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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 :)

Manure

David definitely amazes me every day...
 
David,
once your diary comes to an end, it would be fantastic to collect it in a PDF and give it also to AC and other magazines for download. This is so great, it should go over the borders of the Red forum. I´m sure, not only students, also professionals would be happy to get this input! IMO you´re the first one who explore the digital cinema according to its own pure possible aesthetic (and not in comparison to film).
Thank you so much!
Marc
 
Great info David! And wow, June 26th is also my birthday, though I wish I had celebrated mine in as creative an evironment as you did yours!
 
marcb said:
David,
once your diary comes to an end, it would be fantastic to collect it in a PDF and give it also to AC and other magazines for download. This is so great, it should go over the borders of the Red forum. I´m sure, not only students, also professionals would be happy to get this input! IMO you´re the first one who explore the digital cinema according to its own pure possible aesthetic (and not in comparison to film).
Thank you so much!
Marc
Click to expand...

I've been doing this - the .pdf is over 50 pages so far. I've included almost all of David's posts and the photos as well - so if you want it David, let me know. I'll send it right over.
 
David, are the backdrops all front lit? I also noticed that you had talked about blanket lights for overhead ambient and HMI balloons for the backdrops, but then I saw you talking about lumapanels and HMI goyas. Were these different stages or did you change your setups due to budget or preference?
 
Yes, the cycs are all front-lit canvas paintings, they are not translights.

In the main Stage C, where the landscapes and farms are, I have Kino blanket lights, some HMI balloons along two sides, and some 12-lights (tungsten) and 18K HMI's hung from ropes near the top. I also hit the backing with HMI's (18K's, 6K's, whatever is left) from stands on the off-camera sides, flagged off of the ground.

In the smaller Stage B, where we built hotels, diners, etc. we have Lumapanels hung, plus some Goya HMI lights as cyc lights. I took two Goyas though and at some point, added one for each corner of Stage C, plus a 4K HMI in between, to light the far stretch of wall that I constantly was pointing at. So when I moved to Stage B, I often had to take down those Goyas and move them, re-rig them.
 
Great work David, the re-shot master definitely has more depth and ambience to it, the haze is really the icing on the cake as well.

Looks like you switched out backdrop too.
 
No, it's the same backdrop (you can see some of the same clouds if you look), just that once a week or so, a painter came in and made some changes.

I only posted the photos not to say that there was something wrong with the more stylized early version compared to the more realistic later version, just that when you shoot a movie quickly, basically shooting five minutes of scenes every day, some aspects of the look get established right away while other aspects change as you learn more and more everyday -- the learning curve is steeper than on a long shoot with a long preproduction period where the look is locked in early through elaborate testing.

This movie was a bit of an experiment, most indie films of this budget level do not attempt this degree of stylization through art direction and lighting (maybe for an obvious reason, because it's really hard work!) But it's been fun to get this challenge and opportunity and I think the movie has turned out to be really unique and special.
 
It's wonderful, David.

I like the reshot frame better. It does look more "real", and I think that a big reason for this is that you punched up the sky considerably, to the point that the clouds are not as defined. One might say that this mimics the blown out look one would get by shooting in a real field, as the contrast range would be much more extreme there. So it's interesting to me that you have achieved a greater sense of "realness" by pushing the look into something that so many on this site have worried about: the so called limited range of the camera! Of course, 35mm color negative reacts this way as well.

Thanks so much for your openness and please know that I am quite stunned by your work.
 
David, just like everybody on this board just blown away by the creativity and the openness of your comments.

I have a question on "The Astronaut Farmer". The scene where they bury the grandfather there is a beautuful shot of the people on the graveyard. Is that backdrop a real open ground or a backgroud image on a sound stage like you have in the opening scene of Manure. Just curious.

thanks,

-Krish
 
Hey David,

I stumbled upon this thread recently and its good to see you are still up to big things.
Its been quite a road since INFESTED.
I have been shooting with the RED regularly since Offhollywood got their first 2 cameras, #6 and #7.
Check out some of my work at: www.red-shooter.com
or:
www.przypek.com
the compression and grading are a bit all over the place as I'm still a newbie
in those areas.
Any comments would be appreciated.

All the best,

BP
 
David Mullen ASC said:
Yes, the cycs are all front-lit canvas paintings, they are not translights.

In the main Stage C, where the landscapes and farms are, I have Kino blanket lights, some HMI balloons along two sides, and some 12-lights (tungsten) and 18K HMI's hung from ropes near the top. I also hit the backing with HMI's (18K's, 6K's, whatever is left) from stands on the off-camera sides, flagged off of the ground.

In the smaller Stage B, where we built hotels, diners, etc. we have Lumapanels hung, plus some Goya HMI lights as cyc lights. I took two Goyas though and at some point, added one for each corner of Stage C, plus a 4K HMI in between, to light the far stretch of wall that I constantly was pointing at. So when I moved to Stage B, I often had to take down those Goyas and move them, re-rig them.
Click to expand...
hi David,
thank you for this thread. Its a TEXTBOOK!
i'm curious about the dimensions of your main stage and about the height of your lighting grid.
Many Thanks
 
krisrajan said:
I have a question on "The Astronaut Farmer". The scene where they bury the grandfather there is a beautuful shot of the people on the graveyard. Is that backdrop a real open ground or a backgroud image on a sound stage like you have in the opening scene of Manure. Just curious.
Click to expand...

You mean this scene?
af11.jpg


That's God working in my favor that day, outside. But it is an example of minimal but clever art direction (a few headstones placed on top of a hill at sunset for a silhouette effect, giving the impression of a whole cemetary.)
 
David Mullen ASC said:
You mean this scene?
af11.jpg


That's God working in my favor that day, outside. But it is an example of minimal but clever art direction (a few headstones placed on top of a hill at sunset for a silhouette effect, giving the impression of a whole cemetary.)
Click to expand...

thanks David, yes that is the one. its absolutely breathtaking!

I have a kinda silly question. How do you decide that a scene for example like the one above should be staged real and not on a sound stage. In other words when you do the pre-production do you get to the detail of each and every single shot and where its going to be staged or do you sometime feel your way through depending on the location.

My appologies if some of these are really silly amature questions.

thanks,

-Krish
 
David, this thread is both inspirational and educational. Thank you for taking the time to post your experiences. The stills look beautiful, and I can't wait to see the finished film.

I second Mark's statement, that one of his goals in life is to work with you someday.
 
Normally a day exterior scene would be shot outdoors, so it's rare to fake that inside because it is so difficult to be convincing. On "Big Love", we did the backyard scenes under a soundstage, day and night, because it allowed the actors to move freely from house to house by way of the backyard, a scenario that did not exist in any real locations that could be found. And while one could have shot these houses on an exterior studio backlot (as "Desperate Housewives" does) and gotten real sunlight, the downside is the lack of flexibility in shooting schedules, which is tough for television work.

But beyond that, the real question should be "what works better for the project?" when trying to decide whether to build a set or not. Both creatively and logistically, financially.

Generally daytime wooded scenes are a lot easier to fake on a soundstage than a scene that takes place in open space with a lot of sky, because it is so hard to fake a single sunlight source over a large area. With a wooded set, or a jungle set, multiple spotlights punching through the tree canopy can simulate the real sun more easily, plus you have less sky to fake.
 
Hi David, Amazing stuff, I have a question if you don't mind,
where do you get your filmouts done?

Regards Stricko
 
David-

Now that Manure is pretty close to done, will we see a new thread on your second RED project with the Polish Brothers?

Noah
 
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