Chris Cooke

The video is now up on YouTube for those who are interested.

I took the time to re-size some of the screen grabs to the proper aspect ratio... I will try to remember to post a link of the actual video when it's completed. Let me know what you think. Here I was shooting without the lens adaptor... in an infinity black environment, DOF is not as noticeable and I wanted to make sure my focus was on. We were using the Fisher 10 dolly with a Schactler head.

Good call. I was exporting them quick in the airport this morning and missed a step. Thanks for the comment.

I just finished principal photography on a music video for a gospel artist named Kevin LeVar. We shot it all on the EX1 at 1080p with a Letus Extreme adapter. Director: Chris Atkins Producer:Steve Prankard Director of Photography: Chris Cooke The locked version will be completed by August 1st. 28mm lens The lighting was perfect this evening. It was shot beside Lake Erie in Ontario, Canada. Shooting on the beach (I'm behind the camera and the director is over my shoulder) 50mm lens I had a soft light to supplement the window light in front as her key and bounced another light off the ceiling behind her for a soft kicker... again, supplemented by natural light coming through the window. This was one of those happy accidents where the actor pulled up the picture when we were doing our OS and we saw his reflection. Decided to go with it. 28mm lens Dappled sunlight coming through the trees and some reflected light onto the tree trunk on the left. 50mm lens Another shot in the cemetery. 50mm Shot this in at 60fps and the light had to match with our beach scene. A lighting diagram I drew up for our studio scenes. No lens adapter on this shot. Screen grab from our studio shoot. I used a heavily flagged Chimera with a 2K Fresnel for the keylight and various Source 4's, Par 64's, Par 56's and Fresnels for modeling.

Hi David, I'm looking forward to seeing this film. You do great work with the Polish Brothers. Are you concerned about multiple light reflections on reflective surfaces such as the car in the sample frame you showed us? I'm sure that a DI could solve that problem but it's probably not an ideal use of budget to go that route. Will you just let the lens diffusion soften these reflections?

This product might spark some ideas... http://www.elementlabs.com/products/versatube-hd

Thanks for the update, I really enjoy these. Sounds like you're liking the HMI Source-4 Joker. I don't remember you ever mentioning using these before. I remember on "Big Love", both you and Jim Glennon used tungsten Source-4's a lot and bounced them off show cards but is this your first experience with the Source-4 Joker? I still haven't had a chance to use them yet but I'm sure they work just as slick as the tungsten Source-4, just brighter and bluer. Do you ever use them for hilights in the background? Or do you just use them for bouncing?

You may need to explain what you mean by "an additional dimmer" but with professional dimmers, the amount of power consumed is decreased as you dim the light. With Maxi-Brutes, you can switch off each bulb individually if you want to maintain colour temperature and you have a limited power supply.

Thanks for that. What would be your choice for a portable fluorescent then? I've only used Kinos and Videscence and I definately like Kinos better.

http://www.cinemills.com/index.php They look like good lights and I'm considering ordering HMI and Flouro Light kits from them. Any thoughts?

I interchange the words Pup and Baby as the same thing. They're just 8 inch 1K Fresnels. The light that I was actually referring to in the podcast was a 6 inch 750w fresnel which is somewhere in between a Baby and a Tweenie. Therefore my use of the name Pup.

Here's a simple lighting setup that you guys might be interested in. This is a goofy podcast to create some awareness for a new daily music show that I'll be lighting (I'm actually in the podcast as a "potential host" for the show). We shot the first one on an infinity white set and you can see my lighting setup at the begining of the first podcast. Very soft yet contrasty lighting. Junior through 4'x4' of Grid Cloth as side key light Naked pup for kicker Soft light through Grid Cloth for uplight Spotted Junior for White Glow Cyc Lights for green wash To subscribe, click this link; if it doesn't open iTunes, open iTunes yourself and under the 'Advanced' menu, select 'Subscribe to Podcast...', copy and paste the URL below into the box that appears. http://www.miraclechannel.ca/channel/our_p...UF/mainfeed.xml

I just saw a segment on the Daily Planet that talked about another new lens design made out of crystal, calcium fluoride. The technology has been used in telescopes since I think about 2002 but this new design is more compact and will be perfect for helmet cameras and cell phone cameras. Light loss is reduced as compared to glass lenses and the resolving power is "supposed" to be better. Here's an article for those of you who are interested. http://www.technologynewsdaily.com/node/5853

One of my greatest challenges right now with concert and theatre lighting is to make hard light look soft. Unfortunately, I can't have a 6'x6' of diffusion just outside the frame because the frame becomes the whole venue. Good looking trusses are almost as important as a good looking stage.

I began my cinematography career with lighting talking head tv shows and then short films and music videos. I'm still in love with dramatic filmmaking but I've found a second love... concert lighting. I've been doing a lot of studying how to light concerts and theatre lately and a week ago, I got to do my first large venue concert. It was an experience to say the least and I'll be doing more in the near future. I would recommend this for any cinematographer who wants to improve his/her skills. Here are some pics.