Chris Cooke

You have to remember that diffusion is "the degree of wraparoundness". As light wraps around an object, it appears more diffuse. Put your hand right up to the lens of a naked fresnel and see how soft the light is. Then move about 10 feet back a see how hard it has become. The primary reason why putting opal or a napkin in front of your flash makes the light appear more diffuse is that it knocks the light level down so that the shadows made by the flash are filled a little more by the ambient lights in the room. Since the source hasn't become any bigger in relation to the subject, the actual amount of diffusion will not increase very much because it's not wraping around your subject much more than it was before you put the napkin on. If you put a bigger napkin a couple feet from the flash, it would end up diffusing quite a bit more but it wouldn't be as handy. Yours is a good trick nonetheless, I'm just getting technical for those who care.

I'm really interested in this camera but there are a lot of questions that I've yet to get clear answers on. Does anyone know if they've adressed the latitude problem that is inherent to video? Also, what do have to carry around to record all of this information and what kind of editing support is there for 4K? I just can't quite picture the 2nd AC carrying around a RAID all day instead of magazines. If they can get this camera w/ all of its support right, starting at $18,000, I'd be one happy camper. I'm just not quite convinced yet.

Thanks Michael. You're probably right about sticking with one format. It's just that our primary release format will be DVD and so I think that it would be cost effective to shoot on super 16mm cropped to 1.85. I'm a little nervous about using differerent techniques but I've shot shorts, music videos, comercials and tv shows on video and achieved these looks so if I do it in the digital realm, it wouldn't be that foreign to me. I'd love to do some tests of timing the image photochemically though. If I color correct the image digitally, is 4:4:4 color space essential? Would you recommend transferring the film to D5 or could I get away with transferring it to DVCPROHD (or any other highly compressed HD format)?

I'm shooting a film soon that will be shot on 16mm and 35mm. I'll be finishing on video for distribution with a possibility of a 35mm blowup for local theaters and film festivals. The film will start out with a very glossy, saturated look on 35mm and end up with gritty 16mm bleach bypass look. I'll also be using a cross processed look for frequent flashbacks on 16mm. This will be my first time using film for narrative work and I'm looking at how to achieve these looks. I'll obviously be doing some tests but I'm thinking of color correcting in the digital realm rather than photochemically because I'm nervous about being locked into a particular look and I know that photochemical cross processing can be risky. Any thoughts?

I know Kodak will be biased but take alook @ this page. You might learn something. http://www.kodak.com/US/en/motion/16mm/exp...=0.1.4.13&lc=en

Good, I just about lost faith in you :unsure: . There were no fancy emoticons behind what you said but whatever, I should lighten up a little.

I'm not quite sure if you're joking but if not, you've probably never worked with a crew of more than 10 people and 10 lights. From my experience, even if the cinematographer and his team was super fast, actors and directors wouldn't be quick enough to handle more than 50 set-ups in one day.

You don't want our opinions but your giving us yours quite blatently. That was your first post dude, wow quite an entrance into this community. I would have expanted a rant like that from Phil Rhodes or Landon D. Parks. I will go ahead and answer your question to the best of my knowledge though and I'll throw in a little opinion just for the fun of it. Shaky cameras, fast zooms and jump cuts started getting used in a big way in the mid 90's music videos and the first drama to use this technique was the weekly NYPD blue. Some of our best cinematographers in the world such as Roger Deakins, ASC use this technique with great interest and accuracy. Great cinematographers understand that camera movement will in most cases upstage what's going on in front of it. But they also understand that an obtrusive camera can send a message. Always make sure that you know what you're trying to say with the camera with every choice that you make. So many amatures like that style and they use it only because they saw someone else use it. I say, if it definitively helps you tell your story, go for it.

You must be refering to negative fill. This is used not to bounce light but to absorb bounced light.

What I said earlier doesn't mean that I completely agree with all of Harper's (our new PM) policies nor do I think that Bush has made all wise decisions. I'm just glad that our #1 protectors (since Canada doesn't have much of a military anymore) aren't being made fun of by our leadership. Canada doesn't typically pick fights and we aren't much of a threat to other countries. Actually, I think that because our imigration laws are so slack, terrorists are infiltrating into our nation and planning something big from here. Harper is trying to tighten our imagration laws though. Canada is also very friendly towards all races and religions which causes us to be less of a target. Things aren't great in the US right now but I think that your country would be in a lot worse shape had the Democrats been in power for the last 4 years. The terrorists would have walked all over you. Their main strategy is fear and that's why you need someone with some boldness and courage in power. There may have been a point where Bush went over the top but he's not near the scumball that hollywood and CNN makes him out to be. Media and the Arts shape our society and that's why I'm involved in it.

In Canada, voting made a huge difference this past election. We finally got rid of the Liberals and all of a sudden all of our media wasn't quite so left leaning, our Prime Minister actually has a good relationship with President Bush and it looks like we're gonna get rid of some really stupid laws (consentual sex @ 14 is legal in Canada with any old man (or woman I guess?) who wants to take advantage of you). As for teen movies, I think that these flicks are quite big in Asian countries. I'm really not into them though. Can you imagine being a cinematographer who got labeled as a high key, slick looking DP who does "kid movies".

Most light control operators are familiar with the ETC Express 24/48 or 48/96. It should be available at most rental houses. I found that the learning curve is fairly quick on this board plus you could phone up pretty much anyone who does theatrical lighting or studio lighting and they'll know how to use it.

Sounds neat. Please post stills of your cross processed 7285. I'm thinking about doing the same thing on my next short about this girl who cuts herself.

If you're shooting tungsten film, you could use Lee's 299 1.2ND filter with no color gel added. This way, you would get a blueish night look outside by just dropping the exterior exposure by 4 stops. I'm assuming that you will be shooting at about f4 on 7218. A polarizer might look good on the camera lens. This would reduce reflections and add a little more contrast/color.

I order from CineQuip White in Calgary, Alberta quite often and they haven't informed that non-cling was being phased out. I'm sure it's just a misinformed rumor that you heard but if your right, i'll be calling Rosco and letting them know that I'm not happy. That stuff would be super annoying on the field. You'd get all kinds of dust on it and then put in the barndoors of a narrow spot PAR. Everyone would be frieking out that something's burning.

It's just an option that Rosco gives us. I ordered some static cling CTO for a LCD monitor that's shown nearly everyday in one of the shows I light. It's working out quite nice and is still sticking but the bottom edge kept curling up because it came in a roll. So I got some of that double sided tape that we use here in Canada for that shrink film we put on our windows when it's cold.

Or a fill light or an eye light, etc. I sometimes put 4 banks on dolly's to illuminate forground objects as I dolly. Try swaping 'em out with regular flourescent tubes as a practical. I sometimes put white gaff tape on the tubes. It gives them a nice warm color while diffusing them a bit (it knocks down the light level as well).

I just got sent a picture of the posters that they want to use. I'm not too impressed. It doesn't look like they have much of a color scheme or even a comon theme (maybe light is the theme?). I'll be contacting them with my thoughts but I still would like some input on how to get the CSI look that I think they want. I'm really hesitant to have blown out hilights and super saturated colors on an interview set because it can distract the eye. Color_Set.doc

I'm lighting a show soon that should be very interesting. It's an interview type show called, Extreme Prophetic. I've attached an email below that explains what the producer wants the new season to look like. What exactly are the CSI NEON lights. I think that look is created with colored gels, lots of kinos, color timing and art direction. Any suggestions on creating a look for this show will be helpful. Hi everyone, We are doing a redesign of our set from the theme "Light Belongs in the Darkness" to "Growing in the Supernatural". We want to change the photos from "Street Shots" to snapshots of the supernatural. We are looking at Robert Bartow's images of Angels, Lion of Judah, Stairways to Heaven and looking for others that depict Heavenly Warriors, Portals of Glory, Columns of Light, Company's of Angels, Rainbows, Orbs etc. PK would like to use NEON colors of green, blue purple and gold. We will be getting rid of the chainlink fence and brick wall and replacing them with possibly.....additional hanging photos depicting columns of light, rainbows, orbs, etc. Steve, take a look at Bartow Images .com we NEED a photo of a warrior angel. Anyway let me know your brilliant ideas and photo ideas and thoughts on the NEON colors. The new CSI on Monday Nights is using the them and they look amazing. So PK is working on the show themes which I will forward on to you all to help with ideas. One thing is for sure we don't WANT the set or any phots to look religious. Hi Shirley, Can you give more detail on the "NEON Light shades"? What exactly are they? I am copying Chris Cooke (our lighting director) in this message as he will have some good input. My concern/question would be...if you continue to use the infinity black background, we have to be careful not to cast too much light on the curtain. guess the more detail you can give us on what you are thinking, the better our opinions and suggestions would be. Thanks. Steve Prankard

Very nice Stuart. You're obviously alright with letting your windows blow out. I think that it can add to the naturalism. Looks good, I'd like to see the film. Which festivals will you be sending it to?

This pic is from a short that I just shot. I had all my lights along but when I got to this particular location, the lighting was perfect. The actor was keyed with a huge flourescent sign just outside of the frame and the time of day influenced the mood. I'm really happy with the way it turned out.

It would take about the same amount of time and effort to just put Daylight kino tubes in all the flourescent fixtures rather than buying and cutting up a whole bunch of CTB and then somehow clamping the gels up there (I've used paper clips for this before). Your sources will match each other a lot better this way. Also renting kino tubes will be similar in price to buying 5 rolls of CTB. Your HMI's will be perfect here (no correction required) and then you can buy some CTB for your tungsten sources. Another option is to just kill the flourescents all together. You might have enough fill coming in through the thick glass with the aid of some carefully placed HMI's. The sun will look great pouring into the gym but you have to have a perfect sunny day and then be ready to shoot at the exact time when the sun is in position.

http://www.rosco.com/canada/technotes/filt...e_2a.asp#SHIELD Check out this page. The heat shield will not melt if you're using Fresnels or PARS (unless you're using 10k's or bigger). Open faced lights get a lot hotter. Especially red heads. I've never used that particular light that you've got a picture of but it doesn't seem like it would get hotter than 480 degrees F behind the barndoors. Why don't you try it with a piece.

I put multiple gels on the same light all the time. Since I work for a tv station full time as the lighting director, we have many rolls of gels kicking around so I don't worry too much about them melting together. If you put the heat shield behind the barndoors right in front of the lens and then attached multiple gels to the barndoors it should be fine. The other option is attach the heat shield to the barndoors with some C-47's (clothespins) and then mount the gel in a frame a foot or so from the fixture.

Good plan. Just make sure that you leave at least a couple inches in between the heat shield and the colored gel.