J Costantini

Hi, I'm preparing a film that will be shot primarily with fixed focal length optics (Cooke S4) but the director also wants to have a zoom lens for a couple of scenes. The options are the Cooke 25-250 mk II or the Angenieux 25-250 HR. I'm not sure if we'll have time for deep tests, so I'd like to know if you have experience shooting with these zooms and which one you'd recommend to intercut with the Cooke S4s. We're shooting on Arri Alexa. Thank you very much.

But somehow it looks like it's shaking the camera on purpose instead of stabilizing it! Sort of an in camera effect for action?

Hi Bill, could you please explain the "bit better quality"? I'm very interested in the ORWO, how could I get in touch with the representative? Is there a website I can use to get the film? Do you have information about other 16mm BW film stocks available other than Kodak's? thanks

Could it work if shooting film?

Hi, I'm starting to work on a film in which we'll need to shoot a scene where lots of pictures are taken by a character and the director wants the flash lights to blink all the time to indicate the pictures being taken... I've seen how flashing looks on a cmos generated footage, so I would like to ask if there's any other way to emulate that lighting effect OR if you recommend any other 'low budget' not cmos-based camera. we're shooting digital of course. Thank you very much.

Hi, I'm about to shoot a feature film using this camera SI-2K and I would like to watch some material recorded with that camera, specially in a 'naturalistic' way, without many digital artifacts and color correction in post. Do you guys know a few links to share? Thank you!

David, we've been discussing about that on the Brazilian Association of Cinematographers forum... some dops would say the same thing about the DR of the logC recording, however, I wonder if it really makes a difference, since the logC material is going to be graded at the end and present the same 'look' intended, even if it had been recorded in rec709. what I want to say is: even if you have a nice (full of information) logC material, it won't look like that at the end and you will bring in color saturation and contrast in post. I understand that it's always better to have the maximum amount of information in your raw footage, but you have to know exactly where you will be grading the material and test it, because the 'developing' of the logC footage CAN create some artifacts such as noise to color saturation on the skin tones, etc (some cinematographers had reported that - that's why we started the discussion on the ABC forum...). So, at the end we're not sure if it's 'that' better to record in logC... what do you think?

another advantage is that because of the optical shutter, the d-21 is able to black balance the sensor at each 'black' between frames. it also controls the temperature of the sensor degree per degree to keep it stable and parasite free... it's a complete different camera system and Arri knows that, that's why they're not preocupied in releasing the Alexas, even one with optical viewfinder and variable frame rate (coming soon)... and of course there's the 1.37 sensor and MSCOPE possibility for anamorphic...

Hi. Soon I will be working on a studio and the show will be a comedy based on sports tv shows where there's a host and a few guests sitting there. I'm sure that the lighting can be as simple as possible, there will be a studio, basic background and I have the freedom to light it as I want. But I think that this is exactly what makes it harder: where to start? I've never had a lot of studio practice, so I would like to ask you for some help. I've thought about using 2k chimeras as frontal keylights, basic fill, but my challenge is to have some contrast in the faces and avoid shadows on backgrounds and floor. What would you go for? Maybe a big chimera balloon in the center with flags to prevent spill? What about backlighting, what is recommended? maybe mixing color temperatures? use a different one for backlight? Thanks, Julio

That's that. it would be hard to discuss about those images without knowing the context. in fact, I'm not saying that images are common or that they lack in feeling. I think that a reel like this (showing us amazing images) goes beyond pretty images. It allows us to start discussing cinematography in depth. By looking at this reel, we can't really say that images lack in feeling or are full of soul... it's hard to say that. Of course, these images are perfectly exposed and compressed, and I'm sure that you interpret the scripts and colaborates with your vision. I just wanted to bring up the point that a pretty image can also be an empty image, but I'm not saying that this is the case. As a cinematographer I'm always exercising this. I always want to be able to know if the image I'm creating is empty, is full, or lacks in something, or goes beyond the story and makes it smaller or bigger. It's a great reel, it makes me keep thinking in terms of images.

this is great work. technically speaking, I can see some 'blocks' in the blacks during the night sequence. did it show up when you compressed for internet? what codec did u use? because the rest of the material looks amazing. how did you rate the camera for the night sequence and how was postproduction done? thanks a lot and congratulations

Chayse, you do have some great images there and the compression looks really amazing. although it's your demo reel and you need to bring in the best shots you have, I also feel that you could put in some shots with more 'soul' to them, because in my opinion cinematography is not only about pretty pictures, I'm sure you'll agree with me. Nowadays we can shoot slowmotion easily and play around with the images in digital color grading and that's a plus. But honestly lots of people can do that (I'm not saying anyone can do what you do), so... what makes you special, what's going to make a producer or a director choose you instead of anyone else? That's what I call the 'soul' of the image, the feeling, the heart. And it has nothing to do with compression. You have a beautiful work.

Hi, I've just graduated from the International Filmschool in Cuba, I've been working with cinematography since 2002. I have put together some of my work and edited a 3 minute clip with the most interesting parts of the shortfilms, documentaries, etc I've worked on. Please feel free to critique my work, I would love to hear from you guys and keep improving it. (unfortunately the clip is in a low quality because the extracts are from sd dvds...) the link is: http://vimeo.com/6578632 THANKS!

Hi. I´m about to shoot a project on 35mm and I´ve the possibility of using a Cooke Zoom Varotal T4 25-250, but I´ve not tested it yet. Have you worked with this lens and know what is expected? a softer image compared to the Zeiss Standard 2.1 (my prime set of lenses for this project...)? We´re waiting for test results with century chart, but I don´t know if I will have time to test its ´look´. however, I would like to zoom during a shot... thanks

Hi. I´ve read the messages here on the website about working with and emulating sodium vapor lamps. I´m waiting for rushes of some tests I´ve shot under these lights, but I would like to ask you: if I shoot at a 60hz country at 24fps and 144 degree shutter, I should be safe in terms of flickering, right? Also, I would like to shoot under normal sodium lamps on 35mm with an eterna 500 exposed as 500 and push the development 1 stop. Have you ever worked like this? I expect to see a lot of yellow, a bit of green, maybe some magenta. And I want to expose it as 500 so that I can crush the blacks later and kill the grain on shadows a little bit (we´re finishing photochemically...) What could be an interesting choice in terms of costume for a character (woman) that needs to hang around under this color temperature to make her pop up a little bit from the background, walls, etc? And what could be an interesting option in terms of color temperature to create some harmony and let the eyes rest a little bit... maybe add some blue lights at background or coming out from a house in the street? from a corner,etc? maybe cyan? Thanks, Julio