How are modern color movies turned to black and white

[Danieln770]

Hi everyone,

I recently watched the trailer for Godzilla Minus One Minus Color and I was wondering, how is film shot in color turned into black and white? What’s the process like? Is it a matter of simply turning down the saturation on Resolve? What’s the workflow like?

Regards,
Danieln770

 

[Maura N.]

Hello there!
Good question! Even though I do not know someone who worked on this movie so I can ask, I believe it is a process that involves many small steps. It starts with the initial desaturation, then we work on adjusting brightness and contrast, applying specific grading techniques for each scene to achieve the black-and-white look that we are looking for.
And yes, I believe all these steps could be done in DaVinci!

 

[Danieln770]

Hello there!
Good question! Even though I do not know someone who worked on this movie so I can ask, I believe it is a process that involves many small steps. It starts with the initial desaturation, then we work on adjusting brightness and contrast, applying specific grading techniques for each scene to achieve the black-and-white look that we are looking for.
And yes, I believe all these steps could be done in DaVinci!

Thanks for your response, Maura! It must be really cool taking a color film and turning it into black and white. Hopefully, one day I can witness a colorist go through it. It’s fascinating.

 

[sonnyboo]

Is it a matter of simply turning down the saturation on Resolve?

Essentially, yes. That's it. There are LUTS that emulate black and white film stocks, there is a lot of tweaking the color grade in black and white of course, but essentially, it's just taking all color away in color grading.

There are some RED cameras that shoot only black and white, but they aren't popular enough to mass produce.

 

[Danieln770]

Essentially, yes. That's it. There are LUTS that emulate black and white film stocks, there is a lot of tweaking the color grade in black and white of course, but essentially, it's just taking all color away in color grading.

There are some RED cameras that shoot only black and white, but they aren't popular enough to mass produce.

Ah ok. That makes sense as how some filmmakers are able to quickly release a black and white version of their film after the color version comes outs.