The techniques I present inthis chapter are the types of corrections you’d make when highly creative grading is necessary. Music videos, advertising sports, and even re-creations and dream sequences within more conventionally graded pro-grams all benefit from your ability to pull something a little more wild out of your hat, and this chapter presents a variety of strategies that you can experiment with.
And that’s the key; these are strategies more than they are “looks.” Most of the cre-ative techniques I’ve chosen to cover here are highly customizable and can be tailored to suit your particular purposes, or you can mix and match them with other techniques to create your own unique effect. No two movies, spots, or series will have the same needs, although many of the stylizations you create can be cat- egorized as familiar, recognizable techniques.
Have fun!
BLEACH BYPASS LOOKS
One of the more popular looks among those that have achieved brand-name sta-tus is the bleach bypass effect. This method of film processing was popularized over the years by its use in films such as 1984 (cinematography by Roger Deakins), Delicatessen (Darius Khondji), Three Kings (New ton Thomas Sigel), and Saving Private Ryan (Andrzej Bartkowiak).
Bleach bypass (also Referred to as silver retention or skip bleach) refers to a specific process whereby the bleaching stage – which removes the exposed grains of silver that initially formed the image-is skipped. The silver grains remain on the nega-tive, creating greater density, which increases image contrast, intensifies grain, and reduces saturation.