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  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

Ask David Mullen ANYTHING

There's no getting around the need for the colorist for the final color-correction session so you might as well assume it will be a positive collaboration rather than worry about somehow working around the colorist. The thing to keep in mind is that there is still a lot benefit in delivering something that comes close to the final look, as much as is practical, because (1) the old rule "garbage in, garbage out" still is true, the best shots in the original footage generally come out the best at the end of color-correction, and (2) you will have only a set amount of time budgeted for color-correction so the easier the footage corrects, the better.

You just have to understand the complexity of the coloring that you are planning on using. Playing with chroma levels, gamma, black levels, or overall primaries is standard stuff, but perhaps you've designed a look that requires lots of windows, keying, or tracking objects, or variable diffusion effects added in post, or even some paint or composite work, now you are adding to the time needed and the complexity of the work.

I'm about to shoot a small period film and the general look is slightly shifted from normal - a bit of desaturation, deeper blacks, and general warmth. The warmth I'm doing in camera with gels or color temp settings, the rest is a simple deviation from a normal look that shouldn't be too hard to achieve. I just have to make sure that look is in the dailies so the offline cut has it, otherwise everyone in post may get used to seeing a normal image.
 
David Mullen ASC said:
(1) the old rule "garbage in, garbage out" still is true, the best shots in the original footage generally come out the best at the end of color-correction, and (2) you will have only a set amount of time budgeted for color-correction so the easier the footage corrects, the better.
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Thank you so much for the advice! I'll be doing as much in camera as possible. The Garbage in Garbage out is so true. Thanks again!




PS Some of your shots have made it into my look book. Such gorgeous work man.
 
Hey David,

I've got a project I'm working on involving a girl in a forest at night for a music video. She would be lit by what would be perceived as only "moonlight" along a stretch of woods where she would be walking through, and the director wants a "vampirish look". Not my words, haha.

I know that basically he wants the "moonlight" to bring out the silk clothing she'll be wearing--not sure as to the color of it but I'm guessing white silk. However, trying to keep the shoot cost-efficient since it won't have a big budget, I'm trying to figure out whether the best thing would be to light it with HMI's hung from high up so that it brings out the woods around her and set up soft lights to light her individually. OR if doing a day-for-night shooting might be better.

Now, I haven't had any experience with day-for-night shooting yet (nor do I know of any great examples of day for night) so if you have more insight into it that would be great.

This may be a question for maybe more of a gaffer/grip but If I ended up going for the night time shooting option--in which case production wants me to give them an estimate-- how many lights, generators, smoke machines, and other expenses do you think we would need).

The last question I would have would be, if I did use some 6-12k HMI's (and this is just assuming that would be the kind of lights I would want--if there are any better options please let me know) what would be the best way of rigging them up high up--SAFELY--so that they're out of the wide shots. Keeping in mind the location would be in the woods and I don't know if it would be next to a road where we would have more space to set up, and as always...costs!! haha. again, this may be more of a question for a gaffer/grip but if you have any advice then great!

I know there are a lot of variables here and I've thrown a lot out at you but any advice is welcome!
Thanks a lot David!
 
I've strung a row of paper lanterns with daylight CFL's for a soft overhead moonlight, or put a row of single bank daylight Kinos as a near backlight. The next row of trees further back, you could try small HMI's like Joker 400's on some tree trucks -- the lights have to get higher as you go further back. For the far background, you're stuck trying to find a spot for a condor and a 6K HMI maybe up higher. Unless there is a low depression (if your trees are on a small hill) where you can light the trees from below with ground lights, and then run a lot of fog in the woods to spread the light.

DFN may work if you can stay in backlight and you don't see the sky through the trees (like being in a canyon), it's just as the sun gets higher you can get some really hot patches on the ground that won't look right.
 
David could you give me some ways to deal with Day Exteriors in very High Contrast situations. I had to shoot a scene with no time to light a master shot. Do you think Low Contrast Filters could help or even flashing the highlights or Shadows would put some detail into the image, without milking out the blacks in the shadow areas? Just didn't have any time to use Large Silks or Large Black Cutters along with any Large Lighting units. Working very low budget this is always a major challenge.
 
I don't think the filters help much unless you want a filtered look. Large white bounces off-camera are probably your best bet, otherwise you have to embrace what nature is giving you rather than fight it -- it's the reality of the space after all. If you can shoot the wide shot when the sun is a little lower and behind the actors, that would help you expose a little more for the shadows.
 
I thought of you over this last week David.

For whatever reason I tested out nearly every type of diffusion available on the market today on fresnels at various distances.

Just a random quick question. I've been a big fan of standard Opal Tough Frost for a while. Recently becoming a bit more a fan of Rolux on stronger sources.

Is there any particular diffusion you're into? And if there is, why do you like/prefer it?
 
I usually have frames made up with Opal, 250, 251, 216, lt. grid, full grid, and maybe bleached muslin or 129. I often like to hang a 6x6 or 8x8 lt. grid off of a pipe on a stand (T-bone rig) draped in front of another soft light like a Chimera on a 2K.
 
Hi David, we have talked 'eye lights' before but wanted to ask, do you find it difficult to give an actor an eyelight without having the same light source light the actors face? I am finding this, could it be that the eyelight is too bright or that the key light is not strong enough to hind the eye light?
 
Cheers David. Thanks for that info. It's been an interesting journey this time around selecting diffusion. So many ways to do it and so many materials.
 
scott william said:
Hi David, we have talked 'eye lights' before but wanted to ask, do you find it difficult to give an actor an eyelight without having the same light source light the actors face? I am finding this, could it be that the eyelight is too bright or that the key light is not strong enough to hind the eye light?
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Just knock down the eyelight -- if it's adding to the fill, knock down the fill to compensate for the eyelight.
 
Wow. Talk about dedication - this thread has been going on for 6 years!!!
Big Thank you to you, David for providing heaps of valuable knowledge and letting everyone pick your brain.

I've been spending some late nights flicking through the pages here and I tend to come back every other day to continue.
Cheers, David!
 
It looks like Ryan Gosling is composited over the painting, probably shot against black, not a green screen, and rotoscoped for the opening composite. He moves through three key lights, the first close-up one that is frontal slightly to frame right and slightly softened, then out of that (probably flagged off and then may dimmed off) into an intermediate frontal key also slightly to frame right, and then into another frontal spot that is a bit higher and slightly to frame left. All three positions are flagged to some degree off of each other and perhaps dimmed in and out once he passes through.

The last position not only has a high toppy key from slightly to the left (look at the hat shadow), but has a bit of frontal fill to get under the hat brim, and perhaps a backlight for the cigarette smoke (that may be the low light you see raking his back at the end as he leaves, or maybe not, maybe it's just there to create some separation when he leaves). He was probably blacked out in post by rotoscoping. The fall-off into shadow of the final overhead spot on his lower body and hand suggests that it was cut with a flag, either a solid or net.

I'd probably do most of this lighting myself with 2K and 1K tungsten fresnels, maybe with some light diffusion on the barndoors to soften it slightly and then lots of flags armed out to cut the light.

It's certainly possible that everything was done against green instead of black but I suspect black is more likely, you'd have some green spill problems with such a high contrast scene.
 
Mole LED's

Mole LED's

Was curious to get your opinion on the Mole conversion kits for the Baby. Do you have an opinion on wether to get the 5600K and use CTO when needed or the 3200K and use CTB when needed? Or would you go with a different LED entirely within the same price range? Specifically for those who already own quite a few Mole babys.
 
I'd probably go with a 5600K LED and gel it for tungsten, just because you generally need the most light output in daylight situations and putting a Full CTB gel on a tungsten lamp loses 2-stops, whereas putting Full CTO on a daylight lamp loses 2/3-stops. Also, I find that LED's tend to be more accurate color-wise in the daylight versions for some reason.
 
MOLe LED's

MOLe LED's

Thank you, David. Have you had any luck with any cheaper "non-cinema" LED's for augmentation?
 
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