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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 :)

Stay Cool

Monday and Tuesday were spent in Granada Hills shooting in a suburban tract of homes designed by Joseph Eichler in the 1960’s. See:

http://www.eichlersocal.com/

A restored home was chosen for the main character’s house, but we weren’t allowed to shoot the interiors, so we spent the second part of the week shooting on a stage back at Melody Ranch (where we did “Manure”) with the interior recreated, which was tough on our tight budget, since the house is full of glass walls that look out into a hillside and an open atrium. I wanted to light the stage set with daylight fixtures, since the RED camera prefers 5600K, but our budget didn’t allow for that, so I ended up using tungsten spacelights around the set for the daylight effect, plus a 20K and some 12-lights. We did some night exterior work around the real house on Monday and Tuesday night, again lit with 12-lights in a condor with Half Orange for a sodium streetlamp look.

Also on Wednesday night, we did some driving shots near sunset into night around Valencia, and visited a video game arcade for one scene, our last with actors Sean Astin and Josh Holloway. On Thursday, we finished the house scenes with the actors playing the parents, Dee Wallace and Michael Gross.

The RED cameras have continued to perform fine, without problems, even outdoors on fairly hot and sunny days, though we are careful to keep them shaded when working.

Some RED frames (any inconsistencies in black level is more to my lack of skill with Photoshop Elements):

900%20Stay%20Cool%2095.jpg


900%20Stay%20Cool%20108.jpg


900%20Stay%20Cool%20110.jpg


900%20Stay%20Cool%20113.jpg
 
i love davids framing and choice of focal lenghts on the shots.

david you should write a book:

How an artist gets the most out of red--a journey with david mullen...
 
This is very interesting and entertaining David. Thanks for taking the time to post these great journals!
 
I want to see those frames move! Really, thanks for sharing, in depth!

BTW, great choice of stills, you can (almost) feel the vibe.
 
That looks like Dee Wallace Stone from E.T. and maybe Michael Gross from Family Ties? Love this flick's '80s Vibe!

david_coleman.jpg


-Noah
 
David great!

"... orange, yellow) the overall feeling of the picture is warm, floppy poppy ...

Chroma, Intensity or Saturation are words, that are often used, ..."

LINK>>>
 
WEEK FIVE

Monday was a short day; we spent the morning inside a Borders Bookstore shooting under their fluorescent lights, which I augmented with some HMI Source-4’s (gelled to match) bounced into cards. Then we moved across the street into an Italian restaurant and bar to shoot two small scenes, one at a bar (lit with some Kino tubes put behind the bottles on the bar wall, plus a few other Kinos) and one at a dinner table, lit with some tungsten Source-4 bounces and a “Woodylight” (which has four 213 bulbs inside a small Chimera.)

Tuesday involved going back to the stage at Melody Ranch for the last time, to finish a few small bedroom scenes in the main house, plus some bedroom scenes for another house.

Wednesday was a long day… we started at a drugstore, again shooting under their fluorescent lights augmented with some Kinoflos with the same Cool White tubes. Then we moved across town to an outdoor mall to shoot some night exterior scenes, one by a parking spot and another was a big Steadicam walk-n-talk through the mall, lit with some 12-lights, one as a backlight on top of a building, the others coming from the sides through frames of Light Grid Cloth. Then we moved into a restaurant to shoot a romantic dinner scene. I had to quickly light this entire restaurant so I started by swapping all their light bulbs with brighter bulbs. In the background, I hid two 2K Zip lights in the ceiling. The foreground was crosslit by Chimera/Woodylights and some Source-4 bounces. I decided to use some light diffusion for the romantic dating scenes, the #1/8 Classic Black we got for “Manure”.

Thursday and Friday were spent at a suburban tract home where the character played by Winona Ryder lives. We started out by finishing the last scene of the movie, started here two weeks ago as the sun was dropping. We started an hour earlier than before and I used a Half Soft Frost over Winona, who was facing the setting sun. In her closest, tightest angle, I flagged off the silked sunlight and lit her with a diffused 18K gelled to match the setting sun. Then we flipped around and I shot Mark Polish’s coverage (backlit) as the sun dropped lower; I just used some white cards for fill. So we managed to get all the coverage of the scene in the late afternoon light we needed.

Then we did some night exterior work in front of the house, lit from a condor with a 12-light with Half Orange to create a sodium vapor streetlamp look. After that, we moved inside for some dialogue scenes.

Friday had more night exterior scenes in front of the house, one involving a monster pick-up truck with powerful spotlights on it shining onto the house. Then we did some camera car work, towing an SUV in circles around an unlit neighborhood. Because we were driving through blocks of a tract home area lit with only a few sodium streetlamps, I decided to boost the camera to 640 ASA and use some Master Primes at T/1.3 to capture as much available light as I could. I lit the car itself with a Kino Miniflo taped to the dashboard, and then the grips mounted some speed rail off of the roof so I could shine a 1K Zip light through the side windows, plus a 1K fresnel armed off of the camera car shining through the front windshield. These lights were gelled with Half Orange, 216, plus ND.60 gel to knock their intensity down, and then they were run through a small dimmer box so we could fade them up and down individually as if we were passing lights outside the car. This was all kept pretty dim to match the ambient sodium streetlamp level. At 640 ASA with fairly dark footage, and the camera set to 3400K, there was some blue channel noise over the image that I will have to diminish later in post. But at least we got the sense of driving through a dark neighborhood at night.

Three days left, all night work.

Some RED frames:

900%20Stay%20Cool%20127.jpg


900%20Stay%20Cool%20140.jpg


900%20Stay%20Cool%20141.jpg
 
David: What are the basic settings you are using on the Red (ie. iso, shutter angle, color space, 2:1 protecting for 2.40). Thanks.

Nick.
 
Normally I'm at 320 ASA with a 180 degree shutter (1/48th).

The night exterior scenes though have been at a variety of ASA ratings, depending on how much light I have, and often with a 270 degree shutter (1/32nd). The night scenes above were at 400 ASA, for example, even for the restaurant.

Last Friday night I was at 320 ASA for a night scene in front of the house, then 640 ASA for available light driving shots, then at 500 ASA for when the car pulls over to the side of the road where I could add some lights for the street.

I often shoot tungsten interiors with the camera set to 3400K or 3700K for a warmer look.
 
Are the colors of the photos shifted a bit or is she really drinking some purple wine? Or is this one of your Art Director's color palette tricks again, like the grey ketchup bottles in Northfork?
 
Thought you guys were going for some kind of effect. It certainly appears to be quite a vibrant color palate for this one.
 
I think a lot of people forget how much the art department can impact the "look" of a movie. While it's obvious that Mr. Mullen is having fun with the color of his backlights, etc., you can also tell that vibrant pallet is also a major contribution from the art department and wardrobe: the primary red color of the patch on Polish's jacket at the bar (which compliments the primary red color of the candle holder); Polish's deep blue cardigan; Ryder's deep red blouse; the interior design of the house; etc.

Very very well done, well incorporated, and perfectly complimented by Mullen's impeccable lighting.
 
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