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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

Moses samra said:
I am an aspiring cinematographer who will be shooting a short in the next two weeks in the red epic.

I am extremely nervous and have come here to seek advise.

there is a location that involves very low lighting conditions, and i am wondering how i can achieve the image i want with little to no digial noise?
here is the exact lighting setup and location i lit, but it is a still taken from the 5d mark 3
how can i achieve this exact image without any noise?
Click to expand...

The simple answer is to use an ISO setting that gives you the noise level you want, and then make sure you don't need to bring anything up in post color-correction, so light and expose correctly for the look you want, or err on the side of slightly more exposure or more fill if you are worried about accidental underexposure of all or part of the frame that will require you bring it up in post, and thus bring up the noise. You can always bring down the image slightly or crush the blacks slightly to darken the image without getting more noise (you just risk the opposite, some clipping, so watch out for that.)

800 ISO on the Epic gives you a nice image with a good balance between highlight and shadow with minimal noise but if you want even less noise, you may want to try something like 500 ISO. Also, with such a blue image, you're better off, noise-wise, if you can get that color with the camera set to something higher than 3200K color temp, so use blue filters on the camera or more blue gel or gel daylight fixtures bluer, etc. so that your base camera color temp setting is more like 4300K to 5600K and yet the light still looks very blue.
 
David I cherish the time you put into your answer!

thank you so much!

such a blessing!

I am doing some tests tomorrow and I will keep your advice in mind.

thank you again!
 
David: this auction for some HMI lights appears to use photos from your production of Manure (aka The Smell of Success). http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dl...&ssPageName=ADME:B:SS:US:1123#ht_11376wt_1400 They are about 1/2 way down the page

Not sure if you used their lights or their studios, but this certainly gives the appearance that you did. If this is copyright violation or a misrepresentation, I wanted you to be aware.
 
David,


I really appreciate all the time you put into this thread. I've picked up all sorts of info from browsing regularly.


I will be shooting a music video that takes place in a club here in a few weeks. The location is in an old bar/club that has a warehouse feel to it. It has been stripped of all decor, but still has the lighting truss intact. We are going for a urban, bare club look which will give the viewer a feel that these parties/events never stay in one place and are scheduled hastily.


The production will be shot on Scarlet with Canon still lenses. As of now we are designing the light overhead the 30'x30' dance floor. The look is a purple, milky haze, although actions/faces should still be visible from wide. There will also be a few shafts of deep golden light.


The budget is tight, but we already have access to 3 4x4 Kinos and 3 Arri 650 fresnels.


My question is, whilst staying at 800 asa and a f2.8-4 would I be better off finishing off the dance floor with Kinos to stay at a higher kelvin? Or could I use ParNel Floods to reduce my rental and not worry about the kelvin difference. The fixtures will hang at about 15ft.


I'm looking for a lot of light output because I would be using Roscolux Storaro Violet to gel the main lights. I'm thinking if I went with Kinos I would need a lot more fixtures.


Also, would I be better off renting some source 4s for the shafts? And would you ctb them and then gel for color?


And is there a better purple gel for good saturation? A lot of the micro budget stuff I see shot on red doesn't have good saturation in these scenarios.


Thanks for the help in advance,


Josh
 
Take a look at these frames from a movie I shot on the original Red One sensor... I used a mix of lights for the prom dance scene, mostly gelled tungsten Source-4's and par cans:

http://www.davidmullenasc.com/styled-19/index.html

You can probably aim for a mix of colors that allow you to set the camera around 4300K and still get purple. You can try using daylight Kinos maybe with full blue added for a deep blue soft base that is under key level and then use Source-4 Lekos and pars for colored spots. I don't think you need to first correct them to daylight but find a gel combo that creates the purple you want with the camera at a midway color temp setting like 4300K.
 
Hi David,

I've been searching the forum (and the internet in general) for information about how to light a scene for thunder lightning with no luck at all. So excuse me if you already have answered such a question in this fantastic thread. Over the last 1½ year I've been making bits and pieces for a spec trailer for a treasure hunt movie I wish to sell. The setup is the image test below that contains three lights 1) A 650W softboxed lamp to the left 2) A 150W softboxed lamp to the right close to the actor and 3) A narrow pointed 650W lamp on the bookshelf in the background. And 4) the practical lamp in the shot. Overall it might not be how to light it probably, but it works for me.

The thing is I would like to add a thunder lightning effect to the scene - the typical blue light to set the mood at specific time and make it spooky. So here's my question, what device and lamp is required for this effect?

Lighting+test.jpg


Thanks,
Jesper
 
Hi David,

I was wondering if you recalled what filtration you had on the lens during the scenes in Jimmy's Apartment in the Mimi Leder directed episode of Smash that aired this week?

Thanks,
Mark Wilkinson

jimmys_apt.jpg
 
Thanks - great looking episode BTW.
 
Jesper Sichlau said:
Hi David,

I've been searching the forum (and the internet in general) for information about how to light a scene for thunder lightning with no luck at all. So excuse me if you already have answered such a question in this fantastic thread. Over the last 1½ year I've been making bits and pieces for a spec trailer for a treasure hunt movie I wish to sell. The setup is the image test below that contains three lights 1) A 650W softboxed lamp to the left 2) A 150W softboxed lamp to the right close to the actor and 3) A narrow pointed 650W lamp on the bookshelf in the background. And 4) the practical lamp in the shot. Overall it might not be how to light it probably, but it works for me.

The thing is I would like to add a thunder lightning effect to the scene - the typical blue light to set the mood at specific time and make it spooky. So here's my question, what device and lamp is required for this effect?

Lighting+test.jpg


Thanks,
Jesper
Click to expand...
I am working on a way to light a similar scene for my short horror film. I have done some tests which I found worked very well and are repeatable from one take to the next if you care to give it a try here is what I did. I used Photoshop to build white frames, some part frame some full frame. Then I put them on a timeline in my NLE. I adjusted the number of frames for various durations and brightness levels, fade in fade out for sheet lightning etc. I then hooked up to an LCD front projector with about 4,000 lumens. I ran playback with the projector set up outside and shot it through the window of the house/set. With some trial and error you can make very realistic lightning and using multiple projectors and a signal splitter you can project it into more than one window. If you don't shoot it through a window shoot it through some diffusion and a kook to shape it the way you want it.
 
Larry Kelly said:
I am working on a way to light a similar scene for my short horror film. I have done some tests which I found worked very well and are repeatable from one take to the next if you care to give it a try here is what I did. I used Photoshop to build white frames, some part frame some full frame. Then I put them on a timeline in my NLE. I adjusted the number of frames for various durations and brightness levels, fade in fade out for sheet lightning etc. I then hooked up to an LCD front projector with about 4,000 lumens. I ran playback with the projector set up outside and shot it through the window of the house/set. With some trial and error you can make very realistic lightning and using multiple projectors and a signal splitter you can project it into more than one window. If you don't shoot it through a window shoot it through some diffusion and a kook to shape it the way you want it.
Click to expand...

Very interesting way to do it. Have you have any footage of how it turned out?
 
The "Opening Night" episode had a number of huge shots where I saw you had to light an entire theater audience area, plus the party area outside. That must've been a nightmare -- I watched it and thought, "jesus, the guy must have grabbed every lighting instrument in Manhattan to light an area this huge."
Click to expand...

Thanks though it wasn't as much light as you'd think... The audience during performances was dimly lit using some of the VariLites in the system used for the show. I also had a tungsten lighting balloon that could be dimmed up for house lights coming on. The big lobby was mostly lit by all the practicals, and when I could get away with it, a musball on a menace arm from the second floor balcony. I also had some Source-4's and parcans on the balcony that could be aimed for back lights and a spotlight on the singers.
 
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Jesper Sichlau said:
Very interesting way to do it. Have you have any footage of how it turned out?
Click to expand...

Here is the Vimeo link to a rough camera test I shot last night. I didn't keep the first one I made for some reason so I did a quick and dirty one so you can see how it looks. This test is basic in every way and is the worst it could possibly look. Shot in 720P with an EX1 in low light and because of the snow thats hanging around here, I couldn't get the projector back far enough to fill the glass. I shot it through some light diffusion with a 3,000 lumen LCD with a bad panel so it has a purple hue. I am not happy with the lightning sequence and timing but one can adjust that to taste any way you want, including colour of the lightning.

https://vimeo.com/64531949
 
Hi David,

I'm shooting a 35mm one stock job soon. Kodak 5219. To keep things simple I will rate at the given 500asa tungsten and 320 daylight with an 85. What is your opinion on shooting a grey card/macbeth chart for my daylight scenes? Should I pull the 85 to shoot the card or do I keep it in. Help would be appreciated.

Regards,
Don
 
You shoot the grey scale in whatever you want the timer to see as a neutral reference in "white light", so generally that means the 85 filter is in for daylight scenes... If you shot the grey scale without it, it would look blue in daylight and the timer would have to add orange to correct it to neutral so when the following scene came up shot with the filter in, it would look very warm. This can be used for creative effect when you want the roll timed on the cold or warm side -- for example, shoot the grey scale with an 81EF so that it is timed to make it neutral and then shoot the scene with the 85 so that it look half corrected to orange for warmth, or vice-versa, shoot the grey scale with the 85 filter in daylight and then switch to the milder 81EF filter for a colder look.
 
Hi David,

Thank you so much for all the amazing help you offer everyone here!

I have a color temperature question for shooting sit down interviews for the Special Features section of a low budget feature a friend of mine is wrapping in a few days.

I have a black duvetyne back drop, a PAR can with barn doors for a hair light, and two compact fluorescent soft boxes with eggcrate and diffusion for key and fill. I may use a reflector or small china ball low to the floor to remove some of the shadow from the eye sockets and chin.

I'll be using a DSLR. Depending on the focal length chosen, the lens will be at anywhere between a 1.8 and a 5.6 stop.

Because digital sensors are less sensitive to blue light, I'm tempted to shoot the interviews at daylight color temperature.

To counteract the coolness of daylight, I was thinking about either color correcting the shot to warm in post or using a Warmcard to "trick" the camera to bake in a warmed looked.

http://www.warmcards.com/WC1.html

Do you have a feeling on if this is a somewhat rational approach? I feel some trepidation because it seems that most interviews are shot with tungsten lights.

Thanks so much for all of your help!!
 
Do you mean that you will be using daylight balanced lighting, if so, why not just pick a slightly higher color temp on the camera to warm up the image further, i.e. if 5600K light looks neutral, set the camera to 6000K or higher, or select "cloudy" or "shade" instead of "sun".
 
Yes, exactly. My thinking is that by using daylight balanced lighting I'll be feeding the sensor more blue light than I would if I were using tungsten lights.

So one approach I'm considering is adjusting the WB to a warmer than white setting. This can be done by WBing to something cool, like a Warmcard or doing as you suggested by just changing the WB Kelvin to something higher than 5600K.

This seems logical to me, but I'm wondering if there is a "magic" that tungsten lights provide that will be lost when using this approach with daylight balanced lights.

Thank you again David!
 
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