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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

Greetings redusers...

David and Tom, I really enjoy checking on this thread so again thanks for keeping up. I am recently jonsing for some good foreign cinema, I think I am just a tad bit burnt out on HUGE summer blockbusters with insanely bloated budgets. So can anyone please recommend a lower budget title you may have recently stumbled on that focuses more on story and cinematography. I have so been busy that I feel a few good movies are slipping pass me, and I trust many of your opinions.

I would like to see Millennium Mambo Tom, even just for the cinematography…those stills are quite captivating and you mentioned it had a limited budget. It's just those lower budget titles tend to yield a very creative result cause the artist and story tellers are forced to problem solve creatively when they are financially tapped. Got to love being resourceful when its in your favor.

Best
 
Well, if that's all you've got, I guess you'll be shooting in short bursts and recycling the same lit area over and over again...

I've also strung Chinese Lantern with blue bulbs (either blue photofloods or compact flos) in them for soft moonlight in the woods.
 
This is not a foreign film, at least to Americans, but I would highly recommend "The Astronaut Farmer."

It is a small story where the cinematography plays an vital role by making every scene beautiful and poignant. The landscapes and scenery shots create the warm feeling of "home" while the principle photography works to reveal subtle character and personality without getting in the way.

There is so much variety of shots it could be used as a primer for cinematography techniques.

The story is great, the acting makes it come alive, and the cimematography takes it to the level of a great American movie.

Many thanks to David for his great work and sharing his mana'o (knowledge) with us all.

Aloha,

Keith
 
JasonMurphy said:
Just FYI, though, while the cinematography for The Puppetmaster is breathtaking, the DVD is one of the worst transfers I've ever seen. Pan and Scan, greenish, poorly digitally manipulated, and way too contrasty.

Li Pin-Bing is amazing, though. Everyone interested in cinematography should look at some of the work he's done.
Click to expand...

OMFG, you were not kidding. I just got the DVD from netfilx and it is easily the worst DVD transfer in world history. This make VHS look like 1080. :waaa:

I cannot dishonor the movie by watching this version, so I'm sending it back.
 
Hi David,
I got to watch Astronaut Farmer last night. What a fun movie! I got a kick out of the outtakes as well. When they were throwing the brick through the breakaway glass that wouldn't break, "arnold" wasn't even at the desk. How do you plan a shot like that? Was this a full scale rocket model in the barn? What was your biggest challenge with this movie? (Besides keeping Virginia from laughing)
 
The brick toss was shot as a split screen, except for the fact that the brick failed to break the window the first time (we used real glass, since the actor was not in the room when we shot that half of the split.)

Trouble was that the brick and flying glass cross the vertical split, so some roto work was done to keep the desk top from the original take with the smashing glass and bouncing brick, and have the actor above the desktop edge in the split screen. Sort of an L-shape split screen I guess...

The rocket was built full-size in the barn set (also built.) The house next to the barn was a modified structure already there from some previous commercials and features shot on that ranch.
 
David,
I made another thread regarding this.. but I would like to hear from you..
As a non-union, fresh out of school, indi cinematographer/co, there are Many things I am unsure of.
One happens to be health care for independent contracted film makers. Since I do not plan to work for a network, I figure I should figure this out asap!

Do the unions have health care coverage? how does it work? Or do you basically have to take care of it all on your own? Is your family covered? How much does this cost?
 
When I was non-union, I was covered by my wife's healthcare from her job. Now that I'm in the union (IATSE) I have a pretty good healthplan. But I have to work a certain number of hours per year doing union work to keep my access up -- I can also "bank" a certain number of hours when times are good to cover the slow periods.
 
Healthcare

Healthcare

zakaree said:
David,
I made another thread regarding this.. but I would like to hear from you..
As a non-union, fresh out of school, indi cinematographer/co, there are Many things I am unsure of.
One happens to be health care for independent contracted film makers. Since I do not plan to work for a network, I figure I should figure this out asap!

Do the unions have health care coverage? how does it work? Or do you basically have to take care of it all on your own? Is your family covered? How much does this cost?
Click to expand...

Don't want to start a firestorm, but maybe that universal health care thing wouldn't be so bad?
 
Hi David,

I actually had a question for you in regards to another thread.

The topic: "Monitor Output Color Correction":

http://www.reduser.net/forum/showthread.php?t=3238

Would you mind taking a look and giving me your feedback of what you think of the potential of these features RED will offer. And perhaps how you might use this flexibility during production or even on-set?

I suppose you could answer here or there?

thanks for your time,
 
I don't really have much to add other than it's a good idea, especially if you are going for a stylized look. Since I shoot mainly features, I know there will be a shot-to-shot final color-correction, so I don't like to spend much set time dealing with color-correction. So I'd probably set a few basic looks for the whole show rather than get too fancy.
 
OK, thanks you for the response, though. I think perhaps other forms of production might take advantage of this more so than narrative cinema. It's going to be fun watching how different projects use the RED One's features in different ways.
 
David,

I recently went full time freelance. I have a big network client I'm shooting 3 commercials for using my Andromeda system. I found out today that they would like to have control over the color correction. I'm not too sure of how I should feel about that, as I've always supervised color correction, in fact I'm usually the guy who does it. A big part of how I shoot is based on how the image will be manipulated in post. Do you ever run into this kind of situation? How do you deal with that?

Thanks!
 
I've talked to some top commercial DP's and they tell me that even after they do their final color-correction, the client often goes back to the original and re-color-corrects it their own way. So I guess it's something that you have to deal with -- they are paying a lot of money for a product, so there are limits to how much you can claim artistic authorship over the image. With narrative work, there's a little more leeway traditionally given to the director and DP in terms of color-correcting the image to their aesthetic intent, but even there, you can run into interference from producers, distributors, etc.
 
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