Help choosing right stock and developing process

September 23, 2004

Hi, my name is Thiago, I'm on the sixth semester of film school (FAAP - São Paulo, Brazil) and I'm about to be the director of photography of a 35mm short film.

I was the cinematographer on a digital movie we've made on the fourth semester of college, but now I'm really into making something really controlled and professional, so I'm reasearching issues of "American Cinematographer", sites, books and the likes.

I'm shooting outdoors only, at the moment.

Two locations: a small city (Atibaia), lots of houses, few buildings, small streets few traffic. And fields. One place with a huge tree, one with a beautiful lake, another that looks like a tree cemetery and a giant rock, a tourist attraction of the city.

But the thing is, on the CITY locations, I want the image washed out, a little greenish, just like "Phone Booth" (mainly) or "The Matrix". High contrast, but little color saturation.

Any ideas for a film or developing process that will result in little saturation and high contrasts? Black shoud be black and white should be white, but it has to look a little washed out.

And on the FIELD, I would like bright, living colors and few contrasts. Something like "Big Fish", when he´s all suronded by yellow flowers. Something that looks like paradise, because it's a place where the main character awakes after he dies.

How much should I overexpose, underexpose, overdevelop or underdevelop on which kind of stock to get these results. Any ideas?

I'm afraid of using 50D instead of 250D because I don't know how much light will I have.

By the way, we have a very tight budget.

Thank you very much for the attention.

Greg Gross · September 23, 2004

Hello Thiago!

I'm a student cinematographer in the process of learning cinematography,

not in film school I have a mentor/instructor. I have been a professional

photographer for over twenty years. Here are my choices based on photog-

raphy knowledge of films:

1. Kodak Vision 200T

Good color,contrast

Wide latitude

NOT SURE AMOUNT OF LIGHT YOU'RE GOING TO HAVE:

2. Kodak Vision 500T

Lively colors,Good color,contrast

Latitude ok

Greg Gross, Professional Photographer

Student cinematographer

September 23, 2004

Thank you very much Greg.

Soon I'll post pictures of the location. Also, pictures modified in Photoshop of how I want the lightning, contrast and saturation to look in film.

Maybe then I can get help on how to develop and expose the film.

We have a contact in Kodak, here in Brazil. He says we can choose from 10 different types of film. When I get the list, I'll also post here.

Again, thanks man.

Thiago.

J Costantini · September 24, 2004

Ola, Tiago. Mais um brasileiro por aqui. Do Rio de Janeiro.

Tambem estou começando em cinematografia, ja fiz algumas assistencias e estou frequentemente estudando o assunto. com livros e american cinematographer (alias, como eh cara por aqui!)

vamos entrar em contato mais direto, meu email é juliocc@uninet.com.br

acho que tenho algumas ideias pra vc.

valeu.

for those who dont speak Portuguese, I just said that I´m Brazilian too and would like to get in touch directly with Thiago to discuss some ideas. also said that i read the american cinematographer magazine and that it´s very expensive here!! about 12 dollars!!