Remulak posted:

Re-watched the Heat shootout for like the tenth time just now and noticed that everybody seemed to be shooting high. Wondering if this was a safety thing, or if maybe I’m misreading due to camera angles or whatever. I also FINALLY realized what an utter triumph of editing that scene was, because holy crap so much of that could have been different days or even locations. It was done before DI though, so maybe they had to be a lot more careful to match daylight? That era of postproduction is like a different world to me.

One thing not mentioned here is Mann’s consistently pushing the technical envelope on night scenes. One of the weaknesses of Miami Vice (IMO) is that it didn’t quite make it; the digital camera he used didn’t have the contrast and did some odd poo poo. I remember the skies bing really blown out and distracting. That was a world I was deep in at the time though, Mann doesn’t do much by accident and if you didn’t know what was going on it may have worked.

Compare anything else in Vice or Collateral to that Dells shootout in Public Enemies, goddamn that is luscious. Ironically it looks better on my iPad than it did on the lovely early digital projector I saw it on at the time, I’d LOVE to catch a rerelease in Dolby Cinema.