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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

Hi David,

I'd love to hear your thoughts on how you might approach this really tight situation I encountered recently. Needing to light over eight actors, all in a small rectangular basement (meant to be a dungeon) with a very low ceiling, the camera sees three of the walls, rotating around the actors, while one of the walls has a window that reflects any lights placed on the opposite end. What I did was place a diffused led fresnel from one side of the room that the camera does not see, and fill from the other.

But I'm wondering if there's a completely different way to address this. Ofcourse, there are other scenes that dictate lighting continuity, but ignoring that for the moment, curious to know what kind of angles of attack are possible here. Low, low budget shoot, with just some LED panels, led fresnels, diffusion, gels, flags, etc. But open to renting specific lights if that could help the situation.

Not looking for specific solves, just general thoughts on angles of attack. Thanks in advance!

Nikhil
 
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David Mullen ASC said:
What I use for a key partly depends on how close the actors are to the windows where the lights outside might be doing a lot of the work, but when the actors are more in the middle of the room, most of the time I use a Litemat for the key, maybe through a diffusion frame. Sometimes I bounce a tungsten lamp, especially for a ceiling top light effect.
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Thanks. I binged s 1 + 2 and was floored by the photography and design. IMO the most beautiful show on TV. I had to IMDB your name to find out who was the DP. Luckily found this thread. Thanks for your willingness to share.
 
It's hard to say how I'd light a space that I haven't seen. You generally have two choices in a situation like that -- one is to light completely from the sources in the frame (like the window), and add a working practical where you need more light. If a source is reflected, then it's a justifiable, real reflection. The other would be to add a flat LED overhead light to the ceiling and hide it from camera, maybe with the help of a fake beam or something.
 
David Mullen ASC said:
What I use for a key partly depends on how close the actors are to the windows where the lights outside might be doing a lot of the work, but when the actors are more in the middle of the room, most of the time I use a Litemat for the key, maybe through a diffusion frame. Sometimes I bounce a tungsten lamp, especially for a ceiling top light effect.
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So helpful! What do you find is the most flexible/versatile litemat?
 
Thanks for the reply. Interesting that it's still about finding that spine in the script. I feel like I need to dig a little deeper when making some of my early choices. Often it's just "how can I make it look as good as I can, as quickly as I can, with the limited gear and labor I have on hand."
 
David Mullen ASC said:
It's hard to say how I'd light a space that I haven't seen. You generally have two choices in a situation like that -- one is to light completely from the sources in the frame (like the window), and add a working practical where you need more light. If a source is reflected, then it's a justifiable, real reflection. The other would be to add a flat LED overhead light to the ceiling and hide it from camera, maybe with the help of a fake beam or something.
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Thanks David! I hadn't thought of hiding the overhead light with a fake beam or something along those lines! Hoping to try this out soon-ish. Thanks for the advice!
 
Ryan Purcell said:
Thanks for the reply. Interesting that it's still about finding that spine in the script. I feel like I need to dig a little deeper when making some of my early choices. Often it's just "how can I make it look as good as I can, as quickly as I can, with the limited gear and labor I have on hand."
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I started out thinking that way too, I thought filmmaking was about making shots as cool and interesting as possible. Then I got to film school and one of my professors was director Alexander Mackendrick (The Ladykillers, Sweet Smell of Success, The Man in the White Suit) and he impressed on us that every choice as to camera position, movement, lighting, etc. was driven by story and character first -- you had to break down a scene to find which character had the key moment of dramatic change in it that propelled the narrative to the next scene, and then you had to shoot the scene to make that moment clear. It all boiled down to "why is this scene in the script?" Once you understood the intent of the scene, it helped you figure out how to shoot the scene. Of course, there are aesthetic choices involved too that are more about creating mood or making the cast look good, but even those decisions were usually in service of the story.

Unfortunately once I got out of film school, I shot any number of movies that were badly written so that scenes existed that had no point, or just had exposition with no drama, etc. Then you end up just trying to make them look "cool" in the hopes that eye candy would make up for the dramatic deficits. Not ideal and you end up with a lot of bad habits in terms of creating style for style's sake. Sometimes the director would say "this scene is boring, we have to shoot it in an exciting way" and I'd wonder why we didn't first rewrite the scene so that it wasn't boring!
 
Hi David, can you discuss how you work lighting for specific ratios or highlight/shadow exposures, in relation to recording raw or log? Are you still able to meter for this or are you more likely to use a waveform on the LUT?

and again, immense thanks to you for giving so much to the filmmaker community.
 
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David, forgive my interjection, but I just want to follow up your post about MacKendrick to recommend his book: “On Making Film - An introduction to the Craft of the Director.” I have read it countless times. In fact the post above prompted me to take it out and read it again. It is full of insight. It must have been a real pleasure to study with him.
 
I usually just light to the DIT monitor with a display LUT applied, and now and then I ask the DIT to show me the log image to see where things are clipping. There is a waveform also that I can look at. I tend to only meter when I'm pre-lighting before the camera is set-up or for a long Steadicam shot moving through multiple rooms and I need to rough in the same level room to room, and even then, it's just a starting point until I see it on the monitors.
 
in pre-lgiht , do you adjust your meter's ISO for the difference in Log gamma, or do you just know how many footcandles you need for your base exposure?
I like to use a light meter, but I still don't have a great system for translating it to log or Raw.
 
Isn’t the point of log or raw to not adjust your exposure for them but to expose within the narrower range of the display gamma, knowing you have the extra information later in post to play with from log or raw?

I think of raw like I do color negative -- I can only judge the results when it has been transformed to a positive image, particularly on a print.
 
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that's kind of how I do it, treating the extra latitude as a bonus. Just had the feeling that I should be able to predict the exact brightnesses before I got to the LUTed monitor. I see what you mean though. Thanks again for the insight.
 
Chad Lancaster said:
Now that the Criterion channel is online..any suggestions on hidden gems to watch?
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yes... EVERYTHING ;-)

obviously "hidden gems" refers to what u've not seen yet... impossible to know w/ almost 1,000 titles in the collection

but, as a starter in regards to visuals, especially if u're American (assumed less exposure to non-American productions)... everything from

1) Fellini - although "Casanova" is not on the list and that is an extraordinary piece... exposure, camera, sets, costumes, color, film aesthetics... the remastered blu-ray is pristine
2) Fritz Lang - "M" is one of the best movies ever made - look what he does with the camera, w/ none of these new gimmicks
3) Kurosawa... black & white contrast and tone curve perfected

...
 
Hello there David!

I had a question if you don't mind.
I was thinking of having an experiment in which I try to replicate certain filming conditions of a Show and could use some advice.

Essentially I wish to film in 3200k in daylight exteriors and want to convert that to +-5600k.
Supposedly it gives the footage a cooler feel than just shooting in 5600K.

Here's my question, what filter or filters would you use to achieve this transformation?

Thank you for your time and have a nice weekend!
 
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