Thomas Cousin

hello, the easiest solution is , in my opinion, to use lcd screen. we regurarly shoot tv screens, computer screens, wall of screens for tv series, and now it's always LCD. we do not need to sync everything nor the cameras. we shoot 25fps 180° and just shoot the screen without worrying. it's the way to go for fast shootings. bye thomas

hello again, i saw your new posts after finishing mine. ok so if the 10k and 20k are too 'heavy'. maybe you may still consider maxibrutes, or even a fresnel 5K. i think it may still be affordable. but you have to shoot very late in the day to have a true effect with the 5K the quality of the light with a 2K open face would be a problem for me for this kind of effect.a fresnel lens will add value and quality to your light. don't remember you're trying to 'redo' the sun, and it's a wonderful beautiful light in tone and quality. enjoy ! i envy you making such ambitious and nice shots. shots that play with the light and mood like this are a great thing to achieve. good luck ! thomas

hi ! in order to dim down your HMI source, you can use a shutter remotely controled. just like huge venetian blinds in front of the source that you close slowly to reducce the amount of light. so you can adjust the amount of light without changing your colour temperature. for the sunset effect, one thing i've never tried yet but read about is shooting in exterior with daylight stock (or tungsten stock with 85) and use big tungsten source to simulate the warmer light of low sun. vittorio storaro seemed to use it a lot this technique. dinos in daylight to simulate late late afternoon. it's nice and golden. you have a 3200°k source that is beautifully warm. you even get lower adding 1/4 cto or 1/2 cto or more.the sun goes to 2000°k when it's very low. CTS too seems a nice idea. and amber, light amber also. another one idea maybe : you can add a slight touch of purple, or magenta, or pink to the warm light to create a more golden-purple very low sun effect. and as for the size of the source, prefer someone big to 'mimic' the power of the sun. maxibrutes, or 10 K or 20 K that you can put a little far. i forgot something , you can dim down the thungsten sources to make them warmer of course. bye thomas

ok i get it. always a pleasure to learn someting new every day. thanks thomas

hello, sorry if this question seems stupid ? but what exactly is a "book light" ? a special device to produce soft light ? we don't use this term in france an maybe i know this under another name ? thanks thomas

hello, i just saw "dawn of the dead" (the new version directed by zack snyder). i am pretty fascinated by the syle of cinematography. the DP is Matthew F. Leonetti. I only saw the dvd , i didn't see it on theatre. i don't know if the images were so harsh, contrasty and colorful on theatre screen. making a quick search on imdb, i found the film had been through a digital intermediate. so maybe, it was also very pushed on the prints. you know sometimes you see films on dvd, where the look of the images seems "enhanced" compared to what you've seen on theatre. so, to get back to this particular film, i was fascinated by the look of the cinematography. the day exteriors especially. they have a great textural quality. deep deep blacks and gorgeous and vivid colours, and extreme contrast. it looks like reversal stock. but i don't think they use this. does somebody know some technical specs about it ? push negative to enhance colour ? i also liked a lot the use of colors throughout the interiors in the mall, and during the night. it has a special green tint (maybe enhanced by the digital timing) in the shadows and deep green in the lights, it seems. i was wondering how well you can obtain this kind of green (sick) tint with gel on your lights ? appart from the "plus green" gel, do you know any gel which can approach the sick tint of greenish fluorescents ? thanks thomas

hello, i am going to new york in a few days, and i would like to know where i can find bookshops for technical books about cinematography and lighting... does anyone know some specific bookshops ? thanks thomas

hello, do you know if there is swing and tilt lenses availables for 2/3" HD cameras. if the answer is yes, did somebody here use it ? thanks thomas

hello, one thing i heard once and seemed very effective for a start is to shoot your flammes with daylight balanced negative. the result will be flames heavyly saturated id reds and yellow making them like a real nice strong fire. i don't know exactly at what kind of speed you have to shoot, but it seems that 75 fps to 120 fps seems to be a good approach. your flammes will appear to be more powerful that they really are. and you'll get nice movement and massive presence if you carefully chose your point of view and lens. thomas

Hello, when i use a polarizer, i just compensate 1,7 stop = 1 stop and 2/3. That's how i learned to use it and it seems to work fine like this. Lately i was told that some DPs compensate from 1,7 to 2 full stops, according to the position (rotation) of the filter !! they rotate the pola, find the position , then take a reflected measure whit the spotmeter through the pola ! I never heard of that kind of practice. does somebody here use it like that. am i the only one to find this method strange and useless ? :blink: bye thomas

hello jonathan, first, many thanks for your nice and encouraging comments about the stills. the technical specs about the color pictures are very simple : no filters and no additionnal lights. and the film is esentially fujifilm 400 and 200 iso, always processed normally for my color stills. the camera is a minox 35 GL and an horizon 202 for the panoramic ones. i never "light" the stills i take. i keep this "pleasure" for my motion picture works. i just stand there and shoot what i find interesting to my eye. so it's as simple as it can be. Then i scan the neg and work the pictures with photoshop, but no particular effects; i just adjust the color, saturation, contrast and density. and i essentially enjoy to mimic what you do in a enlarger to make a print : "burn" or "lighten" some specific parts of the picture to play with different densities. it gives the image a presence, a strength and a texture. the kind of things you can do it a digitally timed motion picture with "windows" and so on.when i am in a grading session, i sometimes try to use these kind of method but it takes a lot of times and sometimes it's nearly impossible because of the moving images ! but it's a very interesting kind of work. and i am glad you liked it. thanks again. thomas

hello, In the 10-15 years range, if we call "new" cinematographers, i would like to name Harris savides. A great cinematographer, with enormous skills and especially a huge sensibility and organic approach. and Matthew Libatique is a great technician and artist who create beautiful and striking image. don't know if he's the "best" (odd notion) but has a great visual influence, like savides and khondji, prieto etc ... thomas

hello, i intend to use push process for the new 250D 7205. as my main stock for a project, i want to stay with it for this one dark gritty daylight interior, and probably i am going to push it 2 stops. to work at low light level but especially to obtain a more contrasty, textured, slight grainy negative. it's super 16mm, the project will go straight to telecinema and video. no print. does anyone experienced with such a force developped negative in the vision 2 stocks ? i will probably rate it at 800asa. do i have to worry about the detail and quality of the stock in this lower part of the curve ? will the push raise the D min level, what about the blacks ? i know i can get those blacks back in telecine but i would like to know. and what do you think about my latitude of exposure, even rated at 800, i want to expose faces and some details under the key (up to 1 / 1,5 stops for caucasian faces and dark parts of the frames further, to 3 to 4 stops under). will my shadows be detailed ? with 2 stops push (which i never experienced myself), i wonder how well is the lower part of the curve and how well it reacts. bye thomas

hello, i worked with a DP who used this method. you can take the emulsion you want to test (a 35mm sample roll that kodak or fuji may give you if you ask. sometimes i think they have 30m/100Ft roll for that). you can cut about 1,5m of film in a darkromm and load it on a empty 135 empty cartridge for 24x36 still photography. you can find these empty cartridges in any photography shop i guess. i prepared some cartridges like this for the DP. you load it then you maybe have to cut the outside extremity of the film to be able to load it properly in your 24x36 camera. have a look of "normal" 135 negative to see how they are cut. this is the easy step, because after your tests you need to go to the labs, and i was told that they sometimes don't want to process such a short amount of film. so you need to know well the lab and ask them. here in france, when i thought about it myself, other DPs told me that now it is nearly impossible to do such a thing because the labs don't want to do it anymore, unless you know very well the guy at the developper machine. and then you also have to print your test, to watch it like you watch slides. i guess it's still possible, but you maybe have to insist. anyone else did it recently? i am so interested in this method too. great for testing emulsion, doing key light, and testing filters with the proper stock too. maybe in other countries it's a more frequently used method. i would like to know. one more thing. i think you have to use only the middle of the roll for the test, because the ends on both sidse are going to be waste when it goes through the developper machine. bye thomas

hello, how did you see your images ? on video after the telecinema or on a 35mm blown-up print? if you only see a "telecined" version of your pictures, did you assist to the transfer? maybe the color timer added a little contrast to your images and/ or crushed the blacks a little too much for your taste. resulting in too deep shadows, and a contrast increased comparing to what you had on your original negative. according to what i know, with normal processed negative and even in s16mm, you would be easily able to read details 2 stops under. dark details but still visible. kind of light textured shadows. if you see the results on a print, maybe it's printed on a too contrasty print stock like vision premier 2393. or a special processed print stock maybe. bye thomas

hello, according to tests and measurements i did a while ago with different colored filter, i agree with the 1 stop 1/3 compensation. but when compensated totally, you seem to not have a strong "chocolate" effect. the #2 seems to take 2 stops 1/3 and the #3 seems to take 3 stops - 3stops 1/3. bye. thomas

hello ! you can find at http://www.cameraguild.com/, in the magazine section in the year 2000, a link to read online articles about the cinematography on MAGNOLIA. i can't remember if there is an article about PUNCH DRUNK LOVE in american cinematographer or elsewhere, but i remember reading interestings things about the beautiful use of anamorphic lens flares in this film. if i remember where, i will let you know. anyone maybe ? bye thomas

hello,i would like some infos about tobacco filters. anyone ever use them ? any precautions using them ? i shot still tests once with various coloured filters : tobacco, chocolate, straw, sepia .... when i did these tests, i measured the light loss according to each filter and just compensate everyone of them. for the tobacco ones i compensate 1 stop 1/3 for the #1 1 stop 2/3 #2 and nearly 3 stops for the #3. my results were convincing but i was told that i don't need to compensate totally to achieve a more pronounced effect. i love the warm brownish kind-of-burned tint you get with the tobacco. and i would like to have a good effect with only the #1 or maybe #2. how will you rate it ? just 1 stop for compensation ? less than that ? thank you thomas

hello, the ultra contrast filters come in 2 series : from 1/8 to 1 and from 2 to 5. what do you think about the strongest series ? too heavy for a common use ? or just what you need to "really" use the characteristics of these filters ? and another question , can i see clearly the effect of these filters on the ground glass (shooting in s16mm) ? i used them on video shoot, but not on film. thanks thomas

hello, i think "set lighting's technician's handbook" by harry c. box is a very good book about all these things. it is written essentially for gaffers and chief electricians i guess, but as a director of photography, you can learn a lot of things through what it says. and it helps for equipement list and decide what type of light you're going to use. thomas

hello, i need advices and tips, please, to do the kind of effect you see in very long focal length, during excessive heat outside. the kind of deformation of the pictures due to the heat. i have to mimic that effect for a film. thanks for help. poor man process are the most welcome ! thanks thomas

"2. That Gordon Willis's AC, Gary Mohler (whom i've imbded, never found anyone with that name) could split his eyes so that one eye looked at the focus ring, one at the actor." i don't know of course anything about this story, and so don't know if it's true or not. But only the thought of a camera assistant by the camera with his eyes completely going ways appart is making me laugh a lot. i try to figure it out and the vision is so funny ! plus, maybe it's useful for the focus puller, but what about the talents trying to concentrate in front of a man making strange things with his eyes !! :unsure: :D anyway, i LOVE urban legends ! bye thomas

hello, for a while now, i wanted to use this stock on a film. finer finer grain, beautiful colors for what i've heard. of course this stock needs light. i am going to use it in july, under full sunlight. i will get enough light to have decent stop even in late afternoon. no problem. what worries me the most, is the latitude of this stock under extreme contrast. and i think about the larger shots i can't light, and capture as is. sometimes up to 8 stops i think according to what iv'e seen from locations scout. i know that 7245 will be able to record eveything in the scene. but if i expose for an "average", will the shadows tend to be blacks ? or "lighter" than blacks? i will probably use ultra con on this scenes but i'd like to know what this stock can already handle "alone". i need to keep the contrast of course but want to capture all the subtleties of the scene. thanks thomas

hello, too bad you didn't like it. strange how the taste goes. and maybe you are talking about a completely different movie (or maybe you felt the movie the way you did...). strange ! "virgin suicides" is everything but grainy and gritty. it has tone and colors in certains scenes that gives a "sick" feeling : one of the last sequences toward the end, a costumed party taking place in a strange, moody, sick green tint lighting. but otherwise, the pictures are sweet as a late afternoon in a hot summer day. golden light, warm tint, beautiful sparkles in the eyes and "delicious" skin tones. the film is all about memories and how you remember things even if it's the darker ones. memory tricks you. the image on dvd in certainly not grainy at all. and i don't remember any obvious grain on the print i saw when it was released. thomas

hello, despite my search (maybe i do it the wrong way) i cannot find info about the cinematography in "the virgin suicides". the cinematography by mr ed lachman always astonished me. i think i recalled he shoot it with cooke S4. but i am not quite really sure. anyone has info about the technical recipe he used for the movie : what combination of lenses, stocks , filters ? the softness, the roudness, the magical light that occurs in the majority of frames is beautiful. the tone and colors used in the props, wardrobe and prduction design helps a lot the cinematography too. i love the kind of sensibility you feel watching this movie. as a cinematographer, i hope some day i could communicate as well such subtle intentions. thanks. thomas