anthony le grand

Hi, First, I didn't know where to post this so I'm sorry if it's not the right place. I'll shoot soon a short film with a very low budget and will certainly use a sony Z1. The problem is that I actually want soft contrasts and am scared with the highlights in digital. It's mainly ext so we'll shoot at dusk and sunrise not to have something hard. The look of the movie will be soft so that's why I'm worried. I can underexposed a bit to save details and bring it up in post but it creates a bit of noise. So I guess the only possibility now is to work on the lens like with filters (low con or very soft diffuser).. Do you have any other idea? Any trick would help me. Otherwise, I'll make some test with S8 cause even if the latitude is not huge, I think the highlights are way more beautiful than with digital.. Thanks

Zelig is also really beautiful, and the film is just fantastic :). I really like his work on A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy and The Purple Rose of Cairo, it's very subtle. Allen worked with Nykvist as well, he's a huge fan of bergman's work and you can feel his influence. Another women for instance is deeply moving, I think this movie is really under esteemed

Hi agree Drew, Harris Savides and Gus van Sant's work is quite impressive. Also Hou Hsiao Hsien and Mark Lee Ping Bing Sergei Urusevsky and Mikhail Kalatozov I think any good cinematographer would have made an outstanding work with Kubrick, he was almost doing everything !

Thanks guys for your answers. After a few tests, you're definitely right, there's no doubt that the EX1 is better than the others in latitude, resolution and flexibility to have the look I want. Thanks for your help

Hi guys, I have a short film to shoot in 2 months and we only have the money to use HD cams like the HVX200 or the EX1. At the moment, my choice is the Sony one but I saw that the P2 and the JVC HD111 had good results as well, even if they are différent. I think that the colors are a lot richer with the EX1 but do you know if the latitude with this cam is bigger than with the other ones? Do you advise me to underexpose it 1 stop? That's what I usually do with digital but don't know about that one. Also, I've heard some people saying that there's 2 issues with that cam. The first one is to import the footage (I'll be working with Final Cut). The second one is resolution drop when you move the camera. It's a real issue for me cause I'll be working with a steadicam and moving a lot (even if it will be quite slow). Could you tell me anything about that? Thanks a lot

Hi guys, I'm actually looking for different special effects that create motion pictures with photography. Of course there is the classical stop motion or bullet time and more complicated effects like time lapse or slit-scan but I can't really think of other ones.. Do you have any ideas or suggestion?? Thanks a lot! Anthony

Adrian, it's exactly what I was looking for. I'm conscious that it was a stupid question cause trichromatic means literally 3 colours but I was just looking for how they could be separated on 3 different strips. Things are clearer now. Thanks!

Thanks for your answers! So it's a way to separate the 3 colors channels in the camera to obtain particular effects? Do you know how can we do that?

Hi all, can someone explain to me what is trichromatic photography please? I just now that it's what Cunningham used for some video clips but I don't know exactly how to get this effect and what is exactly the consequence on the footage.. Thanks a lot! Anthony

Thanks for your answer Dave. But i meant shoot in colour, make the bleach by pass with this colour film and change it in b&w later. That's possible no? or still ruin the transfer to b&w?

A little question as well: have you ever tried a bleach bypass for a b&w final print?

You're right, it's a lot about overexposure and i love it generally in b&w and in colour as well. That's also why Chris, you're right, I like this little halation around the whites. I heard that even for moving shots, Soy Cuba's DoP kept a strong and direct light close to actors' faces to have an overexposure. But the feeling I tried to describe (I'm aware that I'm not really clear) is that one: If you shoot a scene in b&w, there's automatically white parts in the frame. I like when those parts are bigger and/or different than the ones that i would have without doing anything particular, i mean with a proper exposure, normal development etc... That's why Soy Cuba came to my mind. The parts that would have been dark traditionnally become white by using filters or IR stock. And sometimes the parts that would have been a little white are really white, and not necessarilly thanks to the exposure because the rest is correctly exposed but certainly cause of a work on the lens and filters. At the end, there is the impression of shining whites but slightly different than overexposed whites cause they are slightly unreal as well. Do you remember the opening scene of the film with the shots of Cuba's coast? Totally dream like and full of filters. Does it make sense?

What I like is when the whites are more than "shining". They are somewhat overexposed, which create the shine but, on the other hand, the consequence is not important on the blacks and it doesn't look like pushing. In fact, i love "high" whites but not necessarily like very deep blacks and want to keep a kind of density in the middle greys. So the thing I was looking for is how to manipulate the white without affecting the rest to much. To keep the example of Soy Cuba's scene with the farmer, the effect that I love is when the whites are taking a large part of the frame when he's cutting the plants. Here IR film is, I guess, important. I love as well the last part during the arrival of the revolutionnary when the sky is not realistic at all and is like a big white shining lake around the heads of the characters shot with a very low angle. As Matthew said, IR film and filters constitute a good way to obtain that, working shot by shot in function of the colours in the frame. Can you see other ones? Hope I'm clear...

Thanks a lot Matthew for this answer and, yes, you've been very helpful as it's the only answer i have so far! I guess I'll take my SLR camera with a good old Tri-X and test it with green, red, orange, yellow, blue filters under different conditions and see how it turns out. And try IR stock as well (if I can find it). Cheers!

My top 5 actually: - Harris Savides - Emmanuel Lubezki - Mark Lee Ping Bing - Vittorio Storaro - Gordon Willis (not working anymore but...)

You're right that the saturation i still strong and the colors, I think, quite pure. I meant not "so saturated" compared to other films pushed by 2 stops which are more 'in your face'. As you mentionned, the blacks are very weak but I guess it's a result of the overexposure. But it really participates to the dream-like aspect of the film. The lights participate to the softness inside but i'm surprised to see that even for the exteriors, the result is quite soft. One example is when Cruise go to the mansion at day, colors like the greens are not very strong. Thanks for the informations, especially for the lenses, I had no idea that they used Cooke lenses as well.

Hi all, I know that it's not the case for all of you, but Eyes Wide Shut is one of my favorite cinematography ever. Also, I'm asking myself questions about the colors and contrasts in this film. Larry Smith said that they pushed the 5298 by 2 stops and underexposed it by only 1 1/3 of a stop. Even if the film was pushed, the colors are not so saturated and the contrasts are quite soft, especially for the blacks. Do you know how that was achieved? Is it only a result of the overeposure of the film or is there something else? Did Kubrick used lon con filters like in Barry Lyndon (he also pushed the whole film by one stop and it's very soft)? Low con print stock? Cheers!

We often talk about how to deal with the blacks in B&W photography/cinematography but I'm actually really concerned by the whites. I would like to obtain "shining" whites but not sure how to abtain it. My references are certainly films like Soy Cuba and Kubrick's Lolita. I know that the Kalatozov's film was shot mainly with IR film but I would like to obtain the shine that we can see in the chapter with the farmer and the last one in the valley. The situation was very contrasty with the sky but it was still unusually bright. I think that the IR film helped a lot but do you think with can have a similar result with a particular processing or exposure? Perhaps pushing without underexposing 1 stop but only 1/3 of a stop? What about the filters? I guess i would have to use them to make the negative very dark in some areas to have something whiter with the print no? But I'm not sure if the shine of the whites is really only about its intensity.. Often, white are totally overexposed but don't get that shine. I know that I have to test but I think I need some direction now! Also I'm quite impressed by the whites in Lolita and during all the film. I remember an interview of Kubrick that said that he was searching for a particular filter on that time to have this brightness. Do you know what he used? Thanks a lot!

The New World by Terrence Malick The Thin Red Line by the same dear Terrence Malick Eyes Wide Shut by Stanley Kubrick Death In Venice By Luchino Visconti hummm for the last one i can't choose between 2001, A space Odyssey and Once Upon A time in America by Leone... or perhaps Bergman's Wild Strawberries :).

Hi all, A few days ago, I saw again this beautiful documentary that is My Architect. I found the cinematography very elegant, soft and finally, very emotionnal. I was quite surprised when I checked on imdb to see that they shot in dv. For me, a lot of shots seem like film.. Do you know what equipment they used on this film and how did they achieve that look? Thanks

perhaps it's less "mise en scène" and more spiritual but Duane Michals is always a reference...

Thanks a lot for that guys! I could not hope for better explanations!

Thanks for that Dominic. I knew about the 3 main processes but I think i didn't understand well an interview of Lubezki (perhaps my english...). He talked in an ASC mag about ACE for the dailies of "A Series of unfortunate events" and I though perhaps it has been done directly during the processing of the negative but that was a stupid idea... Also he said that ACE increased saturation. Why in this case? So manifestly my question wasn't the good one... is there different processes like that that can be applied to the PRINT to control the colours, saturation, contrasts..? Are those processes different from the companies who do that? Thanks for your help

Hi all, Could someone tell me what are the different ways to process a negative and their effects on it? I mean could you tell me all the different things we can do when processing the negative like deluxe's ACE or CCE with some examples of films who used them? I remember some examples like the way Lubeski used ACE but is there many different process like that one who give different effects on the colours, contrasts etc..? Thanks a lot, Anthony

Even if he doesn't really work anymore, Gordon Willis is still the reference for me. But concerning the cinematographers who are in activity, i would say Harry Savides, Mark Lee Ping-Bing, Lubezki, John Toll or perhaps Larry Smith to ask him everything about Kubrick's work :). Also, I consider Kubrick as one of the best DoP ever. Even if he was director, he did the light of almost all his films and it was everytime gorgeous.....