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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

David Mullen ASC said:
I've seen 2nd Unit DP's take a 4' slider out on location to do tiny moves on establishing shots and inserts, which adds some production value without a dolly.
Click to expand...

Thanks David.
I used a slider yesterday for what would probably be a fisher dolly shot (booming up). Worked great. I'm really going to get me one of those. Much easier and faster to set up than a dolly when you don't need that much travel.
 
quick question... after reading this ... I have to export about an hours worth of footage that is red 4k and export it on a dvd... what is the easiest way to do that??? i use final cut and have little knowledge of this red technology... It's already all on an external hd I just need to bring in all the files into final cut, but wondering what the best settings are and how to minimize the file size so that it could all fit in a dvd...
anyone have time to help a newbie out?!
 
I don't know the specifics of the post path to getting RED footage onto DVD, other than you'll want to downconvert the footage to 480P if this is for NTSC countries.

Most hot food, food in general, is softly backlit to create a sheen over the surface of the food, plus the backlighting will highlight the steam from the hot food. But it's more complicated than a simple soft backlight... you may want a soft side key, or a soft top light, you may want tiny hot spots on parts of the frame, etc.
 
rice is tricky, the most important part is to not blow it out. I like to use a soft fill with a harder raking light to bring out the texture. It depends a lot on what is next to the rice.
Aloha
-A
 
Jieva@jievamulokas.com said:
i use final cut and have little knowledge of this red technology... It's already all on an external hd I just need to bring in all the files into final cut, but wondering what the best settings are and how to minimize the file size so that it could all fit in a dvd...
anyone have time to help a newbie out?!
Click to expand...

Sounds like you have R3D media to burn onto DVD's for dailies? If so, the quickiest way I'd think is to drop the _P proxies onto FCP timeline, convert it into MPEG-2 using Compressor's DVD setting, and burn that MPEG-2 onto DVD's through DVD Studio Pro.

If you want a bit of quality though, I'd use _M proxies instead.

Hope this helps.
 
Thanks David and Poi Boi. I'm also going to research the internet but if you already know a site that can help me understand how to light rice in detail then kindly let me know.

Really appreciate your assistance. I love this forum.
 
Hi David,
I am in in process of shooting a film about winemaking and will be filming a series of interviews with winemakers, and I am curious to how you would light some of the interviews.

I am building my light kit up, so feel free to suggest any additional lights that you would recommend in a somewhat limited budget.

What I have so far and plan on bringing to light the interviews are the following:
1x Kino 4 by 4' bank (with tungsten and Daylight tubes)
2 x Dedo 150W
1x China Lantern w/100W
1 x Pepper 250w
- a few light stands, c-stands, bounce boards, negative fill, and other usual odds and ends.

I plan on shooting a lot of the interviews in the barrel rooms, as well as outside in vineyard.

Primarily my curiosity is in how you would choose to light an interview taking place in a wine barrel room.

For the barrel rooms, I was planning on using the Kino 4 bank as the key, Either the pepper light, or one of the Dedos as a rim/hair light, the second dedo perhaps slashing a bit of light on some of the barrels in background, maybe putting a straw gel on the dedo for a little color warmth on the barrels.

Would you recommend do anything else, or other creative ideas? Do I have enough lights in the kit I have so far, or would you recommend getting/renting anything else? Would you leave anything behind in the kit I mentioned (I would prefer to carry around the least amount of gear as possible)

Thanks in advance David, you are a great resource to have here, and I greatly appreciate your advice!
 
Seems like enough to shoot a talking head in a wine room. I'd probably want to also take a brighter tungsten lamp for bouncing, like a 650w open face. But you can get by with what you listed and do some nice close-up lighting.

I'd also consider bringing in some other wattage bulbs for your Chinese lantern, both lower and higher than 100w.
 
Thanks David. And what is your opinion on those Dedos? Have you ever used them with the projection attachment? Do you know of any difference between the DLH4 (with the corded power supply) and the DLHM (the on-board dimmer version)?
 
Usually the 150w Dedos come in a kit of three with the ballast, and the 100w Dedos in a kit of four.

Can't recall specifically any differences between the Dedos with the dimmer and the other.

I've only used the Dedo projector attachments for product photography (putting a spot on a tiny label) or putting a slash of light in someone's eyes.
 
Deanan said:
I've seen a couple of cases of customer footage regarding this and in each case it was because WB was set too high or too low. White balancing to something white in the shot fixed the balance.
Click to expand...

Should you always white balance to every scene or can you just keep it at 5600 (that's the optimum for Red, right?)
 
Mr. Mullen,
I have a question about Agfa stocks. You recently answered a question I had about it in a separate thread. In the other thread you said that to make Agfa look good, it must be overexposed. If I understand correctly, film is exposed for 50% gray and digital aquisition is exposed for the highlights. My question is, how do you expose to get the buttery highlight roll offs with RED cameras? I really like the over exposed and pull-processed look of XT-320. I would like to know what I need to do in aquisition to fully pull off this look in post. Thanks in advance.
 
No, I haven't used the Kino VistaBeam yet.

---

Agfa was a rather soft, grainy, milky stock and overexposing and printing down helped counteract that by making the blacks blacker and the grain tighter. It had a wide overexposure latitude so it was not a problem rating it slower.

With any digital camera, if you want more highlight range, you need to expose less, not more, and use knee compression (in post color-correction, in the case of a RAW REDCODE recording) to roll-off the highlights as they get hotter. The trick is to not get too much noise.

A little bit of contrast-lowering lens diffusion may help in getting this creamier Agfa feeling.
 
David,
I have 2 red cameras for a feature shoot and I am trying to make the most out of an 18 day shooting budget. How would you best use 2 cameras on a low budget shoot?
 
If you're not comfortable with two-camera shooting, I'd keep it simple. First of all, don't screw the sound guy nor the DP by trying to shoot wide and tight simultaneously, except when it would involve no compromises in sound, light, or composition, or when it is necessary (like to cover a stunt). Generally, stick to using the two cameras when they lend themselves to getting two sizes of the same action, for cutting, like a medium and a close-up, or a wide shot and a medium shot, etc. And don't force it -- you don't want to take more time setting up two cameras when you could shoot one camera and change lenses faster for a tighter shot. Plus too much two camera shooting and you'll generate miles and miles of footage to process, log, sync, etc.

I'd carefully plan your shoot with shot lists and/or storyboards, mainly for one camera, and then use the second camera when it comes in handy. Also, be prepared to send off the second camera crew to grab establishing shots, sunsets, missing insert shots, etc.

Two-camera shooting lends itself to longer lenses -- it's hard to work the camera up close to actors with a wide-angle lens and manage to fit a second camera in there, unless it is at a right-angle to the first camera.
 
Hi David

Fantastic thread. I've learnt more from this thread than any other so thank you.

I wanted to know how you might approach this scene which I am due to shoot soon. It's supposed to be a shed/garage full of junk and dust, lit by one window other than when the door is opened and closed opposite the window. A man sits in a wheelchair, his back to the sunlit window and face in almost darkness. A small girl enters and goes to her treasure chest of junk she's collected from the beach and is initially surprised by him then has a conversation. On a key piece of dialogue something she holds which has a shiny reflective surface reflects on his face/eyes revealing them for the first time. A second scene in the shed/garage is more blue balanced for later in the story day and less directional light coming from the window. We are shooting with a Red One.

I thought this scene, even though daytime, might be more controllable if it were shot at night using a single source outside for the window/sunlight and then whatever inside for reflectd light and ambient. As usual we are on a tight budget but is shooting this at night a good idea and what lighting set up might you use?

Thanks again.
 
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