next to the wizard of oz
😊 9:24 😅😊
It literally wasn't dark or unwatchable at all. People are just inventing problems.
@@hawktalon7890Ah yes, when I think of gritty realism in set decoration, I think of...whimsical elaborate technicolour beautiful sets. Like every set in Wicked. You obviously didn't watch the movie at all.
The intro? The outfit? I’ve been holding space for this one.
Facts
I’m pleased no one is letting “holding space” go 😂
I'm in gay media, so
👉🤏
@@mariavc7421lmfao😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭
Aside from the fullness of movies I just can’t stand the immensely dark scenes, especially in Netflix series. It’s not even a dark palette, it’s just so damn dark in a badly filmed and lighted way that the viewer can’t see shit!
GAME OF THRONES that last season was so bad I guess they were just hoping people wouldn’t see how bad it was with the lights off
I thought ppl were exxagerating GOT's darkness but I watched it for the first time recently and had to keep turning up my screens brightness. I get setting the mood in a pre-electricity world, but you want it to be watchable @@StressedDepressednOverdressed
Way back when, binging The Vampire Diaries I just gave up S4 ish because my brightness was always the highest. Scenes were always in dark rooms, overcast or night skies, characters wearing dark or muted colors. Like yes, its about vampires, but dont put them in essentially camo with the terrible color grade.
We just saw Nosferatu 2024 in theaters and while I understand why it was a very dark, high contrast, and expressionist, it really affected my viewing. It was dark to the point of being an issue to me
@@StressedDepressednOverdressed i thought ppl were exxagerating how dark GOT is, watched some clips for the first time and literally kept having to adjust brightness. I get trying to mimic a pre electrcity world but I wanna be able to see
i saw a post from a color grader that said that part of the reason films feel less colorful isn’t necessarily about saturation but about the actual color scheme which was interesting. he showed it with examples of shots with a very strong color palette such as la la land or blade runner vs ones where they just throw many colors in and pump up the saturation and the ones with one or two colors dominating definitely did feel more “colorful”
Oooo very interesting
Me chanting Wes Anderson over and over
Do you know where I can find this? Thanks!
@@BbGun-lw5vilook up the 60-30-10 rule. Sometimes sticking to a few colors makes films seem more colorful because it’s more vivid and not over saturated
makes so much sense. one of my favourite films is Moonlight, which i think is colourful. and yes the saturation is increased, but in a single shot there's usually not a dozen bright colours, there's a very thoughtful choice of 2-3 main colours.
i'm a painter, and i use this in my art too. if i want the effect of my painting being colourful, i focus on emphasizing 1-2 colours (e.g. yellows an blues) NOT just making everything super saturated cause then it just looks garish, not colourful.
The movie isn’t color void, but in most day time scenes it looks like it’s never a sunny day, always gloomy ☁️
it was filmed in England right? maybe that's why
It was filmed in the uk, that’s how it is here
Lol sounds like London. That does raise the issue though of why film in London if you know you want to film outdoors. Why choose overcast skies rather than filming elsewhere
@@mrggythe production required a ton of backlots and soundstages that Sky Studios Elstree had access to. So they ended up using existing natural landscapes around the UK for Munchkinland and Shiz
@@mrggywell some scenes might call for overcast skies
girl, i need to leave the house, you can’t do this to me rn
Literally me rn
no one cares
😂
the way I gasped like this is nottt a take I was expecting from her im crying
LMAO MOOD!
I've seen Wicked 3 times now in 2 different theaters. I completely understand what you mean with the equipment. The first time I saw it was in a chain theater. I had no problem with it, I just wished they pumped the volume up. The second and third time were in a smaller theater chain that prioritize the movie experience. It was much brighter and the sound really hit you! I feel bad for anyone who only have the option of seeing it in a theater that doesn't keep the maintenance up.
what's crazy is that there's such a varying experience depending on the theater but ticket prices tend to be the same across all of them :/
I had a similar experience, seeing the movie in 3 formats: Dolby, Laser, and IMAX. It was astonishing how washed out the laser format was! It took all the life out of it. I think out of the 3, IMAX looked the best. Learning about this is gonna make me notice projection quality now every time I watch a movie haha.
I had the same experience! First time I saw it was pseudo-IMAX the day after release that was pretty spendy, but the screen was muted and so was the sound. The second time was at a local theatre that had really good sound and image looked really good, that was much less spendy. So like wtf ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
My theater was beautiful! Only $5 per ticket :)
Yes this was my experience as well! I also saw it three times in two different theatres and my first experience in the Laser was washed out and the orchestration was so muted. I saw it the next two times in an Imax theatre.. so much better! The sound was so much more crisp and clear as well.
Extremely flammable film on a set with pyrotechnics is wild. But I guess that fits for Wizard of Oz
a wicked witch stunt double got set on fire during production while filming a flying scene on the broom
@@Me-vn3gz I know, they had such a dangerous set in terms of fire. It's amazing the film didn't ignite.
@@Me-vn3gz So did the actual actress. The scene where she goes into the ground at Munchkin land with all the smoke? She got burned real bad.
Personally, I find the whole 'realism' argument more of a pathetic excuse because real life is full of colour and contrast and lighting can be used in really interesting ways to serve a realistic background (like you mentioned with la la land). More infuriating for me was the fact that they had actually made all of these massive sets and beautiful practical effects (heavily emphasised in a lot of the marketing) but then these weren't able to show their true glory as a result of the way in which it was filmed and processed. But otherwise, some very interesting and enlightening information about why cinema doesn't look like it used to, as per usual!
It reminds me of how jon favreau was saying that they cannot have beautiful sky in opening scene of live action lion king because sky like that "is unrealistic". maybe these people should actually go outside and see for themselves how beautiful and colourful the world actually is
@@ohimdyingWe're watching a movie where animals are talking and acting like humans, but hey! The sky needs to be "realistic"! Seriously, people in cinema are taking fantasy down with this pursuit of "realism". I would like to understand why
@@Gustavo.de.Camargoon top of that, the main character is a green skinned magic user that was raised by a nanny bear and whose BFF floats down in a pink bubble at the beginning of the movie💀
Like the most horrific battles had people in bright colors!
I recommend the movie Ran by Akira Kurosawa, it's such a color delight
frrrr have these people never seen a beautiful sunset or a bunch of flowers or what like real life is full of colour and that too all sorts of colours. real life is not drab and grey in the first place. i find the realisim argument offensive frankly. like they're trying to pretend real life doesn't have full saturation for some reason???
So well researched as always- I was SO relieved when the internet had hundreds of forums dedicated to "why is everything so dark". I thought my eyes were failing in my 20s.
I literally get into fight with theater employees even they were shock the way movie is can't seen 💀
Dang, I work in the preservation side of the industry and literally had never considered the degredation of projectors in public theaters as a factor in the loss of color! We have standardized screen specs we use to preserve media, but it only makes sense that different venues wouldn't be following (or be able to follow) similar guidelines. Thanks for this fantastic video!
THANK YOU! Muted colors are tiring, ESPECIALLY for fantasy films. I want bright colors again; it shouldn't be a kids-only palette.
What’s missing in modern film today is that color is part of the story as much as other visual elements. That’s probably the biggest lesson to take from the original Wizard of Oz. I loved the Wicked movie, and I didn’t expect it to be full “technicolor” because it has a different tone in its story than the original Wizard of Oz movie. But I do feel there was a missed opportunity to play with color as part of the story and as an homage to the original Wizard of Oz. Imagine if the movie started out more vibrant, and when Elphaba realizes the wizard is bad the color changes because suddenly her idealism and innocence about her world is lost. Maybe not a full color to black and white moment, but some color variance could have been part of the story telling as it was in The Wizard of Oz.
Exactly. Even Marvel has played with both color grading and video dimensions, at least on WandaVision the tv show so I’m not sure what modern film is doing 😭
Honestly, I've also noticed a lot of filmmakers either don't understand this or simply don't care due to their commitment to their own aesthetic and vibe.
A fresh example Villeneuve with Dune. His minimalist, high contrast, dark aesthetic works really well for Arrakis and the desert, but you completely lose the very much intended contrast from the Atreides home planet and their insane wealth and over the top home (as well as other Uber rich families homes). Because he doesn't do that. Even their home is kinda dark and muted and minimalist and completely loses the contrast between them and the people they exploit.
I was a a manager at a cinema, and when it came to bulbs, I had to force my owners to change the bulbs , because they would literally go 10 thousand hours over, the picture would just be terrible
Greed really does ruin everything, huh?!?
@@jrojala also, these movies are shot by mandate in lens and cameras that have to use 4K that muddles the picture. And a lot of cinema projectors across the world doesn't present anything past 2k/3k unless it's a very state of the art cinema (or laser projectors like in most amc's now) their made for tvs now or tech demos
14:39 another fun fact about how dark to shows are nowadays (from someone who works on that side of the business): the evolution of equipment such as the LCD Camera displays and the specialised color grading and post production screens, which make pretty visible even the darkest of shots, generate media files which are not compatible with consumer-grade displays, such as a laptop or even the most high end TVs. The professional, industry-standard equipment has a much more wider color space and highlight/shadow range, which is measured in nits (professional grade equipment has a much higher nit count than consumer-grade displays). These shows might look great when filming and grading but will always, inevitably never fully translate over streaming or broadcast.
Friends in the industry have told me they never check against lower quality screens, either. This is a huge miss, as most people aren't watching on the super high-end equipment.
I edit on a new iMac with an extra 15 year old Samsung monitor on the side and whenever I have to colour grade clips and try to make them look good on both screens to account for diferent viewing experieces I just want to quit the project on the spot
Well, then they need to do a crappy equipment test before releasing it. Like do you remember that scene in the movie Once where they record a song in the studio and then go play it on the crappiest junker car sound system they can find, just to make sure it still sounds good? Why can’t the film studios do that?
That just seems so incredibly lazy for a billion dollar industry. Figure your tech out to match the format your consumers watch your products on. On the other hand, the consumers keep consuming so, whatever. But my cinema loving heart is mad.
Just came out of the cinema with no complaints, very bright colours that popped on screen, confused about the discourse, and home to a video from Mina Le explaining it all! Perfect 🎉
Whatever they pay the people that program these awful bots it’s not enough
@@jrojala she said the same thing in the video
Small anecdote: Suspiria (1977) was shot in technicolor. The director had to search for like the last technicolor camera in Italy, but the result is sick.
Thank you.
Games have a slider option along the lines of “increase brightness until the X is barely visible” and I tell you I turn it WAYY tf up, feels like I can’t see half the stuff in films because it’s so dark, and can’t hear most of it until a helicopter comes on and deafens me.
The sound really gets me; all the dialog seems like they are mumbling in another room, but those gunshots are turned All the way up! It feels like I'm at a stadium concert up against the speakers!
@@finallykat1299 my husband and I call it "Whisper bang bang"
@@thatcleverchick1182 Ha! The perfect description
And those games - *cough cough* looking at you Supermassive Games - are still too dang dark.
I would love colors to come back. And lights. And the ability to see everything clearly.
Knives Out was the tastiest treat for the eyes, and I wish more movies would take that cue.
I love watching the choreo in music videos and what you said about fast cuts applies to those so much - stoppp let me appreciate the dancing!!
liked that you incorporated the part of the video where you explain all of the mechanics of how film and technicolor works, it shows how thought out these videos really are
Most films these days are either very desaturated and/or have no tonal range, which makes them look flat and bland. It's like having rich colours and actual shadows is a crime.
I truly disagree at the argument of making more “realistic” a non realistic world in the first place. Taking color off doesn’t mean it’s serious, it’s dull and lifeless, directors need to understand that. As you say girl, color can be used to tell stories but they rather play it safe 😢
You’ve been WHAT 0:38
RIGHT I HAD TO PAUSE BC-
edging, like the word coming, has different meanings to just the sexual meaning 😅
man this was an *incredibly* well-rounded look into the whole issue from dull coloration trends to the actual technology and creation process behind everything.
I didn't even realize that movie-theater tech isn't as long lasting as I had always imagined it. I mean, as someone who doesn't even go to the movies that often, it's easy to just walk in and assume that things work because they're supposed to. Though of course I've been privileged enough to have always gone to pretty high quality theaters, so I assume that I've never actually seen a *bad* movie projection.
I'll check out more of your videos if this is the quality to expect. Good job 👍
While Wicked's coloring is not really dull by modern standards I do think that the current visual language is more muted, softened and and with preference to light / medium contrast. This is very apparent in cinema, social media, fashion (especially fast fashion) and general Western makeup trends. I'm obviously oversimplifying but more 'colorful' colors are perceived as loud and more of a 'making a statement' then black, white and what are commonly called neutrals and therefore they just don't really fit the trends such as e.g. realism in films and natural makeup looks (which is kind of silly, because the nature itself is so colorful).
It’s dull af why lie
@@jrojala yeah idk why some people downplay how dull this movie looks. There's a reason the poor cinematography is getting so much discourse, it looks more washed out than normal blockbusters these days
"It's possible to tell a serious story in a colorful way"
Yes. YES. YESSSS!!!!!
Bring back colors! I hate these realistic standards post-Nolan crap movies. And I hate hate HATE when these standards influence even the restorations of movies like Suspiria, Autumn Sonata and Ran, whose original color saturations wasn't there for no reason. And I love the painting textures of some Technicolor pictures like Johnny Guitar. I miss them.
I'd argue Nolan is not the main enemy here? His movies have a very defined hyperreal and contrast filled look. He uses colors quite a lot, and fits the color scale and look to the movie he's making.
@gothicanimeangel96 and they still are crap.
I get what you're saying about musicals. Wicked made me cry several times in the theater. I loved the choreography and the musical numbers. Loved that you saw Wicked onstage and read the original book! My only nitpick is the lighting.
yesss, a lot of the color grading wouldn’t need to change at all if the lighting had been different and less glary
Mina, you are so good at what you do. I am continually impressed by your journalism and articulation in these videos. Thank you and keep up the great work! ❤️
i usually just listen to video essays but i love the way you edit your videos and dress up, you (+contrapoints) are one of the few youtubers i actually sit down and watch !! love from brazil
omg finally someone is talking about movies and shows being SO DARK for NO REASON. i thought it was just me 😭
1:17 your editors style scratches an itch in some distance corner of my brain
Dancing through life was hard to watch because all that backlight you couldn’t see the faces of the actors. It’s a pity because the set and choreography was spectacular but I couldn’t full appreciate because of the lights :(
Siempre es muy loco verte comentando en videos de musicales pero bueno, POTRAZA!! XD
We stan a theatre girls girl ❤️
Ok now I’m definitely confused. Are 80% of cinemas just using broken projectors or something? I never understood the discourse regarding this stuff and just chalked it up to a difference of opinion, but now you’re saying you literally couldn’t make out faces on screen?? It sounds like the movie theater you went to is just terrible then. I had absolutely no issues seeing anyone. No scenes were too dark. No scenes were washed out. There was a lot of color, particularly munchkin land, the emerald city, the ozdust, musical numbers like popular, one short day, what is this feeling. I’m not sure why people expect it to be bright considering the book is very dark and gritty and the stage musical is a gothic steampunk rock opera. I mean the ending of defying gravity on stage is literally entirely black.
@@BBS-dl1lt because it's a Fantasy? And people generally like seeing shit?
The last section is so interesting because, like you said, it feels like everyone's seen a different film! When I saw wicked in the cinema I was astounded; I thought, "this is the most colourful film I've seen in ages and I LOVE it!" And then all of the reviews are talking about it being colourless? Did we even watch the same film? Turns out, visually, apparently not - lol
Thank you for being apparently one of the few people in the world with eyes.
no offense but if this is the most colorful film you've seen in ages then you probably need to watch more movies
"laptop screens that are never as clean as they should be" okay mina you didn't have to call me out watching this video on my fingerprint-coated macbook
but at least u have a macbook. Only few of us are blessed with high contrast gorgeous screens 😏. Windows laptop users even with their '4k touchscreen' trash could never lmao
The Technicolor explanation was awesome! Also, I'm glad you added the bit about how dark scenes look now and days. I found myself having to turn up the brightness on my TV.
And yet our car headlights are blinding us all in the real world…
I often find myself wondering if I was watching the same movie from some of the online discourse. I found it vibrant and beautiful. The stage version is very dark and drab looking, and it's one of the things I preferred about the movie.
It’s not just modern cinema, it’s modern life itself that feels devoid of color. The modern aesthetic could benefit from some natural and colorful elements, even in modern architecture
24:34 I literally turned my screen brighter and noticed the movie actually looked more vibrant than the previous few shots. Given how much media is consumed via phone screens, this could be an actual issue productions and companies should consider.
I agree. When I was watching Arcane, which is super vibrant and has incredibly good color usage, I noticed I needed to turn up my brightness on my phone to really appreciate everything. Some was a little too dim, even for an oled screen to properly display all the way, and other things just didn't convey as well with low brightness
@@sentient_trash_can Arcane is such a breath of fresh air
I love this video. As a fellow cinephile, thank you for explaining everything about the technology of capturing and showing films.
i agree with this sentiment for most movies nowadays but wicked looks amazing imo and all the ppl “fixing” it by turning the saturation up to 100 have no taste
The difference between filmmakers who care about the craft vs people trying to put out commercial projects really shows when it comes to artistic details like lighting, color grade, blocking, camera movement ect. Filmmakers who understand that film an art treat it as such, making artistic choices which in turn act as narrative tools.
this is why the love witch is a go to movie for me. some people love it and some people hate it but it’s so beautiful and literally hypnotizes me. i’m a sucker for movies that just look gorgeous.
Where I live there's a theater that's not a big movie chain and it emphasizes the movie experience! The colorization was bright and vivid and the sound resonated through me the entire time. It felt like I was in the movie lol. I went again a few days ago with my friends to a bigger movie chain theater in the mall. The colors were a bit dull and the sound didn't really reach my ears. We all still enjoyed the movie, but I wish we had seen it at the smaller theater.
Okay, this maybe explains my experience too, because I've seen it at a small theatre like 3 times and have no complaints (well, apart from the munchkin outfit blue/orange, criminal) I wonder how much variation there is between different cinema screens?
I do natural light photography and although lighting and contrast is a perfectly valid artistic choice imo, flat out lazy colouring in movies drives me up the wall. If you get a colour wheel which shows complimentary colours you can instantly spot why that brown has been put with that cream and don't even get me started on That orange and blue. From what I've seen of the Wicked clips it seems perfectly fine, if anything I've seen more distinct pallets than just the technicolour we saw in Oz.
Mina this is your best video yet. I never comment but I watch every single one of ur videos. Congrats on this masterpiece of a video. From the technical information to the details of the “Oz” paper notes, you made a 30minute excellent production. Thanks!!!
holding space for this 💚
FilmSpeak got crucified in the comments for fairly criticizing this exact thing in his video essay "when the movie is good despite looking like literal concrete" even though he praises other aspects of the movie even in the title of the video, but you can't tell the girlies their new obsession isn't perfect on the internet.
I loved wicked when i saw it with my sister but i also had this thought at the back of my head that the lighting and colours just kinda looked like dogwater which is a shame because the costumes and sets were real pretty. I didn't know others were commenting on it so i guess i just convinced myself it was my cinema making it look grayer than it should've been😅
Edit: Hey she mentioned it in the vid! Super informative, explains a lot🥲
she spent 34 minutes explaining why opinions on the coloring will vary but you’re complaining about how some people didn’t share the same feelings about the movie…
I know right, everyone on X now thinks they’re an expert color grader with a film degree…
Or maybe you just can't have spectacularly bad takes without pushback on the internet.
your end summary is perfect, and the David Lynch clip, chef's kiss
BESTIE WAKE UP NEW MINA LE VIDE9 JUST DROPPED
I think this is one of my favorite videos of yours. I studied cinema a long time ago so it was delightful to hear you explain technicolor and how these films were made, but I've also learned so much about how things are working now! Also I was wondering why people were talking about Wicked's coloring being dull, because the movie was pretty colorful in my theater. But turns out it has been reworked recently, so they probably changed their screens and projectors.
I miss Pushing Daisies so bad not just for the great storytelling but the ways the set was vibrant and full of funky life that made it seem even more magical yet still grounded in reality. Like yes there really can be a piemaker who is able to bring people back to life and he lives in a world that has color everywhere. Also I think the lack of color is sadly being reflected in our everyday with the shift toward minimalism and modern aesthetics, which I think many of us don't want.
still sad it got cancelled...
Speaking of Kristin Chenoweth...
I just rewatched the whole series after seeing Wicked ! I'm still so mad it got cancelled.
Honestly, Bryan Fuller using colour and light to tell his stories is absolutely so spot on! The greens and yellows in Pushing Daisies, the blues and reds in Hannibal- he really captures the way light can tell the story.
Loved this video Mina, it was so so interesting!!! 👏 I agree about the desaturation with CGI elements, it's interesting to re-watch live action movies from the early days of CGI, and how different the coloring and lighting appear, it used to stick out like a sore thumb!
Ending with the Lynch quote … iconic. Also I want to live that square space ad… dreamy window vibes
Man, Mina, it's mentally stimulating to listen to you! Like I've always had such hard time to sit down and concentrate on essay videos but every video of yours are so well-balanced and sucks one right in, till the end.
Oooohh!😲 You have 6 audio tracks! Thank you for having your video in different languages! I wish more UA-camrs will do that! Please keep it up!💚💚💚
I JUST got back from a 16 hour bus trip, needed this to keep me sane but glad I can watch it when I'm back at work lol
Wow, so cool to hear how technicolor was created!! I love that slightly oversaturated look.
Just wanted to say that I’m sick asf right now and watching your videos has been getting me through it
Your editor makes a fantastic work. I got distracted at some parts thinking how an amazing editing this video has. I have become a really big fan of your work Mina, the way you research, communicate and then edit your videos is really really good and I'm glad your channel continues doing well
I feel like I'll love this movie and I'm STILL dragging my feet to see it because of the visuals. Loving the videos lately!! That closing statement hit different. I also hate to think that criticism of the movie is motivated by bad actors, and yet how discouraging and alienating that things just aren't as good as they should be/used to be.
i really appreciate how much effort you put into this video. you did your research and got information and details thats i didnt even think about!
My fiance is a colorist for film and TV. He ALWAYS runs into the problem where directors will just view his color passes on their iPhones and not a properly calibrated screen and be like "this looks off." But as soon as they sit down in his color suite (or even just their office/editing computers) and view the shots as they are intended to be seen, they're like "oh, I love how you fixed it." He gets a chuckle out of it sometimes, but ultimately it's frustrating. The reason you use a colorist - use a post-production house - and go through them first is, besides their skill and services, because of the inconsistency with different screens.
grateful that he posted those unedited early photos and that the trailer wasn't brushed up yet because the conversations this opened about cinematography have been wonderful to experience + wicked as a musical is just a great and fun story to analyze.
I loved Wicked, the singing was perfection, I hadn't thought about the color grading until now, interesting!
Woah! I learned so much more than I was expecting to with this video. Thanks! So fascinating. Everything seems to stem back to “cheaper, but with more gains”
Great work!
Great video. I appreciate the explanation of the Technicolor process.
I loved the vibes of this video and learning about the history behind technicolour was so interesting!!
Omg La La Land’s Beauty will never not boggle ❤ also edit to say, I also thought Wicked’s colour grading was totally fine if not better than fine. It did the trick, and didn’t look like a Marvel movie which was all I hoped for. With the bar so low, I’d say my expeditions were far, far exceeded.
Love the history lesson on the use of color. I have heard people throw around the fact that the Wizard of Oz championed Technicolor but you broke this down for us. Such a cool listen. Thanks Mina!
I loved the lil history lesson about color grading in films and the evolution of it over time. Honestly forgot we were talking about Wicked for a moment.
Did not expect to enjoy wicked so much and i certainly did. What an interesting video, thank you for making such an informative fun time.
I think something happened between Chamber of Secrets and Prisoner of Azkaban that changed film lighting and color grading forever. Harry Potter films (such as they are) went from nice, warm oranges and blues, and stage lighting to drab greens, grays and blues with barely any lighting. You could argue that's a directorial change, but it's pretty noticeable.
I saw Wicked in a theater a couple days ago & personally throught it was beautifully colourful! There were softer, less-saturated light scenes when the storyline was more light-hearted, there were darker more vibrant scenes when the storyline got more dramatic & I throught it worked really well as part of the storytelling of the movie overall. Maybe that could just be because I went to a cinema that happened to have a fresh bulb so it showed everything properly? IDK, but I had a wonderful time watching it! Definitely way more colourful compared to most other movies I've seen over the last few years
One of the big issues with film in current year is that the critique content-mill is endlessly hungry for moar grist. So "hard-hitting" critiques are being generated based on promotional images from movies that are still in production or from teasers, trailers, creator Tweets, or leaked photos. Basically, a ton of discourse is generated on disassociated fragments of a movie before the actual movie is released, and then there has to be discourse on the discourse followed by discourse on the discourse about the discourse, and the noise level is so deafening that many people have already decided what they think before they even sit in the theater.
omg the editing in this video is GORGEOUS!!!!!
22:22 I completely agree. When I went to see Wicked, my only complaint was how intense the lens flare was for one or two shots. Other than that, I thought the color palette was good considering the backlash online, and the lighting was overall alright, with the exception of the library scene & the part of defying gravity at the top of the tower, but that was only a teensy tiny portion of a near 3 hour film, so I put those criticisms aside to adore the movie for everything that went so well.
Z’llm
Between the decline in screenwriting, directors unable to block anything but the most basic shot, & editors jumping from one angle to the next so fast that it is sometimes hard to follow, we can now add this greige (grey & beige) to the heap of reasons that make it difficult to enjoy modern offerings.
But, you, Mina, always shine through. Keep up the great work.
All hail the Mighty Algo.
Cinderella looks excellent with film cameras, even back in 2015! It seems like a fairytale! I wish B&TB and the TLM remakes could've looked as magical!
i will always find your voice so comforting/nice i swear
Ok but the aesthetic in this video (as always) >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
im so obsessed with all of your cute little titlecards😭 I loveeee your video layout it's PERFECTION
This reminds me of Marvel vs DC cinematic universe aesthetic. I think Marvel captured a larger marketing with more inviting, brighter films (myself included). Especially the Spiderman films, which are centered around a teenager, so the brightness feels like it’s supposed to bring forward a youthfulness with the cinematography. DCU movies start from a darker baseline premise, so the color follows suit… like they’re trying to yell at you “THIS IS GRITTY ART!” with the color.
I incredibly appreciate your effort in every video I've watched of yours
Okay why does this video have better lighting than the damn movie with a $145 million budget?
Because the movie was filmed in the Uk 😂
Thank you for having captions available on your videos! I feel like I’m able to listen better with captions on. I love your videos
what i don't get when directors believe that darker/less saturated/less colorful images means more grit and realism, is that life, the world, is an extremely colorful place, even in the darkest moments and covered in dark colors. contrast and depth exist in the real world and your movie being properly lit and colored instead of looking like it was shot in the dark and putting a lame blue or green wirh yellow subtones filter over will not erase the seriousness~ of your project. i need to see wtf is going on! i also need to hear! (directors these days are also fucking up with sound mixers)
I think it's just the Edgelord Mentality creeping in, especially in the post-Nolan Batman era. Ever since Batman Begins I've noticed that any guy-oriented film that wanted to be taken seriously typically has a very dark and gritty style to it, and they all label it 'realism' no matter how unrealistic certain aspects of it are. It reminds me of the 'I'm 14 and this is deep' meme where very shallow thinkers think that something being literally dark will make it adult/deep/cinematic and therefore 'good' in their eyes. The odd man out like Bullet Train that does use relatively well lit scenes and bright pops of color are certainly not the norm, even the MCU kind of fell down this rabbit hole and if you compare their earlier movies to their later ones you can see the general color grading and lighting get darker and duller as they go on. Iron Man goes from like bright red to a sort of deep muted burgundy red color, and it's supposed to be more colorful overall than DC in terms of comic book world styles and choice. It's like a shortcut for being 'taken seriously' that they desperately want to have but aren't willing to put in the leg work to earn by just making good work.
@awhitney3063 you are absolutely right!
On a related note, apparently, which theater you saw Wicked in effected how it sounded, too! Chu tweeted that many were reporting it was too quiet. I saw it in 3 different theaters, and it was different every time.
Topic: Great.
Information: Great.
Delivery: Great
Look: Great
Another great Mina Le video.
this video was SO informative, I had no clue that the projector could impact the colors in a movie so much but it makes perfect sense!!! Thank you for your research
I’ve been watching a newish show with my parents that is SOO DARK and dull, but it really fits the vibe and the story. I wonder if that would have more impact subconsciously on our perception of the story if other new shows that call for brighter colors had them.
The heck, I did not expect to learn so much in this video. Thank you mina!
I thought the movie was bright, colorful, and beautiful compared to a lot of other newer movies and shows I've seen... it sucks not everyone had the same experience; it is a gorgeous film.