How appropriate that in a film about the "Golden Age" of the Hollywood studio system and about Herman Mankiewicz, Orson Welles, Louie B. Mayer, and all the other Hollywood characters surrounding the effort to get CITIZEN KANE filmed, this digital production brilliantly mimics the look and style of the black and white, almost film noir-ish look of CK right down to placing sync start & changeover cues in the top right-hand corner of the screen every 15-18 min or so.
I was amazed how much that seemingly insignificant artifact added to the whole feel of a 40s movie, even though I am sure it was lost on a whole swath of the viewing public who were born after the first century of celluloid. At one "changeover," a very slight jump was simulated at the changeover point after the cue to mimic a slightly misregistered frame, making it look like a poorly made splice. Thing is, THAT actually mimics a film that was spliced to long-play reels or plattered where you might see that imperfection, but there were no longplay reels or platters in the 40s, just reel-to-reel changeover. Also, I think there were two of these simulated cues that happened in at a fade out/fade in -- but editors tended to avoid making changeovers during fades because it required exact changeover timing; if the projectionist was even a few frames late, the changeover would not be at a full black frame but somewhere after the fade-in had started. At least one of those cues in this film was placed too soon, just as the fade-out started and before it was in full black. It should have been placed in full black so the incoming projector change would have been to a full black, start of the fade-in. No matter, it certainly was sweet nostalgia to see cues again and the homage Fincher was paying to film and an era long gone by.
Brilliant film, IMHO; I highly recommend it -- two thumbs up.
I was amazed how much that seemingly insignificant artifact added to the whole feel of a 40s movie, even though I am sure it was lost on a whole swath of the viewing public who were born after the first century of celluloid. At one "changeover," a very slight jump was simulated at the changeover point after the cue to mimic a slightly misregistered frame, making it look like a poorly made splice. Thing is, THAT actually mimics a film that was spliced to long-play reels or plattered where you might see that imperfection, but there were no longplay reels or platters in the 40s, just reel-to-reel changeover. Also, I think there were two of these simulated cues that happened in at a fade out/fade in -- but editors tended to avoid making changeovers during fades because it required exact changeover timing; if the projectionist was even a few frames late, the changeover would not be at a full black frame but somewhere after the fade-in had started. At least one of those cues in this film was placed too soon, just as the fade-out started and before it was in full black. It should have been placed in full black so the incoming projector change would have been to a full black, start of the fade-in. No matter, it certainly was sweet nostalgia to see cues again and the homage Fincher was paying to film and an era long gone by.
Brilliant film, IMHO; I highly recommend it -- two thumbs up.
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