Take a look at this image. Don't pay attention to the composition or the color or the subject matter. Turn up the brightness on your screen, enlarge this image as much as possible, and take a good long look. What you're looking for is something that digital filmmakers seem to have overlooked or disregarded. This image you just starred at for a moment contains what is called grain or texture, which are small bits of seemingly random sand-like bits spread throughout the image. When shooting movies on celluloid, grain is pretty much inevitable! It is part of the real film, and while you could use some digital effects to mask it or outright wash it away, this sandy texture is actually what many filmmakers, especially older and more experienced ones, have loved the most. Digital cameras, even the most expensive and powerful ones, also have this kind of texture to it, except for one difference. In digital, this texture is called noise. Also, many digital filmmakers hate it with a vengeance. This feeling towards this aspect of digital cinematography is understandable as some forms of noise are not very aesthetically pleasing, but this notion, at least to me, does not apply to all types of noise.
For those of you who may not be familiar with camera technology, noise is a phenomenon found in most, if not all, digital video cameras. Even those built for high-quality cinema. In most cases, it is the result of pushing the sensitivity of the sensor, which is adjustable according to the amount of available light. Some camera sensors are better at creating incredible images in even the smallest amount of light while others don't have it as good. Most of the time, digital filmmakers will opt to keep the sensitivity as low as possible to prevent too much noise. Also, there are lots of computer programs available to clean the images up. When it comes to getting a crisp and sharp image, the options are through the roof.
Even so, why do most digital filmmakers want to get rid of the noise?
The most obvious answer would be to have the cleanest and best-looking image possible, which is, of course, an understandable goal. I work hard to make my pictures look as gorgeous as possible. In the world of HD and 4K, it is reasonable to expect that digital seems crisp and sharp just like film. However, celluloid has never really been sharp at all. Sure, lots of Hollywood movies and independent films shot on celluloid look incredible and intense, but that has more to do with the time and money they all had to properly light their scenes and apply proper cleanup tools to the footage before release. And even then, it's still damn near impossible to not notice the grain. Take a look at these screenshots from the movie Blade Runner. Pay particular attention to the shadows.
Chances are you noticed the grain particularly in the lighter parts of the shadows. Even though Blade Runner had an incredible budget and lots of production value, the grain is still present in the images, and it mostly has to do with the nature of its capture format. Celluloid film is an emulsion of silver alloy crystals that react when exposed to light creating an image. Though they are microscopic, they can still be seen by the naked eye in the form of grain. Much like how boosting a digital sensors sensitivity will usually yield more noise, using high gauge film stock will generally provide more grain. Even so, there have been some cases where, despite using lower sensitive film stock, there is a ton of grain. It can be seen best in the film The French Connection which was captured using low gauge film stock and nominated for an Academy Award for Best Cinematography.
Noise, like grain, is also inevitable. However, as I stated at the beginning of this article, there are some types that, at least in my opinion, are not all that ugly and genuinely add to the cinematic aesthetic of the image. One kind in particular which is unquestionably ugly and does not belong in an image, let alone one meant for cinema, is what I will refer to as Rainbow Noise. This phenomenon usually occurs in cameras with smaller sensors especially when the sensitivity is pushed too high. As a result, the image gets flooded with multi-colored pixels that no amount of color correction or image cleanup will effectively eliminate. Here's an example from the feature film The Purge: Anarchy.
Another kind of noise, which I personally find to be aesthetically pleasing, is referred to as "Mosquito Noise." This is the type which I argue is more akin to film grain. A kind of fine sand particle especially noticeable in the brighter ends of shadows. This, in my opinion, is one of the many things that makes digital video inherently like film. Having a light amount of seemingly random bits of sand-like particles flying around the image is part of digital videos charm. It is even present in feature films made within the last few years captured on digital video. Take a look at these screenshots pulled from Angry Video Game Nerd: The Movie and The Raid: Redemption.
Both of these films were captured on the same camera. The Panasonic AG AF100.
Now, I'm willing to bet that a lot of you who have examined these images closely likely had a hard time noticing the noise or the grain. I can assure you, it's not because I tried to fool you. It's actually because things like grain and noise are difficult to really notice in still images. It is there and can be seen if you look carefully enough, but it's usually easier to notice when viewing it in motion, and even then, it's really only noticeable when looking at a clip frame by frame. When watching a movie, provided the story has done its job in grabbing your attention with sympathetic characters and a compelling narrative, the overall asthetics of the images don't matter. Yes, it is best to have as good looking a picture as you can get, but that does not mean that you are required to shell out hundreds or thousands of dollars for a camera that delivers noise-free images. Mostly because aside from maybe a few cameras manufactured by Sony and Canon, there is no such thing. Perhaps someone will develop such a device in the future, but even so, why are we wasting our time whining about noise when it looks more like cinematic grain?
Part of our perception of digital noise is conditioning. We tend to be suckered into believing that our images should look absolutely pristine and have no unsightly blemishes at all. We see this visual idea in commercials, display TVs in electronic stores, and even in our motion pictures. Many people would have us believe that the most cinematic image is one that replicates how we see the world accurately. A perfect presentation. Except for one problem: We don't live in an ideal world.
I personally believe that art should always reflect the natural and beautiful imperfection of people and the world as a whole. Movies should still have some kind of character flaw about them which makes them more relatable and enjoyable. For me, that beautiful imperfection is in the noise, the digital equivalent to film grain.
Screenshot from Public Enemies captured on early digital cameras.
The good news is I do not appear to be alone in this belief. Phil Rhodes, a regular contributor to Red Shark News (an online magazine for digital cinema production), posted an article expressing his own take on noise. You can find a link to that article at the end of this one. Also, Rachel Morrison, the cinematographer for Black Panther, wanted to capture that film in a higher than usual level of sensitivity to get what she called "digital grain," but ultimately didn't do so at the request of the special effects team, who asked her to not go past a certain level. Also, just last year, Steven Soderbergh made an entire feature film on an iPhone using no external recorders. Producing images that not only had a good deal of noise but also contained the least amount of color information to work with. And yet, the film looks spectacular.
There is no such thing as a perfect camera or a flawless image. There is only the art we create and the tools we use to do so. In painting, different brushes will leave specific kinds of strokes based on their materials. You cannot control the subtle marks they will make, but you can determine the direction they will go. Despite this inability to control precisely how the brush will create the strokes, very seldom does the artist complain about it. Because, after all, it is the eye of the artist that will make it into something amazing to behold. The same can be said for filmmaking. If you genuinely want to create incredible art, you must embrace imperfection.
Ladies & gentlemen, I am TheNorm, thank you all for reading.
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