O Brother, Where Art Thou, by Ethan and Joel Coen

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Written by Ethan and Joel Coen and released on DVD by Touchstone Pictures and Universal Pictures in 2001, O BROTHER, WHERE ART THOU? is supposed to be the first professional film in history to be digitally enhanced, in its entirety. The movie is a loose adaptation of the epic poem The Odyssey in which three escaped convicts; Everett Ulysses McGill (George Clooney,) and his two partners Delmar (Tim Blake Nelson) and Pete (John Turturro) experience the adventures of “Ulysses” (Homer) in varying ways. The actors meet along their way: “the Blind Prophet, the Cyclops, and the Sirens,” (Homer) all members of The Odyssey. This is intermixed with characters from the 1930’s including Baby Faced Nelson (Michael Badalucco,) a KKK mob, and a Governor (Charles Durning) running for reelection, which sets the period of the film. The period depicted, the Dust Bowl, gave Joel Coen director of the film rise to the need for digital manipulation of the production to achieve consistency in appearance and feel. The idea of using digital manipulation, and digital mastering of an entire film, has allowed the process of creating a film to be forever changed enhancing the pleasure of the viewer.

The intermix of a great literary work into a modern production is not a new concept, but the use of digital enhancement to carry a theme was unheard of prior to the making of this film. Both Director of Photography Roger Deakens, and Business Development Director Sarah Priestnall from Kodak, helped to explain that the digital process used is the modification of the film at the pixel level, in which the film is digitized frame by frame and each frame is color matched to allow for manipulation. The mastering process was done in the film developing...

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...ks Cited

Beierle, Aaron. "Oh Brother, Where Art Thou? : DVD Talk Review of the DVD Video." DVD Talk - DVD Movie News, Reviews, and More. 14 June 2001. Web. 15 Oct. 2011.

Coen, Joel Dir. O BROTHER, WHERE ART THOU? Dir. Photography. Roger Deakens. Perf. George Clooney, Tim Blake Nelson, John Turturro, John Goodman, Charles Durning, Lee Weaver, Mia Tate, Musetta Vander, Christy Taylor. 2000. Touchstone Pictures and Universal Pictures 2001. DVD.

Homer. The Odyssey. 800 B.C.E. Translated by Samuel Butler. MIT.EDU. Web. 2 Oct 2011.

PAINTING WITH PIXELS. O BROTHER, WHERE ART THOU? Dir. Joel Coen.

D.O.P. Roger Deakens. Touchstone Pictures and Universal Pictures, 2001. DVD

Silvers, Alan, Director of Technical Services. PAINTING WITH PIXELS. Dir. Joel Coen. Perf. Alan Silvers, Sarah Priestnall, Roger Deakens. TouchStone Pictures and Universal Pictures, 2001. DVD.

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