Kimball's filters

[Mike Williamson]

Does anyone know the name of the red filters that Jeffrey Kimball used on many of his exterior shots? I'm thinking of the cherry colored exteriors in the opening of "Top Gun", "Beverly Hills Cop 2", and a number of others. I've seen both grads and solids in his work, just curious what they're called.

 

Also, does anyone have the new "Top Gun" DVD? I'm thinking about picking it up maybe...

[David Mullen ASC]

Often you're seeing the effect of something like a heavy Coral or Tobacco Grad probably.

[Mike Williamson]

I suppose it could be a heavy Coral filter, I've only seen very light Corals like an 1/8 or 1/4 myself. I thought it might be something with more red in it that I hadn't heard of. Thanks, David.

[David Mullen ASC]

I suppose it could be a heavy Coral filter, I've only seen very light Corals like an 1/8 or 1/4 myself.  I thought it might be something with more red in it that I hadn't heard of.  Thanks, David.

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That's why I suggested Tobacco, which has more red in it than Coral. There are also Sunset grads but they have WAY too much red in them usually.

[Bill Totolo]

This might be a stupid question but could he have been using a CTO correction filter? It just has that shade of orange to me.

[David Mullen ASC]

This might be a stupid question but could he have been using a CTO correction filter? It just has that shade of orange to me.

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CTO is a lighting gel; if he used an overall warming filter at all, it would have been a camera filter of some sort -- there are MANY to choose from: Coral, Tobacco, Red Decamired, Antique Suede, Straw, Chocolate, Sepia, 812, 81EF, 85, etc. Not to mention that one could adjust the redness or yellowness of the orange tone in one of these filters in color timing later.

 

But you could also use a Soft-Edge Coral or Tobacco Grad and push it down so far into the frame that nearly the whole image is colored, especially on a long lens, as if you used a solid colored filter.

[Mike Williamson]

That's why I suggested Tobacco, which has more red in it than Coral.  There are also Sunset grads but they have WAY too much red in them usually.

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OK, I was under the impression that a Tobacco filter was more dirty yellow, sort of like a sepia. Thanks for clearing that up, David.

[David Mullen ASC]

OK, I was under the impression that a Tobacco filter was more dirty yellow, sort of like a sepia.  Thanks for clearing that up, David.

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Probably depends on who makes the Tobacco filter. Sepia is a reddish-brown compared to Corals, which are orangey with a little reddishness. If I want more golden yellow, I usually would use an Antique Suede. Or Straw. Or the new Sahara Gold filter.

 

But truth is you can use a Coral and time it a little more yellow later if you wanted to.

 

The color from grads are also affected by the color of the area they are filtering.

[Guest fstop]

Remember that Kimball circa 1986/7 was still very much using alot of specially made grads, often homemade painted colours onto glass inserted into the mattebox. Since the look has proliferated there is a lot of more specialist technical filter equipment out there- You can see that when Tony Scott went onto work with Ward Russell, Mindel, Wolski etc. he was very much in control of the grad pallettes (and Jerry Bruckheimer has been the same on all of his projects with Bay, West, Sena, Ridley Scott, etc).

 

I tend to side with David in whatever was used was pretty basic (tobbacco most likely) and colour timed to greater saturation.

Edited January 22, 2005 by fstop

[Claudio Miranda ASC]

I worked with Tony Scott as a gaffer (Crimson Tide, Enemy of the State & The Fan). The main filters that were called out were "Sunset Grads".

[Mike Williamson]

Thanks for the info, Claudio, it's a real pleasure to have you on the board here.

[Guest fstop]

I'll second that! Thanks Claudio! :)