Explain how 'film grain' stirring nostalgia with splatter horror 'Mandy' starred by Nicolas Cage evolved the aesthetic effect of the movie

The movie ' Mandy Hell's Road Warrior ' whose topic is a battle scene with a man with a huge chainsaw and the appearance of Nicolas Cage who is covered with blood is a common sense that I have seen a class B splatter horror It looks like a movie. However, this film is an experimental video work using the aesthetic effect " film grain ", and the Nerdwriter 1 of the YouTube channel speaks outstandingly about its amazingness that it is an unbearable finish for movie lovers.

Mandy: The Art Of Film Grain - YouTube


As everything is digitized as technology advances, "nostalgia for physical things" is becoming prominent.

Author James Bridle points out that "No one cared about the smell of paper until the e-book threatened the paper book."

Similar things happen in the music industry, despite being able to listen to high-quality music with streaming service, sales of analog records are rising in recent years.

Of course, the sound of the analog record is wonderful, but it seems that these popularity is not due to its "quality" but as a "symbol of the analog world".

Such a trend is not limited to a physical 'thing'. Instagram is popular with filters that show high quality pictures as if they were shot with grainy, old camera. These filters simulate tools that Instagram users actually do not touch.

Also, in the bridal industry, there are times when it is necessary to process digital pictures daringly to make history feel.

Such 'beauty of nostalgia' is often noticed in movies and appears as an effect of ' film grain '.

Film grain refers to the image effect with rough noise with particles left behind.

Basically, photographers and video artists try to eliminate the noise of the work as much as possible ... ...

Films, especially low-budget independent movies often use inexpensive 16 mm film , and the studio's lighting is also inadequate. Film grain is now being used.

Film grain is often used in independent movies, it is accepted as one aesthetic effect ......

Can not you further develop this aesthetic effect? It is the movie "Mandy" starring Nicolas Cage (planned to be released on Saturday, November 10, 2018), the road warrior of Mandy Hell .

Mandy is the second film by Panos Cosmatos, a horror movie with retaliation themed. It looks like a familiar horror movie with finish reminiscent of Grind House movies of the 70's ... ...

It has its features in psychedelic images like when using drugs.

Coordinator Cosmatos clearly focuses on "spiritual images", the images in the works are dirty, the primary colors are used, and the film grain is diversified. When approaching the contrast with the vividly reflected red and black ... ....

It was Nicholas Cage who was covered with blood.

Such an effect was seen also in " Beyond the Black Rainbow " which is the 1st work of co-ordinate director. The trailer of Beyond the Black Rainbow is released on YouTube .

For the co-ordinator, such a visual effect is not simply a tribute to an old movie. It is an experiment to see what kinds of emotions and tones can be evoked through the potential possibilities of existing aesthetic effects.

The audience who saw Beyond the Black Rainbow said, "Film grain is not just a byproduct of image processing, is not it the same effect as lighting and color tones?"

One of the important properties of film grain is called "motion".

This means that particles appearing in the screen give "motion" to the subject.

Even if it is stationary because of particles, the effect of "movement" is born, it looks like a picture you see when you drank a psychoactive.

In Mandy, Film Grain adds the impression like a dreamlike universe, or an impression like a bad trip to the movie.

Also, particles obscure the boundary between things and things. One film is grainized by film grain, and it seems that the particles seem to be making images by dispersing and overlapping.

Screen that uses smoke to enhance the effect of particles during work. As smoke is blown away, certain things disappear, and there is no sign "What will happen next". In such images, everything is ambiguous and it is like an impression that everything is always exposed to risk of collapse.

These effects are particularly evident when Mandy, a wife of Nicolas Cage's wife, who was kidnapped by a cult group and forced to take drugs with hallucinations. The screen is drawn with a vague gradation of purple and pink.

Also, as the cult leader Jeremiah moves, its movement is visualized by particles.

And the face of Jeremiah who touches his knees and speaks to Mandy ......

It gradually changes ...

Before I became Mandy's own face. Because the face changes delicately, there is also the effect of the particle, the viewer does not notice this effect at first. This kind of effect is not "decoration of the picture", but the movie Mandy's amazing place is intertwined with the story complicatedly. One scene that "the face of Mandy will flow into the face of the cult leader" is expressing what Mandy's identity has been lost and replaced with that of the cult leader.

Without such a visual effect Mandy can not speak. Over time, history has become nostalgic, nostalgia is recognized as one beauty, and it was shown as a great possibility to young filmmakers.