I'm sure there is a certain amount of color correction going on in post, but for the most part, it's a very talented lighting designer/director. Lighting is a major technical part of what separates CSI from the typical YouTube video.

Well, even my oldest friend who dislikes these kinds of shows couldn't help but remark how well CSI is shot. Shooting on 35mm sure doesn't hurt, and yes lots and lots of time lighting it. You can get damn close with DV though, Stu in the DV Rebel has one good trick I'd never thought of, smoking the set.

Bob.

Should have mentioned, the safe way to "Smoke the set" isn't to use real smoke, use a product called "Cloud In A Can".

This is the stuff.

Bob.

They also color coordinate the actors' outfits to go with the lighting which makes the color even more outstanding. I've often sat and watched CSI Miami with the sound muted for a lesson in color and lighting. I think the show is stupid but it isn't because of the artistic design that's for sure!

Magic Bullet even has a "Miami" filter, inspired no doubt by the program. Of course, the show is filmed in Los Angeles, but that's beside the point.

There's a handful of ways to do it. The can is one way when you don't need a lot of mist. Other methods I've used:

-Bee Smokers. These burn incense and can make a pretty dense smoke that hangs in a room for quite a while. Horrible for actors and crew.
-Smoke machines. These pump a glycerin solution through an electric heating element and turn it into fog. You can make quite a bit fog this way. You can even get a gasoline powered bazooka like rig that puts out a ton of fog. The biggest fogger I've seen was a swamp boat on a trailer. Big propeller to blow the stuff around but I don't really know how they were creating the fog. We were making fog around a small lake with this thing.
-Crackers. These use a compressor instead of a heating element to break up the glycerin. You basically bubble jets of compressed air into a bucket of the solution. We used to think it was a little easier on the lungs...but you're still breathing it so it can't be all that good.
-Dry Ice. This makes ground effects. You basically build 55 gallon barrels with heating elements inside. Get the water as hot as you can and then drop the basket in. Better dry ice rigs will have a top and a blower/duct arrangement to better control where the fog goes.

Almost all of these can make a synthetic fiber carpet dangerously slick, and none are good for your lungs.

Rob Mack

"Of course, the show is filmed in Los Angeles, but that's beside the point."

No new news there, but your comment cracked me up due to my observation on how "tropical" (read: Miami-lookin') it is :) As to show's plots and such, it's more the artistry that intrigues me than needing to see one more badguy/girl being blown away.

That said, Caruso is kind of cool, but the script gets a bit uber-strong-silent-type dramatic with him. But there are certainly worse shows on TV (Big Brothers and all that garbage...)

___________________

As to Farss's smoke thing, I was in a small "warehouse" grocery store, Smart&Final where I get good prices yesterday, And lo and behold, by the check out was a....

Fog machine on sale, USD $19.95, price of can of stuff, extra. Water-based, and I'm still puzzled why in such a store, but:

"Hmmmm, hey....!" I thought, but then realized that for my one-man show whereby my computer and stuff wouldn't be far away, not a good idea at all. That would probably be applicable to other fog and smoke stuff in a can..

I"ll stick to Particleillusion and create my own smoke/misty feel using their increasingly more refined cloud and smoke emitters. No point frying my computer et al all with stuff floating around in the air :)

If and when I get funding, etc. I can then got more "pro" about it all.

the fog shouldn't fry your computer at all. shouldn't be a problem. shoulda gotten it. Would of at least been cool on Halloween. :)

Smart and Final stocks party supplies and I guess they include smoke machines. There's a bit of a demand around Halloween (at least in the Bay Area) because lots of younger adults without kids like to have parties.

No, the glycerin mist is not good for cameras and electronics. As far as real vs electronic smoke goes, there's definitely a difference in the look.

I was at a lost for the name of the bazooka-like fogger. I think one name was Dyna-Fogger. Most of these things have their origins in insecticide sprayers.

Rob Mack

This is about the only time of year you can get those $20 fog machines. Walmart, Target, everyone will have them in a few weeks of not already.

Also, the fog is for the lights to glow in. To diffuse in. To great a soft smooth effect to the atmosphere. Something that would be very difficult to duplicate with Particle Illusion.

By the way, here's another place to buy more fog-in-a-can if anyone is needing another source. http://www.filmtools.com/diffusionincan.html

I have analyze the CSI:Miami look and provided some "cheap" ways to get a similar look for *outdoors* scenes:
http://eugenia.gnomefiles.org/2007/08/21/achieving-the-csimiami-look/
and my review of Tiffen's sun filter:
http://tuxtops.com/node/2432

For indoor look you need to have colored lights on weird positions so they light up objects in an unusual way. E.g. placing a green light on the floor and light up the blinds of a window from below. Of course, these lights should remain out of the frame when shooting, so it doesn't look fake.

"Q: Do you think that this is almost all due to set gear, or does post production, (i.e. color correction and curves type thing) play a major role in this also?"

From the look of CSI miami (later seasons) it seems tehyve gotn pretty hard with colourista. Be aware Magic Bullet 2 can pull these looks offf.. vegas on its own CANNOT due to the "shape" of the gradient filter itself. You can do it in vegas without MB2 bus using track overlays and cookie cutters, but the predominant thing you will notice is an excess of contrast without blow outs, in addition to gradation filters.
This is all done in post.

Ive been working on a series of filter presets in MB2 to emulate this look and have been able to pull it off without uch hassle using MB2.

The link provided by eugenia is a good effort, but if anyone wants to give me their email so tey can host some images, ill send you afew samples closer to the look youre wanting to achieve

Email them to me and I will host them on my blog, I got bandwidth: eloli AT hotmail.com

I think they are using a Da Vinci 2K to grade the show, and pushing the color correction fairly far (especially in the flashback scenes). Colorista should be able to pretty much do what a Da Vinci does, except a lot slower. There might be subtle differences in the algorithms (e.g. the saturation might look different). Except for the (big) omission of secondaries.

The show is also lit dramatically. The hairlights? for example in the close-ups are very strong... how light is shining through their hair and you can see it. You definitely have to light the show in a certain way to get the same look, including the contrasty soft key lights and very little fill.

2- The grads are likely filters in front of the camera lens.

Hey, looks like some interest in this Q. Thanks for all of your responses. It's been rolling around in my brain for a while, so glad I asked here. I'll study what has been offered here.

Special thanks to Eugenia for your tutorial :) Gonna keep that one!

And since it looks like I won't be able to cheat my way through the "misty" look with PI...
Hell, maybe I'll get that $20 fogger just for the fun of it.

Not into the Halloween thing, but I can always cover my computer case with a transparent drop cloth the day I decide to fool around with this -- keeping the exhaust vents open, of course :)

Off topic but the casting of CSI Miami was horendous. Let's see, the star I call "angle head" (every shot is with his head leaning to one side) and then the "tweety head lab broad" (talks with tweety low volume high pitch voice) and the rest of the lab cast who has not reached puberty. All the good film technique in the world can't help this 15 year old teeny bopper show. I would fire all the would be psuedo actors and start over.
JJK

There was a big cinamatographer discussion about the CSI:Miami look a few months ago, and their DP said the film stock was #1 in making it possible.

Post can do a lot, but there are still a few times when certain chemicals are unsurpassed.

It's worth spending a day shooting with fog just for the experience. Fog tends to pick up backlight better than frontal lights, and can look very different depending on the darkness of the background.

When you fog a room, it's very worthwhile to have a place to go to get out of it. This can be hard if you're in a place where you really only have the one room, like in an apartment building.

Also, it's good to have a box fan around to help clear the air or maybe to mix it. Typically, we'd just have a grip stir the air up with a 2x3 flag and then let it settle for 10 seconds or so before shooting. We'd save the box fan for bringing new air into the room.

All in all, fog is a hassle and not all that pleasant to work in. A lot of people these days are very sensitive about breathing this stuff.

If you've got very light needs, or small shots, the spray cans will do the trick and are a good thing to keep in your box of spays. I found that I could never get enough cans to get me through a shooting day.

Rob

The thing is, with film you can get the detail recorded and from there it's easier to get the picture digitized with all that detail. And of course a stock will have its own unique color response.

You also get very particular optics when you shoot 35. Red is promising equivalent physics and I think we'll be seeing less and less film being shot, but it's still the medium of choice for high value products.

Rob Mack

You start with really talented people who know what they doing: talented DP that knows how to light (soft side light for guys, soft beauty light for women; always use harsh backlight) and understands complementary colors (yellow works with blue, blue works with green and red, etc), talented cam ops that know how to frame and knows to have something blury in the background as well as foreground, talented art designer that knows the value of forms and textures. Then since it's shot on 35mm you have all the saturation you might want to play if you want little bit in the post and here you have it CSI: Miami.