Ask David Mullen ANYTHING

[Jeffrey T. Morgan]

David, I asked this somewhere else, then realized I should try you... i will summarize:

What book or dvd do you recomend to get the basics of FILM CAMERA and RED CAMERA operation understood?

I have a lot of experience in everything from DV to F900s, but now i might have a chance to grow into a red / film shoot, and would like a resource to read before doing some tests.

THANKS A TON for your time.

Jeff

[David Mullen ASC]

I answered your other post, but I can recommend my own work -- try "Cinematography" (Third Edition) by Malkiewicz & Mullen. It's written for the person just starting out shooting 16mm film, so it covers the basics and most of the concepts are applicable to 35mm.

As for Red, I can recommend Noah Kadner's book.

[Jeffrey T. Morgan]

Thanks David, sorry for the double post.

I will be ordering your book momentarily i that makes up for it ;-)

Jeff

[Matt W.]

On a similar note, do you know of any books that teach blocking or coverage techniques? I recently watched Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade and was just stunned at how I absolutely could not have shot or directed anything in that movie (at times I prefer Slocombe even to Kaminski...) Likewise, the dinner table scene in Drag me to Hell (and its clear antecedent in Wise's Haunting) blew my mind in terms of just maintaining screen direction and coherence while vacillating rapidly between subjective and objective presentation.

I'm a DP foremost, but it's so much easier to work with directors if you understand blocking and shot choice as well as (or better than) they do. I was just rejected from every grad school I applied to so I have to teach myself now. Are there any books that cover this stuff? Did you learn about it at Cal Arts? (I may apply there next year.) It doesn't seem so complicated, really, once you have the basics--but I don't know where to start.

I'm sorry for all my questions; my career is falling apart so I really need some guidance.

[Tyler Black]

David,

I know you don't like to hear this, but your reply was so awesome I wanted to thank you. You rock.

[David Mullen ASC]

On a similar note, do you know of any books that teach blocking or coverage techniques? I recently watched Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade and was just stunned at how I absolutely could not have shot or directed anything in that movie (at times I prefer Slocombe even to Kaminski...) Likewise, the dinner table scene in Drag me to Hell (and its clear antecedent in Wise's Haunting) blew my mind in terms of just maintaining screen direction and coherence while vacillating rapidly between subjective and objective presentation.

I learned a lot about staging & directing by reading the Truffaut/Hitchcock book and then watching all of those Hitchcock movies. In fact, most of what I've learned has been by watching the actual movies -- Spielberg is a great teacher in staging for camera. Yes, he's a bit daunting, but then, he's Spielberg!

There are some directing books out there, I don't have them on my shelves to check, but I've flipped through a lot of these listed on this Amazon page under "customers also bought" and they all have some good bits in them:

http://www.amazon.com/Film-Directing...8869899&sr=1-1

I learned directing mostly by watching Hitchcock, Spielberg, Welles, Lean, Kubrick, Kurosawa, and John Ford movies more than anything else. Probably puts me at odds a bit with modern trends though, which I think of as the Cuisinart School of Directing -- cover everything with a dozen cameras and then chop it up the death. I guess you could say that Kurosawa started that multi-cam style, taken up by Ridley & Tony Scott... but I think they actually do it well.

[Shawn Nelson]

I learned a lot about staging by reading the Truffaut/Hitchcock book

Which book is this?

[David Mullen ASC]

Which book is this?

My favorite filmmaking book in college:
http://www.amazon.com/Hitchcock-Revi...8870522&sr=8-1

That and "Masters of Light" and "Man With a Camera". Oh, and "Film Lighting".

[Roberto Lequeux]

In fact, most of what I've learned has been by watching the actual movies

My favorite filmmaking book in college:
http://www.amazon.com/Hitchcock-Revi...8870522&sr=8-1

That and "Masters of Light" and "Man With a Camera". Oh, and "Film Lighting".

Thank you David.

[Loren White]

I can vouch for the quality of "Cinematography" (Third Edition) by Malkiewicz & Mullen.. Actually I studied under Malkiewicz at CalArts. :)

Great thread!