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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

Hey David,

I got a question that's probably going to sound REALLY silly, but here goes. I'm planning to shoot mainly steadicam & dolly on rails on my first serious short movie, with a few short handheld sections. I've done the shot list, and I was thinking about something trivial but then I started wondering about it some more. Obviously, steadicam is mainly used when standing and to move around, right? Well, I've got shots, like still shots, but where I might have to move around a bit (like intimate scenes with two characters talking, and some movement in the scene sometimes), and my question is: for shots like these, where you still need perfect stability, no shakiness in the frame, and yet still be able to move the camera to follow one character's action (while the characters are on a bed for example, talking), how do you shoot those?

I was thinking tripod, but I can't just be as free to move the camera around as I would be with a steadicam, and yet, can't use handheld rig because even trying to be really stable, it can still shake, can't use steadicam in these situations either. I'm thinking this may be situations where something like the MoVi might come in handy.

MoVi might even be a good alternative over a steadicam, no?
 
David Mullen ASC said:
Tiffen Black ProMist or Schneider Black Frost filters are still a good starting point. I've been using a 1/8 Black Frost for my wides and mediums and a 1/8 Hollywood Black Magic for my close-ups lately.
Click to expand...

Thanks.
 
Hello David,

How do you eliminate light source reflections caused by filters when the shooting candle flames and car headlights etc.?

Is it the case that 1 filter does not cause candle flames etc. to appear doubled by filter reflection, or is it only
when you have 2 or 3 filters on the lens?
 
David Mullen ASC said:
Tilting the filter sometimes moves the reflections downwards or upwards to where they are less distracting, and taping two filters together can help reduce double reflections, but sometimes the problems are unavoidable unless you pull the filter.
Click to expand...

Thanks David,

I have not found tilting Matte Boxes on the market, so is this tilting done by using the swing away mechanism on a Matte Box
to place the filter in a manner that is not parallel with the lens?
 
I often use Panavision and they have a simple 4x5 matte box that takes multiple filter trays in one slot, or one extra wide filter tray where the filters can be stacked and are tilted at an angle. But some other matte boxes also have a wide slot that holds two trays touching each other, so if you pull that, you can tape two filters together and slip them into the matte box with no filter tray propped at an angle with some tape to keep them from falling out of the matte box.
 
David Mullen ASC said:
I often use Panavision and they have a simple 4x5 matte box that takes multiple filter trays in one slot, or one extra wide filter tray where the filters can be stacked and are tilted at an angle. But some other matte boxes also have a wide slot that holds two trays touching each other, so if you pull that, you can tape two filters together and slip them into the matte box with no filter tray propped at an angle with some tape to keep them from falling out of the matte box.
Click to expand...

Great...........Thanks!
 
Hi Mr. Mullen,

First let me thank you for 500+ pages of the best reading on cinematography I've ever found. I also loved your series of breakfast club discussions on the Friends of the ASC page, excellent stuff. I'd like you to take a look at my plans for a shoot this weekend and let me know if there are any problems with my approach.

I will be shooting a music video this weekend in a bedroom with 4 large windows. The room is approx 16x12. The apartment is on the first floor of the building and the adjacent building is so close it actually cuts out a lot of the natural light that typically spills into a room like this (quite beneficial in this case I believe). I will be trying to recreate two looks, one is a sunset look with lots of orange light filling the room with ambience and a hard cut of orange light through my left window to key my actress. The other is a softened moonlight effect, similar in tone, I plan on just gelling my tungsten sources and keeping the positions of my units the same. I'm preparing to rent the following light gear: 2x 1k softies (for ambient fill through the windows) and 1x 750 leko (19 degree lens for my hard cut). I own a 1250w arri kit with chimeras and a variety of china balls I plan to use for fill and to augment my close ups from inside. My main units will be approx 4-5 ft outside the windows, flooding straight in with no bounce and minimal additional diffusion. The windows will be dressed with thick textured eggshell and light yellow curtains. My actress will be about another 4 ft from the windows on the inside. I'll also add a few practical sources inside for the moonlight stuff, to get that nice cyan/orange color balance.

I'll be shooting the 1080p on the Sony FS700 with a Zeizz CP2 set. Lots of high frame rate shooting. Do you think I'll need bigger sources? Or am I somewhat on the right track?

EDIT: I forgot to add that I will be hazing the room like crazy.

Thank you so much in advance!

-Mark
 
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Thank you for your input. Do you think id be better off leaving the leko without a barrel/lens and using the internal shutters to shape the light to fit the window? Will I still have that sharp beam and hard cut of light with a bare leko?

Will I have enough room in terms of light output from these units at those distances to go from 24 to 96fps without having to boost the gain on the camera too high to compensate? Am I correct in my math that 96fps will require 4x more light than my base exposure at 24fps? I plan on shooting the 24fps stuff at t5.6 on ISO 400. If my light output remains constant, can I expose 96fps at t2.8 at ISO 400?
 
I've never used a Leko without a lens, it would just be a bare bulb fixture then and I don't know if the shutter blades would do much to create a nice cut.

Whether you have enough exposure to run at 96 fps at 400 ISO depends on how hot the sunlight effect has to look, with multiple 19 degree Lekos beaming in in parallel rows, maybe, it's sort of a guess until you get there. One Leko trying to fill a window, unlikely.
 
Hello David,

I will try to keep this brief - you get a lot of questions here!

I have the opportunity to test some lens's at a local camera house in the DTLA area that I have been renting from lately. The reason I want to do a lens test is to show some of the directors Ive been working with lately who think they know what glass has the 'look' they are after (but actually have no idea what they are talking about) some of the different options they have. I have limited experience with other glass as well. So the goal of the test is to quickly identify the characteristics (resolution, bokeh, breathing, contrast, and what ever else makes a lens uniuqe) of a common lens per manufacture & series. So I was thinking I will just stick to a 50mm length and test each lens @ a T2.8, T5.6, & T8. Now my question is, what would be good test material I can quickly setup that would test these characteristics? I was thinking a live model for skin tone reference and a resolution chart (or other chart) behind the person, that can be focused to (to test breathing) all lit with daylight balanced fixtures (indoors) and maybe hang some medium base globes on a wire in front - closest to the lens (for bokeh & flare). Thoughts? Advice? Is this test worth performing? I would like to test consistency through entire focal range of the set along with focus mark accuracy, but I simply do not have enough time and I think there is a lot of that information already out there. Also, I am only testing glass this is in the budget range I work in mostly (no master primes or leica summilux) but I am thinking of testing the fallowing:

Zooms:Optimo 19.5-94mm T2.6
Optimo DP 30-80mm T2.8
Arri Alura 18-80mm T2.6
Cooke 18-100mm MKII T3
RED 18-85mm T2.9
RED Pro 17-50mm T2.9


Primes:
Ultra Primes - 50mm
Super Speeds MKII- 50mm
Standard Speed - 50mm
Zeiss Compact Prime - 50mm
Speed Panchro - 50mm
Cooke S4/i Mini (Uncoated) - 50mm
Cooke S4/i Mini (coated) - 50mm
Cooke S4/i - 50mm
Bausch & Lomb Super Baltar - 50mm
RED Pro Prime - 50mm
LOMO - 50mm

Any input would be greatly appreciated, I thank you for all your contributions to this forum!

Cody
 
David-
Sorry to hear - I'd been looking forward to your event at FilmTools over the weekend but the guys over there told me that you'd had some family stuff going on. That will always be more important than our questions. I'm sure everyone at REDuser will be sending good vibes in your direction.
Best,

-Harry
 
David Mullen ASC said:
I've never used a Leko without a lens, it would just be a bare bulb fixture then and I don't know if the shutter blades would do much to create a nice cut.

Whether you have enough exposure to run at 96 fps at 400 ISO depends on how hot the sunlight effect has to look, with multiple 19 degree Lekos beaming in in parallel rows, maybe, it's sort of a guess until you get there. One Leko trying to fill a window, unlikely.
Click to expand...

Thank you again for your help, David. I'm also very sorry to hear about your family troubles, I hope everything turns out ok. I realize you probably wont be checking the forum for some time, but I wanted you to know how helpful your response and this whole thread has been to shaping the way I work.

Here are some stills from my shoot last weekend, I think the late afternoon/sunset look really played, and my director and client was very happy with it.

http://imgur.com/a/LusjE

Thank you again for all of your help.

Best,
Mark
 
"Real" color of things

"Real" color of things

Greetings Mr. Mullen. Love this thread.

I have the oportunity to grab a Sekonic C-500 color meter. I shot mostly documentary, so, I have this idea of measuring K numbers & footcandles of the most important objects on scene, (grass, sky, etc.) in order to recreate their colors faithfully to reality. Excuse my ignorance, is there a "correct" workflow for this task?. Thanks a lot for your time & for sharing your knowledge with everyone.
 
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