Ask David Mullen ANYTHING

[Carlos Reyes]

Thank you for the reply much appreciated

[Adrian T.]

Wow, what a great list of cinematic masterpieces!
I would love to see your picks of the 2000's too.

[Kemalettin Sert]

thank you so much for the list David.Its mainly Hollywood based list can you add bit more from european and world cinema?

[David Mullen ASC]

thank you so much for the list David.Its mainly Hollywood based list can you add bit more from european and world cinema?

It's a personal list of favorites based on what I've seen, if I saw a foreign film and was captivated by the cinematography, it would probably be on the list already. I just haven't seen enough foreign movies!

Also, I did the list several years ago and I've seen more films since then, but I don't think the list would change radically. I'd probably add Tarkovsky's "Nostalghia" to the 1980's list now, for example.

It's Hollywood-based because I grew up in the U.S. and am Hollywood-based. It's the cinema of my country, why shouldn't I like it?

[Ryan Skeete]

This was a list I made several years ago, it's a good starting point. I just now put an asterix next to some movies in particular that you should watch.

David, thanks for providing that list!! Looking forward to your picks for the 2000's as well. Maybe someone on reduser with a bunch of time on their hands, can list the cinematographer of each film on the list, so one can easily sort the list based on the DP. Might make for a great learning resource for aspiring DP's on this forum.

[juliensees]

Hi David,

I have an upcoming shoot that takes place at night in the woods and by a lake. My initial thought is to bounce a 2.5kw or 4k into an 8x with a cuccoloris of some kind in front. And then to have two 1.2kw pars to illuminate parts of the background to at least give it some depth. My one worry is that the location (which I'm hoping to see next week) is much more claustrophobic in terms of trees, and thus I won't have the space to bounce the hmi into an 8x. Besides going direct (with at least a 4x frame in front of the lamp) do you have any other ideas of how to deal with limited space in the woods? Unfortunately a condor is out of the question.

Thanks.

[David Mullen ASC]

I'm not sure why you'd put a cookaloris in front of a soft light unless it was semi-hard and can create some broken-up patterns, otherwise it's just a scrim at that point.

If you are going to use long lenses, you can try rigging backlights above the frame but otherwise if you don't have a condor and have wide shots, you're going to have to have the moonlight in the wide shots come from the side rather than from the back. In which case you may want to rake the background from farther with the bigger HMI and rake the foreground closer with smaller HMI's rather than use the big lights for the f.g. and the small lights for the b.g. You could also try lighting through smoke/haze from below in the background and create a glow along the horizon if shooting on a small rise.

If there are a lot of leaves, heavy foliage, then you may be better off with a lot more smaller units scattered behind trees rather than a couple of big units, which won't throw very far if blocked quickly.

Daylight Kinos can be useful too in the woods for the foreground or for fill. I've also tried daylight compact flos in Chinese Lanterns strung above the frame on some lines.

[Stas Tagios]

Hi David,

I'm shooting a low-budget music video on the 7D. We have a day of car shots -- incl. car-to-car tracking, as well as GoPro and 7D mounted on the car, cameras facing the driver/singer. I want the singer to look glamorous (i.e., soft even light on the face), but I don't have time or budget to rig lights on/in the car, so my question is, what do you think is a better approach, shooting with a convertible with the top down (and if so, how best to minimize any issues with ugly top light earlier in the day, or is it better to just shoot later in the day with the sun backlighting the singer?), or shooting with a hard-top so the singer's face will mostly be evenly and softly lit and the exterior blows out? Another issue to deal with if we go the convertible top down option is that the singer will be wearing a very light-colored blonde wig, which tends to blow out rather quickly. The reason I'm considering the convertible is we want to showcase various iconic L.A. locations and with the top down, we'd see more of the exterior and not have to worry about over-exposure on the background. Thanks!

Stas Tagios

[David Mullen ASC]

Top down seems more glamorous. You're just going to have to drive early or late in the day when the sun is closer to eye level for her close-ups, back-lit or front-lit can look nice.

[Alexey Milokost]

Hi David, what is the practical difference between ND.60 soft edge grad vs. ND.60 Attenuator?
Thanks a ton!
Alex