Manure

[Shawn Nelson]

Wow, thanks David! I just caught up today on this whole thread, a real treat to read.

One question, in the stills (captures from Red), the sky looks fake and close...was that a style choice? Is the movie designed to feel like it was shot on a small stage?

[David Mullen ASC]

Well, the movie was shot on relatively small stages...

The sky is meant to be stylized though I also tried to give the sets some feeling of natural light. But some degree of theatricality is inevitable so we embraced it as part of the design. But we did not go out of our way to make the sets seem smaller than they were, quite the opposite. Now on some sets, we literally were on a few feet away from the sky backing so I did the best that I could.

[Shawn Nelson]

It's brave, I havent seen obviously painted backdrops since the 40s.

[Noah Kadner]

It's brave, I havent seen obviously painted backdrops since the 40s.

See SciFi Channel's DUNE miniseries from 2000 for one. I'd say David did a more convincing job than Vittorio Storaro and that's no faint praise. :spidy:



Noah

[Shawn Booth]

It's brave, I havent seen obviously painted backdrops since the 40s.

You look great for having been alive in the 40's Nelson!

[Anderson Laggert]

everything looks amazing. i can't wait to see the film.
one question about lighting: what's a lumapanel and what does it do?

thanks, anderson

[David Mullen ASC]

http://www.lumapanel.com/

Another fluorescent fixture like Kinoflo -- a Lumapanel holds 28 4' T8 tubes. So the light output is much more than a Kino Blanket Lite or Image 80.

[Anderson Laggert]

thanks for the quick reply. i'm shooting a commercial next week, and these might be perfect. did you use the varible color feature? i need to change from day to night and want some soft light movement.
i am blown away by the day interior imagery you created for manure.
i'm hoping to channel it via my taste into a hyundai commercial !!!
best regards, anderson

[Sarah C.]

Some folks get excited to "paint a town red".. Looks like Mr. Mullen painted a class-act feature film with a Red!


Color me excited about seeing it!
~Sarah

[David Mullen ASC]

did you use the varible color feature?

No. If you don't need the full light output at 3200K or 5500K, often you can put mix tungsten and daylight tubes in these fixtures to allow some inbetween color temps, or to switch from one to the other by switching off the other tubes. I've done that in the past with Kinos but didn't try it with the Lumapanels. In my case, I knew that I never wanted more warmth from the overhead soft light, it would always be cool to neutral, so I left them with all daylight tubes.