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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

daytime exterior

daytime exterior

hi david,

hope you're staying safe inside. seems like a good time for being online and continuing discussions and questions.

i'm curious, if you're in a situation in a daytime exterior (on a sunny day) setting where you can't just bring a flyswatter in to cut down the sun, how do you deal with a bounce to counteract the very hot sun. it seems when the sun is super hot on the talent, and you need a lot of fill out of a bounce, you have to walk it in relatively close to get enough out of it, and then the actor has trouble with such a bright bounce that they have to squint their eyes... obviously that's an issue, and you have to walk the bounce back or make it more side-y.
so just curious how you deal with this issue.

thanks so much for having yourself available as always.
 
it's easy to overdo the fill outside, I don't think you need it a lot of the times. I often use a Day Blue Muslin or I put a Single Net scrim over a white bounce to knock it down, and usually an actor is OK with that level. But if an actor is standing in full sunlight, they might be squinting no matter what.
 
Daniel Porto said:
Hi David,

How would I achieve lighting like this shot... I like the bulbs color, the overall color of the light coming in the windows aswell. What color temp would the camera need to be as well?

https://film-grab.com/2010/08/16/there-will-be-blood/#bwg1704/106259
Click to expand...

Depends on whether you were lighting a set or working on location with real daylight. If that's real daylight (I assume) then I'd probably set the camera to around 3700K to 4000K to get that cold cast. The tungsten wall sconces would be dimmed down for even more warmth. The movie was shot on film so I assume 3200K stock without a correction filter.
 
David Mullen ASC said:
Depends on whether you were lighting a set or working on location with real daylight. If that's real daylight (I assume) then I'd probably set the camera to around 3700K to 4000K to get that cold cast. The tungsten wall sconces would be dimmed down for even more warmth. The movie was shot on film so I assume 3200K stock without a correction filter.
Click to expand...

THanks David! Just to confirm, was it 3200K stock with or without a correction filter? I think you meant with. thanks
 
I was thinking, shoot daylight stock and full blue gel on the HMIs coming in the windows...
 
Hi David,

Just curious, I might have a shoot in the future dealing with showing a still camera flash going off a few times. I know there's some weird artifact-ing that happens because of how quick the digital shutter on new still cameras is in comparison to the 24fps of the film camera. Besides old style flash bulbs and lighting strike units off screen, is there any other way to deal with this? Just the mole-richardson shutters? And if you're looking at the still camera flash itself, does that just have to be done in post?

Thanks,
- dan
 
You didn't say which camera you'll be shooting with, but two ideas:
1) Fake it with the "flash" coming from off-camera with something you can control the flash duration with(like a Gemini) to make it slow enough so you don't experience flash-banding
or
2) For those specific shots, use a camera with global shutter(like F55 or F35[CCD]) or mechanical shutter(like Alexa Studio or F65).
 
Shooting with the Epic-W (weapon). And I guess they're using a polaroid camera. Does anyone know whether those flashes would create banding? Originally i thought it would be a newer digital camera.
 
But back to your answer David. Don't the general DJ LED strobes go too fast for a film camera? I don't know of any film rental houses with LED strobes. Do those exist?

Thanks
 
It's not the speed so much as speed PLUS the decay time -- and I'm not sure every club uses LED for strobes.

All of this pretty much means you have to test in advance. Otherwise, use a global shutter camera for those shots (which I guess means a Sony F55, I don't know who else is using a global shutter.)

Sure, there must be lighting rental houses with LED strobes -- they used them on "Straight Out of Compton" (shot on a Dragon)... I've been shooting a series set in 1959-60 for the past three years so haven't had to deal with electronic flashes or strobes for awhile.
 
After reading the screenplay, i finally decided to watch JB, I know its an old movie of yours but I couldnt pay attention to what's going on in the movie because of your cinematography hahahaha. Im going to go through 590 pages here to see if you shared some lighting set ups. I absolutely loved the look, reminded me of classic thriller/horrror films. Did you add more blue to the HMI'S used for the "moon light"? I absolutely love that type of moonlight color. Did it look like that in camera or was it pushed in post? Sorry if its asked before. Thank you
 
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I am not sure whether the ancestor camera of the BM "big" URSA camera, the original BM 4K cinema production camera has global shutter. The "big" URSA versions one and two are global shutter cameras. The first URSA Mini 4K also had global shutter. Those cameras used a sensor which was either actually or related to the Cmosis CMV 12000 sensor. I think on thae first 4K URSA Mini camera there was a choice of global for normal frame rates and rolling shutter for faster frame rates but I am not sure. The later BM cameras from the 4.6K mini onwards are rolling shutter only. As I understand things, for the movie "Paper Planes", BM4K footage was cut in with Red Epic and Arri Alexa footage and looked fine. A used BM 4K cinema production cameras may be affordable to buy in for the job then resell afterwards.
 
We did a digital intermediate for "Jennifer's Body" but there wasn't any unusual look created in post, most of the look was production design and lighting -- as the story went on, I tried to introduce more classic 80's horror film lighting touches. Moonlight was mainly uncorrected HMI, sometimes a bit of the blue taken off (1/4 CTS), sometimes a bit of green added I think (1/4 Plus Green).

The only digital look we created was in some of Megan Fox's close-ups after she had "fed" and gotten more glamorous, we did a little skin-smoothing.
 
Hey David,

I binged my way through Marvellous Mrs. Maisel recently (and just loved it), and there was one scene in particular that did pull me out of the show a bit because I just HAD to know how you did it. There was a scene, set at night (in Central Park I think) where Joel and Archie are smashing baseballs towards the camera. How was that done? Was it shot for real and the camera + operator tucked behind a perspex shield? Or were the balls added in VFX?

Cheers
 
Robert Hart said:
I am not sure whether the ancestor camera of the BM "big" URSA camera, the original BM 4K cinema production camera has global shutter. The "big" URSA versions one and two are global shutter cameras. The first URSA Mini 4K also had global shutter. Those cameras used a sensor which was either actually or related to the Cmosis CMV 12000 sensor. I think on thae first 4K URSA Mini camera there was a choice of global for normal frame rates and rolling shutter for faster frame rates but I am not sure. The later BM cameras from the 4.6K mini onwards are rolling shutter only. As I understand things, for the movie "Paper Planes", BM4K footage was cut in with Red Epic and Arri Alexa footage and looked fine. A used BM 4K cinema production cameras may be affordable to buy in for the job then resell afterwards.
Click to expand...

The AJA CION used the Cmosis sensor and is global shutter. Of that generation I think it had the best IQ once they got their color science sorted, but a bit more limited dynamic range overall.
 
We used foam baseballs but some were changed in post. I think at some points when the camera got too close to being hit, they mimed the hit (they deliberately missed the ball) and I think a few times they accidentally missed and the ball hit was added.
 
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