Born: 15 June 1954, Aalborg, Denmark; grew up in Elsinore.

Education: National Film School of Denmark [1975-79; graduation film 'Skal vi danse først?'].

Career: Started as a photography apprentice with Schiller-Photography before attending Film School. Ph commercials. Member of the DFF since 1979. Appeared in the doc's 'Le pacte des loups - les coulisses du tournage/The Making of 'Brotherhood of the Wolf'' [2000, Pascal Laugier] and 'The Making of 'Darkness Falls'' [2002].

Awards: Bodil Special Award [1982] for 'Gummi Tarzan'; Robert Award [1984] for 'Isfugle'; Robert Award [1989] for 'Skyggen af Emma'; Robert Award [1990] for 'Miraklet i Valby'; 'Filmfotograf Johan Ankerstjernes Ærespris' nom [2000] for 'Lysets hjerte'; Robert Award nom [2001] for 'Dykkerne'; Robert Award [2003] & Camerimage 'Golden Frog' nom [2003] for 'Jeg er Dina'.

Website: Dan Laustsen [by a fan].

Dan Laustsen: 'Light matters most. Naturally, camera angles are also important, but first and foremost it is with light that the cinematographer creates a mood and contributes to telling the story. Before you decide on your lighting, you must ask what do we want this scene to say? I have been criticized for shots that were too beautiful, but I think that's just the Danish mentality. After all, nobody would ever say that 'Lawrence of Arabia' or '1900' or 'The Tree of Wooden Clogs' were shot too beautifully. But it is a balancing act and I have made mistakes, with some scenes being too beautiful, but you might say that if you have that problem with a scene, it's not only the cinematography that's wrong. [...] Although 'Mimic' is shot very darkly, people were not unhappy with it in the USA. On the contrary, it earned me quite a bit of attention. The cinematographer enjoys greater freedom, because the younger directors take the visual language farther than ever before. The ideal of the past was that everyone should be able to see everything in a film - not much was left to the imagination.'

About the digital future: 'At some stage we will film onto something else, a hard disc, perhaps. Computer technology is excellent if you know what you want to do and I believe that the good techniques in this area will also become more and more tasteful. It is wrong to fear technological progress, as long as film does in fact turn into something more than flat video images. In any case, what matters is to tell good stories in interesting, meaningful images. Whether they are digital or not is immaterial.' [From article by Ebbe Iversen.]

1978        Det er et spørgsmål om stil/It's a Question of Style [Ernst Johansen & Kjeld Amundsen] ?; doc/?m

1979        Skal vi danse først?/Do We Start Off with a Dance? [Annette Olsen] c

1979        Lille Virgil og Orla Frøsnapper/Little Virgil and Frogeater Orla [Gert Fredholm] c; 2uc; ph: Jeppe Jeppesen

1981        Har du set Alice?/Have You Seen Alice? [Brita Wielopolska] c

1981        Gummi Tarzan/Rubber Tarzan [Søren Kragh-Jacobsen] c

1982        Den ubetænksomme elsker/The Thoughtless Lover [Claus Ploug] scope/c

1982        Otto er et næsehorn/Otto Is a Rhino [Rumle Hammerich] c; 2uc: Manuel Sellner

1983        Isfugle/Thunderbirds/Kingfishers [Søren Kragh-Jacobsen] c

1983        Port nr. 3/Gate Number Three [Arne Bro] ?; doc/?m

1983        Motivation [Arne Bro & Anne Wivel] c; doc/57m

1983        Dansk bladtegning - danske bladtegnere. En dokumentation 1983/Danish Newspaper Drawings [Kirsten

                    Stenbæk] c; doc/25m

1984        Min farmors hus/My Grandmother's House [Frode Pedersen] c

1984        Ziggurat [?] ?; doc/?m

1984        I vækstens Vold/In the Grip of Growth [? Hovgaard] ?; doc/?m

1985        Når bare han kan tælle køerne [Rumle Hammerich & Tim Cenius] c; short/32m

1985        Elise [Claus Ploug] c; addph: Gunnar Nilsson, Søren Berthelin & Simon Plum

1985        Johannes' hemmelighed/Johannes' Secret [Åke Sandgren] c; short/51m

1985        De tavse piger/The Quiet Girls [Anne Regitze Wivel & Arne Bro] c; doc/82m

1987        Jeg ville først finde sandheden/I Wanted to Find the Truth First [Jon Bang Carlsen] c; doc/29m

1987        Ansigt til ansigt/Face to Face [Anne Regitze Wivel] c; doc/166m; cph: Claus Baadsgaard

1987        Skyggen af Emma/Emma's Shadow [Søren Kragh-Jacobsen] c

1988        Guldregn/A Shower of Rain/Gold Rain ... or Laburnum [Søren Kragh-Jacobsen] c; edited from tv-series (1986)

1988        Himmel og helvede/Heaven and Hell [Morten Arnfred] c; 2uc; ph: Dirk Brüel

1988        David eller Goliath/David or Goliath [Anne Regitze Wivel] c; doc/110m; cph: Eigil Jacobsen

1988        Miraklet i Valby/Miracle in Valby [Åke Sandgren] c

1988        De udenforstående/The Outsiders [Arne Bro] ?; doc/?m

1988        Vand [Baby-svømning]/Water [Babyswimming] [Anne Regitze Wivel] ?; doc/12m

1989        Lykken er en underlig fisk/Happiness Is a Strange Fish [Linda Wendel] c; 2uc; ph: Bjørn Blixt

1990        Giselle [Anne Regitze Wivel] c; ballet doc/96m

1991        Drengene fra Sankt Petri/The Boys From St. Petri [Søren Kragh-Jacobsen] c

1992        Søren Kierkegaard [Anne Regitze Wivel] b&w/c; doc/165m; 5 seg

1993        Nattevagten/Nightwatch [Ole Bornedal] c

1994        Carmen og Babyface/Carmen & Babyface [Jon Bang Carlsen] c; addph: Søren Berthelin

1996        Nightwatch [Ole Bornedal] s35/c; American remake of film (1993)

1996        Mimic [Guillermo del Toro] c; efx unit ph: Tom Turnbull

1997        Lysets hjerte/Heart of Light/Qaamarngup uummataa [Jacob Grønlykke] c

1998        Running Free [Sergei Bodrov] s35/c; 2uc/aph/vfx ph: Kurt E. Soderling; wildlife ph: Roger Vernon

1999        Dykkerne/The Divers/Beyond [Åke Sandgren] c; 2uc: Jens Schlosser

2000        Le pacte des loups/Brotherhood of the Wolf [Christophe Gans] s35/c; 2uc: Shaun O'Dell

2001        Jeg er Dina/Jag är Dina/I Am Dina [Ole Bornedal] s35/c

2001        Darkness Falls/Don't Peek [Jonathan Liebesman] s35/c; 2uc: Martin Turner; addph: Stephen Windon; prologue & end

                    titles ph: Juan Ruiz-Anchía

2002        The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen [Stephen Norrington] p/b&w-c; vfx ph: Miro Gábor

2003        The Adventurer/L'aventurier [Christophe Gans] scheduled to start in China in June 2003, but cancelled because of

                    SARS epidemic; status unknown

2004        Sex, hopp och kärlek [Lisa Ohlin] scope/c

2004        Nomad [Ivan Passer (1st shooting period) & Sergei Bodrov (2nd shooting period)] scope/c; ph 2nd shooting period; ph

                    1st shooting period (2003): Ueli Steiger; vfx ph: Robert Grasmere

2004        Rahan [Christophe Gans] project; status unknown

2005        Silent Hill [Christophe Gans] HD+35mm-to-s35/c; 2uc: Peter Benison

2005        Vikaren/The Substitute [Ole Bornedal] p/c; 2uc: Ian Hansen

2006        Wind Chill [Gregory Jacobs] scope/c

2006        Kærlighed på film/Just Another Love Story [Ole Bornedal] scope/c

2006        Silent Hill 2 [Christophe Gans (replaced by ?)] announced

2008        Solomon Kane [Michael Bassett] scope/c; 2uc: Tim Wooster; aph: Adam Dale

2008        Fri os fra det onde/Deliver Us from Evil [Ole Bornedal] c

2008        Onimusha [Christophe Gans] in development

2008        Headhunter [Rumle Hammerich] scope/c; filmed 2008-09

1986        Guldregn/Gold Rain... or Laburnum [Søren Kragh Jacobsen] 7-part miniseries; edited into theatrical film (1988)

1992        Den korsikanske biskopen/The Corsican Bishop [Søren Kragh-Jacobsen] 4-part miniseries

1996        Charlot og Charlotte/Charlot and Charlotte [Ole Bornedal] 4-part miniseries; aph: Henrik Jongdahl

1998        Dybt vand/Deep Water [Ole Bornedal] 2-part tvm/DigiBeta; addph: Jakob Bonfils, Knut Pedersen, a.o.

1977        Kloden rokker [- Roskilde Festival]/This Rockin' Globe [John Menzer; mus doc] co-c.asst; ph: Simon Plum,

                    Henrik Herbert, Dirk Brüel, a.o.

1980        Danmark er lukket/Denmark Closed Down [Dan Tschernia] ph: Claus Loof