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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

Well, a Zeiss Super-Speed is one-stop faster than a Zeiss Ultra Prime.

However, for most low-light work, T/2 on a Zeiss Ultra Prime will be fast enough; T/1.3 on a Zeiss Super Speed is rather soft, so it's sort of a worst-case scenario in terms of when you want to open them up all the way, plus T/2 on an Ultra Prime will be sharper than T/2 on a Super-Speed.

But maybe you really do plan on some worst-case super low-light work at T/1.3. Hope you have a good focus-puller...

A set of Zeiss Ultra Primes should be a lot more expensive than a set of Zeiss Super-Speeds.

Yes, you can shoot Super-Speeds fine outdoors in daylight using ND filters.

I assume you are talking about Zeiss Super-Speed prime lenses when you say "S35 Mk III" unless that refers to a Canon lens or something. Or are you referring to Zeiss Standard Speeds?

(Oh, I see online that you are referring to Optical-Elites when you say S35 Mk III, which are also T/1.3 lenses. I've heard those are good lenses. Don't know how they compare to Ultra Primes but are probably similar but perhaps not as well-built. Sure they are fine outdoors.)
 
hi i'm a writer-director with a red and am very hands on with other areas (cinemat.,VFX,sound,etc.) i want to do some stop-motion with my red? any suggestions? Also don't know too much about lenses but some basics. should i buy a set of lenses or try a few types out or maybe get atleast 1 lens 18-50mm so i can atleast shoot with my beautiful camera! - Jason
 
You could do stop motion with a DLSR...

I don't know specifically about shooting single-frame on the RED.

The issue for you is whether this is stop motion miniature work, i.e. do you need special close-focusing wider-angle lenses. Otherwise, I'd say get the 18-50mm zoom as a starter lens.
 
David Mullen ASC said:
(Oh, I see online that you are referring to Optical-Elites when you say S35 Mk III, which are also T/1.3 lenses. I've heard those are good lenses. Don't know how they compare to Ultra Primes but are probably similar but perhaps not as well-built. Sure they are fine outdoors.)
Click to expand...

Hi guys,

They're great lenses (just purchased a set). I had them lens projected and they are in both design and characteristics almost identical to COOKE S4's. They look great on screen as well. Glass and mechanics are really good, no questions asked.

BUT there's a few things. One is that is not easy to deal with the Russians so maybe you should go with a US dealer like Abelcine. The Russians have a very corrupt import/ export system and therefor sending lenses back and forth is a hustle.
Two, don't expect them to be 100%, they're more like 95-98%. There's always a blemish here and there (not optically) which can be annoying, but for that price it's hard to say if that's what you get, I don't know. I'm not sure if they have a lower inspection tolerance then the other makers like ZEISS ARRI and COOKE.

Don't get this wrong. I love them, but I have problems with all lenses. Nothing that will affect the image (at least not yet), but small imperfections that shouldn't be there and it's difficult to exchange them because of the Russian import/export system.

PS I should add that they're "softer" on T1.3 but are almost equal to the COOKE S4 on T2 and definitely as sharp on T2.8

fred
 
David,

When you are preparing for a film, do you ever prepare some lighting plans? Like a drawing of a set from overhead with lighting instruments for various shots? I've heard of this being done before, but I find it done more in TV where blocking and actor/talent positions are more locked down and rigid (think talk shows, etc...).

Thanks,
 
How long before a shoot do you know what you'll do as far as lighting is concerned? Do you sorta just go over your pre-production notes the night before and put it all together in your head? I can usually do that if I have enough prep and the director doesn't change things up left and right at the last minute. How far in advance do you know about the actors blocking for a scene?

Just out of curiosity, do you ever feel exhausted after a film shoot? I find myself needing a good couple of days rest after a big shoot, but then again, I sometimes fill several positions on these shoots due to smaller budgets. Some shoots have felt like athletic events!

Thanks,
 
Depends on how far in advance I need to plan the lighting. For a large night exterior where I have to decide whether to get a condor and how high it should be and where it should park and whether to put a Dino in it or an 18K HMI... I have to usually decide around the time of the tech scout, if not earlier, so it can be budgeted for.

Same goes for lighting a large interior space. Do I need scissor lifts outside the windows? Do I need extra HMI's? Do I need a lighting balloon? Do I need to rig to a high ceiling?

But for a typical house interior, usually you light that with your standard lighting package you are carrying for day and night scenes. In the tech scout, you pretty much figure if there's a window, you might want to put a light outside of it, and the Gaffer and the Key Grips knows this too, so they look around for where to park the generator, where to run power into the building, etc.

Usually during the tech scout, the director and I will have a good idea of how we'll be shooting the scenes so I can give some early notes to the Gaffer and Key Grip, like "I'm thinking of rigging a 4-bank Kinoflo above this dining room table" or "we need to build a softbox for this room and leave it rigged up there". Generally you don't need to tell the crew every bit of lighting detail weeks in advance. For a small scene, you can wait until after the blocking rehearsal sometimes to figure out where the lights are going. Again, there will be an assumption made that for a day interior scene, you will probably want some lights outside the windows so those will be standing by, ready to move into position.

If we've storyboarded the movie, then I may have some definite ideas of how each scene will be lit as well. Other times, I may be deciding as I'm driving to work that morning, or after I see the blocking rehearsal.

During prep you'll probably make some rough lighting decisions in case you need help from the art department, like certain practicals installed, or using blinds instead of sheers on windows, etc.

I'll break a script down into some sort of visual game plan that may include certain colors that I need to be motivated by certain types of practicals. For example, I may decide to add some fluorescent shop lights to a garage versus tungsten practicals, because I want that cyan-ish light for the scene that Cool White tubes will give me. Maybe I'll want to add a mercury vapor streetlamp to the side of a barn or something for that odd color. Or certain neon signs added to a bar. This sort of stuff you have to think up in advance so it will be there on the shooting day.

As soon as you are scouting locations, you are probably thinking about how to light that location.

It's really night exterior work where I need the director to commit in advance to which direction we are shooting in.
 
Hi David Thanks for giving use these valuable information,i have another question about buying lenses:

David as you and all guys know Ultra Primes are very expensive,there's no argue in the quality and performance but if I could buy just 3 of that stuff for regular story telling so which ones you guys will suggest?why?

BTW,any clue about Ultra prime 8mm the latest lens from arri zaiss is it a
good choice to regular wide shooting?what about the performance?is there
any one who experienced that?

thanks to all
 
Zeiss makes both an Ultra Prime 8R (super wide-angle 8mm lens that is corrected to remove barrel distortion) and the Ultra 16 8mm (which is designed for Super-16 and won't cover the 35mm frame.)

The 8R lens would be a special use lens, it's so wide-angle, nearly fish-eye.

I'm not the person to ask about buying lenses, I don't own anything. It would be very hard to limit oneself to three focal lengths and it would depend on whether you wanted to bias the three towards the wide-angle or telephoto end.

For example, you could get a 32mm, 50mm, and 85mm Ultra Prime but would probably be screaming for a wider-angle like a 24mm. You could have each lens double in focal length, but those are pretty big jumps to live with, like a 24mm, 50mm, and 100mm for example.

You could go with a 24mm, 32mm, and 50mm -- but then you might be screaming for something longer than 50mm.
 
Ultra Prime 8R

Ultra Prime 8R

David Mullen ASC said:
Zeiss makes both an Ultra Prime 8R (super wide-angle 8mm lens that is corrected to remove barrel distortion)

The 8R lens would be a special use lens, it's so wide-angle, nearly fish-eye.
Click to expand...
Esmaile said:
BTW,any clue about Ultra prime 8mm the latest lens from arri zaiss is it a
good choice to regular wide shooting?what about the performance?is there
any one who experienced that?

thanks to all
Click to expand...


Been using Ken Corben's 8R, purchased primarily for underwater use. Yes, it is pretty much a specialty lens since it is so wide that you get perspective "distortions" on anything close, but to avoid confusion - it really is rectilinear with virtually no barrel or "fisheye"-like distortion. We put it on the projector and it is amazingly sharp even at the extreme corners. A phenomenal piece of engineering - hence the $30K price tag.
 
David you're right it's rung to limit my work by three lenses, to be honest,i'm willing to buy more primes in the near future but for now, i want to buy the most important and critical lenses at first to start my shooting and i'll add more lenses,
so what you think?is it a bad idea?
 
Esmaile said:
David you're right it's rung to limit my work by three lenses, to be honest,i'm willing to buy more primes in the near future but for now, i want to buy the most important and critical lenses at first to start my shooting and i'll add more lenses,
so what you think?is it a bad idea?
Click to expand...

Only you can decide which three lenses you can be limited to. Certainly it is possible -- apparently David Fincher shot "The Game" with only three lenses (though of course they carried more, plus zooms.) But it places a creative restriction on the director, so you have to decide what three focal lengths you think you will need. It depends on how much you favor or like to avoid very wide-angle shots, or conversely, very telephoto shots. Or whether you can live with each lens being double or half the focal length of the other. Which means that if you decide, for example, that this shot needs a middle focal length like a 50mm, and it's not quite right in the space you have... you won't be able to adjust and use a 32mm or 85mm instead because your options are to use a 24mm or 100mm instead.

Which may be fine -- Ozu, after all, shot all of his movies on a 50mm. As a cinematographer, I have to give the director more flexibility than that, but as a director, you can choose to be more limited in your choices of focal lengths. A director can say "I only want to shoot this project on a 32mm, 50mm, and 85mm" (for example) but as a cinematographer, I can't tell the director "You can only have a 32mm, 50mm, and 85mm to shoot this project on."

Sure, you can start with three and eventually add two more -- generally, most prime lens sets are around five to six lenses.

Or you can look for a cheaper but more complete set of older primes, like Zeiss Super-Speeds.
 
Hi David,

On the same matter of lens choice, I wanted very much to ask you a question, only it concerns the Master Primes.
If you were to pick 6 lenses among the 14-16-18-21-25-27-32-35-40-50-65-75-100-150.
Those questions may start to become boring to you, but your advice is precious, and at least I give 6 lenses to choose from. :)

Emmanuel
 
Emmanuel Cambier said:
Hi David,

On the same matter of lens choice, I wanted very much to ask you a question, only it concerns the Master Primes.
If you were to pick 6 lenses among the 14-16-18-21-25-27-32-35-40-50-65-75-100-150.
Those questions may start to become boring to you, but your advice is precious, and at least I give 6 lenses to choose from. :)

Emmanuel
Click to expand...

Well, six is a lot easier than three...

I'd probably pick:

18, 25, 35, 50, 75, 100

But that's sort of based on working around the 50mm in either direction, because it's hard to imagine not carrying a 50mm. But if you picked a 40mm and 65mm to work around, then you could maybe go:

16, 21, 32, 40, 65, 100

I don't know... personally I rarely go wider-angle than 21mm except maybe one or two shots per feature where I'd use an 18mm, but that's just because I'm not a big fan of super wide-angle shots in narrative work. So I always carry an 18mm, but I don't use it much. But some directors may insist on a 16mm.
 
Thank you so much, David.
Both sets are very atractiv, I guess i'll have to flip coins.

Emmanuel
 
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