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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

David,

I'm shooting a scene where a character pulls out a flashlight and this is the only 'visible' light source. What's the easiest way to achieve a this? I'd like a nice power, directional, daylight balanced light.

Thanks,

Jamie.
 
David Mullen ASC said:
There's also ICG Magazine, the IA Local 600 publication, which overlaps a lot with American Cinematographer. And if you are interested in visual effects, there is Cinefex Magazine.

Beyond that, there are just scattered articles in the other publications, some online, you generally just have to stumble across them now and then, you don't need monthly subscriptions. Other than that, there is just wandering through various website forums - often you come across them while doing searches for specific information. For example, Art Adam's articles in ProVideo Coalition are very educational.

There is also the Cinematographers Mailing List (CML) -- go to Cinematography.net. This is a site for professionals to discuss by email various topics; you can receive a digest (I think) or just the daily emails in different categories, which is what I do.
Click to expand...

http://www.soc.org/
i also read this one,highly recommend it.Is there any online edition of ICG Magazine.Subscribing them via overseas costs too much for me.
 
Jamie Havill said:
David,

I'm shooting a scene where a character pulls out a flashlight and this is the only 'visible' light source. What's the easiest way to achieve a this? I'd like a nice power, directional, daylight balanced light.

Jamie.
Click to expand...

First you go online and find the brightest flashlights on the market. LED and HID ones will be daylight-balanced but might not create the classic pattern that a regular flashlight creates on a wall.

You can then augment the beam either with some off-camera white cards that the flashlight can hit or by panning some small lights into bounce cards the moment a flashlight would in real life bounce off of something and light the person holding the flashlight. Just don't over do it. There's a great flashlight sequence lit by Conrad Hall at the end of "Jennifer Eight" and he basically walked with the actress holding the flashlight with bounce cards taped to his arms and body to catch the light and bounce it back at her.

Now besides that, you have to decide if you want a very dim, soft ambience to the room, as opposed to a pitch-black room. It's sort of that soft dim moonlight look that people give rooms to sketch things out a little bit in the dark. Tends to be more for larger spaces though -- in a small, cramped room you can probably just go with the flashlight and some augmented bounces from it.
 
Ah, great! It's likely we'll be shooting RED-MX, and a company called Visual Products makes a good BNCR mount for the RED (swappable/does not void warranty), so that seems like it might be a viable approach. I will check with Alan Gordon. Do you have a contact person there to recommend? Any thoughts on the result of 1/8 double fog or low con on Red Pro Primes?
 
My only comment is to test. You may find that even if you get a great old lens that it looks too soft for your wide establishing shots, so you may want to use a modern lens with the lightest 1/8 Double Fog or LowCon to match the feel of the older, softer lenses on the closer shots, while still retaining some sharpness.

Or try something like an UltraCon, which has much less affect on sharpness -- you just may need to try something like a #2 UltraCon or higher because the #1 is very light.

Don't have a contact at Alan Gordon and haven't rented from them in a long time, so I'm not sure the status of their inventory. But rumor has it that they used to provide cameras for government / military work and that's why they have so many old and oddball pieces of 16mm and 35mm gear.
 
Hey David,

This may be a crazy question...maybe even stupid but I'd figure I'd ask because I'm in a bind. I'm shooting a video in a large white warehouse with huge windows. The type of windows that consist of several 2x2 foot squares. Anyways, I'm looking to shoot several 2k mightys through the glass with full CTB to give a super blue look. However, the glass is clear. I'm pretty convinced that the glass will need to be frosted in order to achieve the look that I'm going for. I don't have enough budget to gel the entire windows with White Diffusion or Opal and the frosting cannot be permanent. What do you suggest?
 
David Mullen ASC said:
Depending on the size of the overall windows, you could try putting a frame of Half Soft Frost over the whole window.

You could also try dirtying the windows.
Click to expand...

My apologies for failing to mention the size. The windows are easily 10x10 feet so soft frost could be pricey. What do you recommend to use to dirty the windows?
 
Jon Chema said:
Hey David,

This may be a crazy question...maybe even stupid but I'd figure I'd ask because I'm in a bind. I'm shooting a video in a large white warehouse with huge windows. The type of windows that consist of several 2x2 foot squares. Anyways, I'm looking to shoot several 2k mightys through the glass with full CTB to give a super blue look. However, the glass is clear. I'm pretty convinced that the glass will need to be frosted in order to achieve the look that I'm going for. I don't have enough budget to gel the entire windows with White Diffusion or Opal and the frosting cannot be permanent. What do you suggest?
Click to expand...

You could try misting all the windows with something white and water soluble - that could be washed off? Just an idea.
 
A set dekorator I worked with used Chalk in water, to diffuse windows. Very cheap and you can easily clean it afterwords.
Something else I've used when I was on a budget and needed huge diffusion was the foliage used on construction sites over here.
You get them in different denseties, sizes and even Colours and they are water resistent but let wind through.
Great bang for the bug and easy to rig because of the many eyelets!


http://imageshack.us
 
Jon Chema said:
My apologies for failing to mention the size. The windows are easily 10x10 feet so soft frost could be pricey. What do you recommend to use to dirty the windows?
Click to expand...

You wouldn't be buying the Half Soft Frost, you'd be renting a 10x10 or 20x20 size of it and stretching it on ropes or a frame.

Some set decorators mist the windows with water and then toss Fuller's Earth on them.
 
Hello David,

If someone wants to hire an ASC DP how would they go about doing it?

Do they simply call the ASC and ask who's available etc.?

How difficult is it to hire an ASC DP?

Also, what is the daily or weekly pay rate for ASC DPs?

I assume there is a minimum and then it goes sky high from there.
 
The ASC has nothing to with the unions, it's an honorary society. We get paid all sorts of rates, high and low -- obviously Robert Richardson makes more money than a lowly DP like me, despite the fact that both of us are ASC members. However, the IATSE Local 600 guild minimum rates are a good starting point for research, since most ASC members are in the union as well.

Generally you would contact the agent of an ASC member and discuss the project, send a script, etc.

Rates really are based on budget, so it's more a question of whether the ASC member wants to do the project for the money that can be offered. Of course, there is some haggling on rates between agents and producers, that's what agents are for...
 
Thank you David. Now that was a fast response!
 
For example, in the basic Local 600 agreement with the Producers Guild, the minimum rate for a Director of Photography on a feature is around $750 for an 8-hour day (around $94 an hour), with 1.5X the rate after 8-hours and then 2X overtime kicks in at some point. Something like that. However, since the typical shooting day is more like 12 hours, it's something closer to $1300/day. However, just last month, someone offered me $150/day to shoot a non-union film...

Commercial rates tend to be higher, but then, the shoots tend to be for fewer days.
 
Now that's the type of information I was looking for.

Thanks again for your passion and devotion to this industry.
 
You can contact the ASC and ask them for the name of the agent who represents a specific ASC member:

American Society of Cinematographers
1282 N. Orange Drive
Hollywood, 90028
(323) 969-4333

and Local 600 (which represents many of them) is here:

International Cinematographers Guild
Local 600
7755 Sunset Boulevard
Hollywood, CA 90046
(323) 876-0160
http://www.cameraguild.com

The IATSE low-budget agreement is a good place to start in terms of costs:

http://entlabor.com/uploads/IATSE_20Low_20Budget_20Agreement_202007-2009.pdf

I know of major DPs who've donated their time for charity projects, and others that made six figures a day for very high-end commercials. So it runs the gamut.
 
Hello David,

I've always heard and read that B&W film stock has more DR then Color stock, is this true?

I'm also hearing a consensus that Color stock has about 14.5 Stops of DR, and so it is hard
for me to believe that B&W has significantly more.

Some of my old B&W 35mm still negatives seems quite contrasty indeed.
 
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