Editing Cucoloris

{{Short description|Theatrical lighting device}}
[[Image:Celo-cucoloris.jpg|thumb|right|A celo cucoloris casting a shadow]]
[[Image:NationalTreasureFilming.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Crew members on ''[[National Treasure (film)|National Treasure]]'' using a cookie]]

In lighting for [[film]], [[theatre]] and still [[photography]], a '''cucoloris''' (occasionally also spelled '''cuculoris''', '''kookaloris''', '''cookaloris''' or '''cucalorus''') is a light modifier (tool, device) for casting shadows or silhouettes to produce patterned illumination. It is normally referred to as a ''cookie'' or sometimes as a ''kook'' or a ''coo-koo''. The cucoloris is used to create a more natural look by breaking up the light from a man-made source. It can be used to simulate movement by passing shadows or light coming through a leafy canopy.

==Etymology==
The etymology of the word is opaque, bearing a number of plausible origins.<ref>{{cite web |url= http://nancyfriedman.typepad.com/away_with_words/2013/04/word-of-the-week-cucoloris.html |title= Word of the Week |website= Fritinancy|access-date= October 21, 2017}}</ref> Grant Barett, a co-host of the radio show "A Way with Words", suggested that the phrase is an eponym of [[George Cukor]]. Moreover, a specious claim cited by "Directing and Producing Television" maintained that the term arose from the Greek ''kukaloris'', breaking of light, ''loris'' conceivably cognate with ''luo'', 'I break'. Another possibility is an origin in the German word ''Kokolores'', which can mean "nonsense" or "boasting", like the English word ''Cockalorum''.

==Overview==
Generally, cookies fall into three groups: hard cookies, made from thin [[plywood]] or heavy [[poster board]] with random shapes cut out of the body; soft cookies (often called "celo" cookies), made from [[plastic]] impregnated screen (the same screen one might find in a [[Storm windows|storm window]]), also with random shapes cut or burned out; and ''brancholorises'' or ''dingles'', which are simply tree limbs or other available things that can be placed between the light and the subject.

Many "old-school" [[grip (job)|grip]]s would say that any unnatural pattern used to create a shadow is a cookie.{{citation needed|date=September 2016}}

Cucolorises are sometimes thought of as a subset of the [[gobo (lighting)|gobo]] category. Cucolorises differ from standard gobos in that they are used farther away from the lighting instrument, and therefore do not need to be as heat resistant. Cuculorises generally produce softer edges than gobos.

A similar technique to using a cookie is simulated in [[3D computer graphics]], where using an [[alpha mapping|alpha map]] as a cookie (sometimes called a ''light texture'') to cast shadows on [[3D modeling|3D objects]] is simulated by applying an [[Alpha compositing|alpha]] [[Texture mapping|texture]] to an emitting light source in the 3D scene, typically a [[Shading#Spotlight lighting|spot light]] type or a [[Shading#Directional lighting|directional light]] type, to serve as a virtual cookie that projects shadows onto 3D object(s) by emitting light only through the transparent or translucent parts of the alpha texture, thus simulating the effect of a cucoloris as used in its real-world counterpart. This effect is commonly used in both 3D computer-generated animation and video games.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://unity3d.com/support/documentation/Components/class-Light.html | title=Unity reference manual: Light}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Doc:2.6/Manual/Lighting/Lights/Textures |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120719205126/http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Doc:2.6/Manual/Lighting/Lights/Textures |url-status=dead |archive-date=July 19, 2012 |title=Blender Doc:2.6 manual - Lighting/Lights/Textures }}</ref>

== History ==
Cinematographer [[George J. Folsey]], [[American Society of Cinematographers|ASC]] thus recounted the history: 
<blockquote>While shooting a scene with an actor who was wearing a white shirt, he wanted to separate the skin tones on the actor’s face from the hue of the shirt. Folsey told a grip to hold a stepladder in front of a key light to create a shadow on the actor’s shirt. The closer that the ladder was held to the light, the softer and less defined the shadow became. The grip eventually tired of holding the ladder, so he cut a grill with the same pattern in a sheet of light wood. One day, Folsey visited [[Hal Rosson]], ASC, who was shooting on another set. In the scene, an actress was lying on a bed swathed in white sheets. Rosson used Folsey’s wooden grill to create some shadows, which made the scene more dramatic. Later, while shooting a similar situation, Rosson asked Folsey, “Where’s that kookaloris thing?”.<ref>[http://motion.kodak.com/motion/Education/Publications/Essential_reference_guide/index.htm?CID=go&idhbx=referenceguide Kodak: The Essential Reference Guide for Filmmakers]</ref></blockquote>

==See also==
* [[Gobo (lighting)]]

==References==
{{reflist}}
*{{cite book| first=Blain |last=Brown| year=2008| title=Motion Picture and Video Lighting| url=https://archive.org/details/motionpicturevid00brow_729 | url-access=limited | edition=2nd| publisher=Focal Press| pages=[https://archive.org/details/motionpicturevid00brow_729/page/n193 179]–180| isbn=978-0-240-80763-8}}
 
== External links ==
* [http://strobist.blogspot.com/2006/10/fourth-and-long-drop-back-and-punt.html Strobist on found "Cookies"]
* [http://motion.kodak.com/motion/Education/Publications/Essential_reference_guide/index.htm?CID=go&idhbx=referenceguide Kodak: The Essential Reference Guide for Filmmakers]

{{photography subject}}

[[Category:Film production]]
[[Category:Stage lighting]]
[[Category:Film and video technology]]