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Daniel Pearl ASC

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Posts posted by Daniel Pearl ASC

  1. Do not fall into production's way of making light of our requests for equipment that is necessary to get the job done well and quickly!!!! You won't become rich and famous playing with toys, and more importantly, you can't fight very hard for toys. They are tools, and all of us should be quick to correct any producer or PM who uses the term. I promise you that if you let it go, the term will put you at a disadvantage before too long. Daniel Pearl, ASC

  2. Just back from Poland presenting the awards and conducting question and answer sessions with the attending DPs at the 16th annual Camerimage Festival. The jury award for best MV cinematography went to Kasper Tuxen Anderson for Dave Gahan's "Kingdom"

     

    http://www.rokkit.tv/?section=musicvideos&...amp;film=film_3

     

    and the audience award went to Aaron Stewart-Ahn and Shawn Kim for Death Cab for Cutie's "I Will Possess Your Heart"

     

    http://otaku-house.com/forac.mov

     

    I will need help rounding up the nominations for next year, so please save my email address and feel free to hit me back next September with your favorites of the previous twelve months.

     

    Nastrovia, Daniel Pearl, ASC

  3. I will be there from Tuesday evening on to host the nominated music video cinematographers' seminars, and to present the awards at the closing ceremony. Please do say hello. I'd love to meet you all. That's the point of this festival. First one's on me. Cheers, Daniel Pearl, ASC

     

    P.S. I'm 6 foot even, have a shaved head with a grey goatee and mustache.

  4. Happy Thanksgiving!!!!!

     

    I am pleased to present the nominees for Excellence in Cinematography Of A Music Vidoe for the 16th annual Camerimage Festival:

    Kasper Tuxen Anderson "Kingdom" Dave Gahan

    Jeff Cronenweth, ASC "Love In This Club" Usher

    Max Goldman "Where Is My Love" Cat Power

    Shawn Kim & Aaron Stewart-Ahn (co-DP) "I Will Possess Your Heart" Death Cab For Cutie

    Mike LeBlanc "Our Hell" Emily Hayes+Soft Skeleton

    Chris Probst "Ayo Technology" 50 Cent

     

    I?d also like to thank each of you for your participation in recommending and collecting the nominated videos. Big or small, nominated or not, your contribution was an important part of the process and a testament to the importance of this award. It would not have been possible without your participation.

    I?m pleased to announce that the organizers of the festival are so impressed with the work of the six nominees that they will be covering travel and hotel expenses for each of the nominees who chooses to attend, and that may be unanimous. Each of the nominees will also be presented to the festival via an individual 1.5 hour seminar/Q&A.

    The festival also decided to arrange to screen the videos all week long, and in addition to the award selected by a panel of cinematographers, there will also be a second award chosen by the attendees

    Although this is the inaugural award, it is intended to be presented every year from now on, so keep your eyes open and be sure to make note of any music videos you see that exemplify excellent cinematography because we will be back in touch with you next September.

    I?d also like to mention that is was a difficult decision to select the final six, as it could easily have been any of the final twelve or twenty that made the cut. The work is that good.

     

    My sincerest thanks, Daniel Pearl, ASC

     

    P.S. You can go to www.Camerimage.com and select the English translation button on the upper right of the page, and then select MUSIC VIDEOS COMPETITION to read all about it and see the videos.

     

    The Camerimage Festival organizers have deemed it necessary to set up viewing capability on their website, which is quite user friendly. However, due to limitations with their server, you may choose to use the links below for bigger, better online versions:

     

    Shawn Kim & Aaron Stewart-Ahn, Death Cab For Cutie: http://www.otaku-house.com/forac.mov

     

    Kasper Tuxen, Dave Gahan: http://www.rokkit.tv/?section=musicvideos&...amp;film=film_3

     

    Christopher Probst, 50 Cent: http://lspagency.net/dp-folder/dp-reels/Probst/50.mov

     

    Max Goldman, Cat Power: http://www.maxgoldmandp.com/pages/catPower.html

     

    Jeff Cronenweth, ASC, Usher: http://dda.wiredrive.com/l/p/?presentation...ddfc6b8f49efd5f

     

    Mike LeBlanc, Emily Haines: http://www.justinlovell.com/mike/emilyhainesourhell.mov

  5. I'd like to agree that back light, particularly specular or hot backlighting, is not absolutely necessary to pull good mattes. It's true that some subtle backlight can help reduce color bleed of the light bouncing off the screen yielding cleaner mattes, but if the backlight is too powerful or incongruous with the background plate, it can be telltale of a matte shot.

     

    This hopefully will be subject of further debate here, but I have two steadfast rules: 1) Never use digital green, although it needs very little lighting, it is so luminescent that it can be more problematic with reflecton and bleed. Also, it's ugly. 2) Never color the lights used for the screen with a gel that matches or enhances that color. The technology is way better than that, and you simply don't need to run the risk of contaminating your foreground subject with the colored light that only makes the keys less good.

    • Upvote 1
  6. jesus!

     

    You've got to love this place. You are curious about how some look or image was achieved and the CREATOR of those images can tell you...

     

    Glad to be of service. My friend and associate Wendell Greene let me know there was a question that needed clearing up. DP

  7. I know you guys shot two camera constantly, can you talk about your strategy for using the second camera and what kind of lighting adjustments you made for it? Thanks for the info so far.

     

    Pondering your question has led me to realize a pattern to my behavior that I was previously unaware of. The simple answer of course, is to simply say to keep the two cameras as close together as possible, hopefully so close that the lighting works for both. I'd guess the single biggest change would be the slowing down on the back lights which might play too frontal or unflatteringly to a second camera position. I tend to get the B camera operator very involved with the light of the movie. I'l explain my philosophy of light and the relationship with the camera, and define what I mean when I tell them to "shoot the good light". My realization is that on my last four pictures my B camera operator has either become my 2nd unit DP when the time came, or at the very least been responsible for lighting the picks ups and inserts. I hadn't really thought about it before, but I guess B camera is a great place to learn about light.

     

    Daniel Pearl, ASC

  8. "I am trying to put together a replacement to RGB's service using Wing Lynch equipment normally used with E6 with ECN-2 and ECP-2 chemistry."

     

     

    I'm glad to see that you are trying to do the honorable thing and help to keep alive an endangered process. Where are you located? I could see how your services could be useful for some tests, but perhaps a bit too renegade for some of the more controlled work.

     

    Consistency of development is fairly essential to the process of testing. I guess you'd need to define the range of variation to know if it would be a problem.

    Mainly I test low light level items like night vision, Predator blood, etc. and pushing the film is almost always a part of any testing I do.

    Digital output probably is more convenient, but once we're in that world, I think we are becoming more and more willing to simply shoot our stills with a pro model digital still camera.

    Convenience is a huge part of having my production film development house handle the still work, we will have, or need to set up a system of communication, and there is or will be an established flow of materials.

    Printing sounds like a nightmare for you. Is your slide copier as manual as it sounds?

     

    I'd be happy to provide you with two test rolls when you are up and running. Good luck, Daniel Pearl, ASC

  9. Hey Daniel. I was wondering how you pushed the look further with your lighting in the forests? I'm working with your gaffer Owen Taylor right now on a film but I haven't had a chance to discuss anything... figured I'd ask you instead. :rolleyes:

     

    As I'm sure you know, light is about contrast, direction, and quality. Watch the film with that in mind and you will answer the question for yourself. Owen can fill you in on some broad strokes. Please tell him I said hello. dp

  10. Thanks for the kind words.

     

    Being a period picture I thought it was important to keep the texture of the film consistent throughout, and knowing I would be in the low light levels of the British Columbian forests during October, November and December, I chose to shoot the entire picture on only one stock, 5218. Even though I don't consider 5218 a grainy stock, since I would often push the film a stop, it was as close as I wanted to get to the director's request for grain.

     

    In the early stages of pre-production, while interviewing potential crew, I had to the luck to meet first assistant cameraman Simon Jori. He impressed me with his confident manner and made a lasting impression when he explained to me that in the B.C. forests at that time of the year, there would not be enough light to properly expose fast film, even at mid-day. He went on to explain the merits of shooting with an LLD filter, which I'd never even heard of before. The Low Level Daylight filter is used instead of the normal orange 85 filter when shooting tungsten balanced stocks in daylight conditions. Appearing almost colorless to the human eye, and having virtually no filter factor, the filter does cut the U/V inherent in the daylight which does tend to effect shots made simply without an 85. It is not intended to deliver a final color temperature balance, but rather a way to preserve some skin tone, while reducing the excess blue.

     

    I immediately hired Simon to be the A camera focus puller, and arranged for Panavision to send me a LLD filter for testing. As is frequently my method, rather than ramp up a full test shoot day, I used my Nikon loaded with 36 exp. 5218 to shoot stills in the B.C. forest locations with the LLD filter. Looking at the positive print made by Technicolor Vancouver, the results were fantastic, in this situation the undercorrected negative was a huge step in the direction of desaturating the colors, and set us up very well to achieve the look we wound up with. Obviously the warm tones are suppressed by the infusion of blue, and the predominately verdant greens of the forest are also softened by the blue tone of the ambient light counteracting the yellow in the vibrant green. I was so pleased with the results, I decided to use it for the entire movie, and not only the "Low Light" situations.

     

    You may find that my method of testing with a still camera isn't practical since the closure of outfits like RGB that would process short lengths of motion picture film and make positive prints. It's not exactly easy, but if you are persistent and repeatedly point out that you are only looking for test results, and are not trying to generate final photography, you should be able to talk your lab into doing it for you, particularly if you represent the volume of development that comes with a feature. Tell them it's fine if there are staple holes, scratches, etc. as long as you can interpret the results you are after.

     

    OK, so how much is in camera and how much is in the grading? After seeing my work print stills, I quit talking about the need to find a look, and we got on with making the movie. Did we take it even further in the DI? If you look at the work of director Marcus Nispel, colorist Rob Sciarratta, and myself, both collectively and individually, over the many years we have collaborated, wouldn't you expect us to?

     

    Daniel Pearl, ASC

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