Ask David Mullen ANYTHING

[Ramesh Jai]

Are there any BTS photos where we can see lighting set-ups? I'm sorry but the search engine was not helpful.

[David Mullen ASC]

I don't know any site dedicated to that.

[Matthew Greene]

American Cinematographer ocassionally and plenty of books have lighting plots. The ones that sometimes show up in AC are of massive projects though. The Kodak master class videos (which I own) are a good start too. I wouldn't recreate a plot from another cinematographer though, that takes all the art and craft out of it but it's a good start for experimenting if your new to the craft.

[David Mullen ASC]

Sure, there are photos and diagrams of lighting set-ups scattered throughout books, websites, magazine articles, etc. but not systematically or centrally-located for moviemaking. You have to skim through a lot of material.

[Esmaile Neissi]

Hi David
A question for you:
What is the mount of the panavision c series and e series lenses?and is it possible to use them with red camera?how?
thanks

[David Mullen ASC]

Either put a PV-mount on a RED or a PL-mount on a Panavision lens... (though it's a bit more complicated than that.)

[TheSHYRED]

Hey David,

So I've recently shot a music video in Austin, TX on the RED and I ran into a major issue.

So a little back story to help supplement where I'm about to go. So I got this job to shoot a female country artist with Willie Nelson. I was not concerned about Willy's age because I've seen a lot of footage of him and his face, although wrinkled I think gives great texture and I think he just has a great look on camera. My concerns were about the female artist so I look at her album covers and some photos and she looked fine from there and I asked the director if there was anything I should worry about (wrinkles, bad skin, etc.). He told me no and I went on with my business ordering up my package.

So here is the problem, we came all the way from VA to Austin, TX and got there the night before shooting and I meet the female artist. I began to panic because I did not order any sort of diffusion filters for my glass! (probably a mistake on my own, should of covered my ass!). She had terrible bags under her eyes and deep wrinkles from her eyes down next to her nose. So after we meet with them, we're 45 minutes now outside of Austin in the middle of nowhere at 11PM, I go to the local wal-mart and purchase the nicest panty hose I could find.

Obviously you know what I used that for. It helped out (definitely for the set we were shooting on, old period western town) but my problem was I couldn't shoot a nice clean single on her unless I went profile. Do you know of any remedies for something like this? Make up did what they could, I mean even the talent herself came up to the director when they played back a shot and she made the comment "I hope you have a good sfx guy to take my wrinkles out." Director turns to me and says "can you fix it with lighting?" I couldn't, shooting exteriors with a naturalistic look and to exploit the landscape and great big skies of Texas, meaning no over exposure. I guess in the end of the day it was my fault still for not further researching the artist and I paid the price for it!

I was in a terrible spot and want to know if you've ever dealt with something like this before and what did you do in that situation.

Thanks,
Sing

[Luis Otero]

If you are not that afraid of using diffusion filters in post, I will not get that concerned. I use them all the time, and actually, I prefere them now rather to the physical glass ones since it is easier and faster to do it in post that on the set. You can focus more on other more important areas as cinematographer.

Just my two cents, and I am not anything close to David!:waaa:

[Mike S. M.]

Hi David
I have been considering getting a camera slider or over-saver for quite a while now and I would love to know about the ways and shots you have used this piece of gear for and what types of shots it's most useful for in your opinion and any new and creative ways it could be used apart from the normal over the shoulder correction. Thanks.

[GlennChan]

I began to panic because I did not order any sort of diffusion filters for my glass!

I'm not sure if this helps, but check out
http://www.room.tv
and click on the beauty reel. There is some crazy video-equivalent of airbrushing / Photoshop retouching. Knock years off your talent...