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Disney's Mulan DOP had custom 'Chi' lenses made to exaggerate chromatic aberration


Anaconda_
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I like her cinematography in the 2008 film "Australia".

Personally, despite her attempts for a vintage feel, I think "Mulan" still looks too modern. They shot it on Alexa LF and 65 with spherical lenses and cropped it for 2.39:1 cinemascope, with many shots that just scream "we have a large sensor!!"

Would be nice if it was shot on super 35mm film with true anamorphic lenses, like what Disney did on "Cinderella".

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38 minutes ago, androidlad said:

I like her cinematography in the 2008 film "Australia".

Personally, despite her attempts for a vintage feel, I think "Mulan" still looks too modern. They shot it on Alexa LF and 65 with spherical lenses and cropped it for 2.39:1 cinemascope, with many shots that just scream "we have a large sensor!!"

Would be nice if it was shot on super 35mm film with true anamorphic lenses, like what Disney did on "Cinderella".

Maybe too many Arri Skypanels in the mix giving that vibrant look:) The Cinderella Trailer lookss almost like it was for a video game. Thats on the small computer screen though.

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I never thought of CA as "magical," although I could imagine that SPHERICAL aberrations could give a "magical" look. Maybe she misspoke???

14 minutes ago, PannySVHS said:

Maybe too many Arri Skypanels in the mix giving that vibrant look:) The Cinderella Trailer lookss almost like it was for a video game. Thats on the small computer screen though.

Yeah, I am not super familiar with mainland Chinese cinema. But what I do remember from some 80's mainland moviews was that the lighting was a bit harsher. Just looking at the Mulan trailer makes me think the lighting is too soft to replicate the vintage look. But again, I might be ignorant of lots of Chinese movies with soft lighting.

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1 hour ago, Mark Romero 2 said:

I never thought of CA as "magical," although I could imagine that SPHERICAL aberrations could give a "magical" look. Maybe she misspoke???

Yeah, I am not super familiar with mainland Chinese cinema. But what I do remember from some 80's mainland moviews was that the lighting was a bit harsher. Just looking at the Mulan trailer makes me think the lighting is too soft to replicate the vintage look. But again, I might be ignorant of lots of Chinese movies with soft lighting.

Nah even David Fincher added CA in post for mindhunters. You can see it also on "Ozark" and "Big little lies". 

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I love the light CA from some of my older lenses, sort of a light touch of surrealism in my opinion. Sometimes even video games add CA to make it more artsy, gritty, vintage, visceral or something along those lines. (Personally I don't like it as much in video games, but at least someone thought it was a good idea.)

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I watched the trailer and I did not see any obvious CA so my eyes must not be trained at a high enough level.  I think if I wanted a look that was epic I would shoot on the Zeiss Master Anamorphics, or the Panavision lens that Tarantino shot the Hateful 8 on.  That said I appreciate the focus on the optics over camera body, I hope this trend will continue.

Final note: I have kids and I really enjoyed the cartoon original Mulan.  I hope they can beat it because it the original had humor and heart.  I wonder who is going to play the Eddy Murphy Muchu role in the live version.

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It could be that the shots with these custom lenses didn’t make it  to the trailer.

She speaks about wanting Milan to have a magical quality, but the trailer is action packed, so I think the more ethereal styles scenes haven’t been shown yet.

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19 hours ago, majoraxis said:

I watched the trailer and I did not see any obvious CA so my eyes must not be trained at a high enough level.  I think if I wanted a look that was epic I would shoot on the Zeiss Master Anamorphics, or the Panavision lens that Tarantino shot the Hateful 8 on.  That said I appreciate the focus on the optics over camera body, I hope this trend will continue.

Final note: I have kids and I really enjoyed the cartoon original Mulan.  I hope they can beat it because it the original had humor and heart.  I wonder who is going to play the Eddy Murphy Muchu role in the live version.

There's definitely some hefty CA in the trailer I just watched, example:

screenshot.thumb.jpg.ef32a45b91181f848c74efddb7bbef11.jpg

Speaking of which, that's a pretty awesome shot. I haven't paid any attention to Mulan based on the quality of the other live action remakes, but that is a great shot, both for content and the optical quality. It reminds me of showdown with the Wild Bunch at the end of My Name is Nobody. It also shows the impact that vintage styling can make.

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1 hour ago, Anaconda_ said:

It could be that the shots with these custom lenses didn’t make it  to the trailer.

She speaks about wanting Milan to have a magical quality, but the trailer is action packed, so I think the more ethereal styles scenes haven’t been shown yet.

 

34 minutes ago, KnightsFan said:

There's definitely some hefty CA in the trailer I just watched, example:

screenshot.thumb.jpg.ef32a45b91181f848c74efddb7bbef11.jpg

Speaking of which, that's a pretty awesome shot. I haven't paid any attention to Mulan based on the quality of the other live action remakes, but that is a great shot, both for content and the optical quality. It reminds me of showdown with the Wild Bunch at the end of My Name is Nobody. It also shows the impact that vintage styling can make.

It was a custom made Petzval 85mm lens, and used sparingly in the film only for some portrait shots of Mulan. For all other shots, they were Panavision Sphero 65 lenses, very vintage but with some modern touches, CA is noticeable.

Mandy Walker simplified it a bit too much in the interview, it's not really about the CA, it's the distinctive field curvature and sharpness roll-off from centre to edge, it's another way of isolating the subject instead of just using very shallow depth of field.

This is one of the shots with the Petzval 85mm lens:

6.jpg.ac72d8b5002a46a413f830f3cbed58d2.jpg

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CA is awful and just reminds me of the horrific edges of people against a digitally clipped sky from a low-DR low-bitrate digital camera.
 

I don't have issues with corner softness or vignetting, but wow does CA make an image scream cheap amateur video to me!

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