Cinematic Look

In the third part of the production value topic, we are discussing the importance of the professional visuals, aka the cinematic look.

Firstly, there is no such a thing as THE cinematic look. There are a lots of different type of look that can be classified as cinematic. It can be dark, or bright. Vibrant, or desaturated. Low, or high contrast. It all depends on the mood and the genre, and all this decision has to made prior to the filming.

Secondly, it has to be understood, that there is no one magical ingredient to create a cinematic look. It`s a combination of the right tools and techniques. That includes cinematic lighting, camera movement, production design, cinematic colour grading and of course a decent camera and lenses, just to mention a few.

And just like with sound recording and design, unless you are filming and editing your reel, you would not be in charge of creating the look of your scenes, but knowing what it takes to create a cinematic look will give you an idea what to search for and the ability to compare crews in a better way.