Ask David Mullen ANYTHING

[David Mullen ASC]

I only rent Dedolights. I think they are unique in terms of look of the light and the construction/design. The nearest equivalent would be LTM Peppers and tiny Arri fresnels but they don't have the same sharpness or spot-to-flood ratio, plus Peppers tend to get very hot. At full flood, a Dedo produces a perfect round pattern without a snoot, useful for accent lights for paintings on walls, etc. At full spot, they are very intense for a 100w or 150w unit (I usually rent the 150w kit.)

[EvanProsofsky]

Would you travel if expenses were covered? I'd love to coordinate a little workshop up here in Portland, Oregon. I think I know a studio here in town that might be up for hosting. :)

I live in Edmonton and even I'd be interested in coming to this, depending on the time. I'll be in the Vancouver area all spring/summer, so i'd be close by. Would you be able to do me a huge favor and PM me the details if this all gets sorted out?

Thanks,
Evan

[Mike S.]

David, do you have any experience with shooting green screen?
It would be interesting to read your experiences and see how you approach most of its limitations and problems.
One thing I hear a lot is that when on a cyc you should only use soft lighting on the actors and that low key is a no-no. Do you agree with that? If true, how does one shoot low-key hard light full figure scenes on green screen?
I guess for backdrop shots it wouldn’t matter as you can fully isolate actors from the green screen, but if you need a wide shot with the actor completely in frame backdrops are not an option.
Talking about cyc shots, how do you approach lighting a cyc shot? I mean the foreground and actors not the green screen itself. It seems nearly impossible to isolate actors from the screen.
I have also heard many times you should not use back lighting in green screen, but for some shots , like again a low key shot of somebody standing in the dark it is needed. Do you back light in green screen?

Lastly there’s the problem of depth of field. Out of focus stuff is a no-no in green screen, so you must either shoot with a 2/3” camera or if shooting film you have to shoot with narrow apertures. But how do you overcome the DOF problem? These shots would obviously stand out from the rest of the 35mm shots in terms of the DOF being too deep or having that more “video” look. I’m guessing that faking DOF in post is difficult and impractical. When shooting a whole scene with coverage, OTS etc, how do you get around this problem? In OTS you have the option to shoot them separately even though it would probably detract from their performances, specially in emotional scenes. But the rest is hard to shoot separately. Like shooting two people sitting in a restaurant where only the table, chairs and props on the table are real. In a 35m shot the wine bottle on the table would be out of focus when shooting one of the actors etc while you can’t have that in the green screen shot because out of focus stuff doesn’t key well. So you end up with a shot where both actor and wine bottle are in focus, which just looks off. Of course you can just not have the bottle there but then it starts to really get in the way of your composition. I’m just wondering how these movies entirely shot on green screen on a so called digital back lot overcome these problems.

Very interested on what you (or anybody with experience) have to say about all that. Thanks in advance.

[Roberto Lequeux]

David, have you had a chance to use an M-X R1 yet?

[David Mullen ASC]

David, do you have any experience with shooting green screen?
It would be interesting to read your experiences and see how you approach most of its limitations and problems.
One thing I hear a lot is that when on a cyc you should only use soft lighting on the actors and that low key is a no-no. Do you agree with that? If true, how does one shoot low-key hard light full figure scenes on green screen?
I guess for backdrop shots it wouldn’t matter as you can fully isolate actors from the green screen, but if you need a wide shot with the actor completely in frame backdrops are not an option.
Talking about cyc shots, how do you approach lighting a cyc shot? I mean the foreground and actors not the green screen itself. It seems nearly impossible to isolate actors from the screen.
I have also heard many times you should not use back lighting in green screen, but for some shots , like again a low key shot of somebody standing in the dark it is needed. Do you back light in green screen?

Lastly there’s the problem of depth of field. Out of focus stuff is a no-no in green screen, so you must either shoot with a 2/3” camera or if shooting film you have to shoot with narrow apertures. But how do you overcome the DOF problem? These shots would obviously stand out from the rest of the 35mm shots in terms of the DOF being too deep or having that more “video” look. I’m guessing that faking DOF in post is difficult and impractical. When shooting a whole scene with coverage, OTS etc, how do you get around this problem? In OTS you have the option to shoot them separately even though it would probably detract from their performances, specially in emotional scenes. But the rest is hard to shoot separately. Like shooting two people sitting in a restaurant where only the table, chairs and props on the table are real. In a 35m shot the wine bottle on the table would be out of focus when shooting one of the actors etc while you can’t have that in the green screen shot because out of focus stuff doesn’t key well. So you end up with a shot where both actor and wine bottle are in focus, which just looks off. Of course you can just not have the bottle there but then it starts to really get in the way of your composition. I’m just wondering how these movies entirely shot on green screen on a so called digital back lot overcome these problems.

Very interested on what you (or anybody with experience) have to say about all that. Thanks in advance.

If the point of the greenscreen shot is to matte a foreground object into a background plate so that the final composite looks like the object and the background were shot together... then the lighting on the object against the greenscreen should match the lighting in the background plate. So if there is hard frontal sunlight on the background, there can be hard frontal sunlight on the foreground person against the green, same goes for backlight -- you need to match the light in the background plate.

Now if it is less critical to match the foreground and background -- let's say it's a night scene and the background in real life might have been lit differently than the actor in the foreground, then you have more leeway to light the person against the greenscreen for the mood and look you want.

Generally a little backlight is a good thing because it washes out some of the green spill on the subject coming from the screen and creates some separation.

I don't know if you mean a green or a white cyc.

Compositing objects with out of focus edges against a greenscreen is just harder for the compositor, which is why it is better to have enough depth of field that you don't get fuzzy edges against the green. Yes, it takes more light so you can stop down.

You can then selectively blur objects or the background plate when doing the composite to create a shallow-focus effect. It's just easier to generate a good key when the object is not soft against the greenscreen. Once you can pull a key, you can manipulate the object.

[David Mullen ASC]

David, have you had a chance to use an M-X R1 yet?

I just arrived in Chicago tonight to begin prep on a TV pilot -- I may be shooting a test on the MX R1 by the end of the week, some night stuff hopefully.

[Jon Chema]

I just arrived in Chicago tonight to begin prep on a TV pilot -- I may be shooting a test on the MX R1 by the end of the week, some night stuff hopefully.

Let me know if you ever need help! :)

On a serious note, do you think the scarlet is going to take the industry by storm like critics feel? I am a college filmmaker and right now have invested in a Canon 7D DSLR with redrock rail kit, FF, matte box, and some good glass. (I will eventually purchase an HD LCD) I realize that DSLRs were never designed for shooting video- but for the money i have been very impressed with the results. I am more or less eagerly waiting the Scarlet to be released. That being said, what do you think about the emergence of DSLR's in the industry? I realize that they can't compete with the RED products, but for their pros of light weight and low price do you feel that they are a good tool to have...or simply a fad?

Thanks for your time, and good luck on your shoot!

[David Mullen ASC]

DSLR video is serving a limited purpose in production and as soon as something the same size but better comes along, then that new thing will take its place, though I don't think DSLR video is going to go away ever either, and will only get better.

I'm about to start a TV pilot in Chicago, a police drama, and we will be using Red Ones, and maybe an EX1 and/or Canon 7D on occasion for hard-to-get shots during an action scene (you know, sticking a tiny camera on a dashboard or holding it out of a car window, etc.), but it will be limited to brief shots because I worry about it holding up for any long period on screen. Plus the difficulties of color-correcting that h.264 footage. But there are always uses for small camera bodies -- look at the use of the Iconix in "Lovely Bones" or the SI-2K Mini in "Slumdog Millionaire".

But I think the fixed-lens 3K Scarlet is going to take off when it gets released for that sort of B-roll stuff in action movies and whatnot. For one thing, it's going to intercut a lot better with Red One or future Epic footage, being of the same family of RAW cameras. I can imagine a future 5K Epic movie occasionally using a small 2/3" 3K Scarlet to grab a handheld car interior dialogue scene, for example, or other scenes in tiny spaces.

But I'm sure other even smaller cameras will always find a use somewhere on a shoot.

[Roberto Lequeux]

Glad to hear you are shooting M-X (M-X right?). As you can imagine we all look forward to hearing what you think of the new sensor.

[Matt W.]

I'm working on upping my night exterior game and I checked out your website--really impressive stuff. So I've got to ask how you shot a couple things, but also what your night exterior approach is in general.

I was really impressed by shots like this; obviously the compositions are strong but the lighting is just awesome (I hope it's okay to post these here):





How do you get that kind of look where there's background detail throughout and on all the foliage (particularly in the wides, which I didn't post) but the background is never overexposed (as it would be if hit frontally with an HMI) and there's that great hot backlight on the talent?

My guess: you used an uncorrected (or half corrected?) helium HMI balloon for low-level fill a few stops under key and then used a small HMI par can just off frame for the backlight? But did you backlight the foliage separately from the talent and, if not, why is the backlight stronger on the talent? Did you use a fog filter or is that shot on set with a hazer? Did you wet the foliage first to get sharper speculars?

I'm very curious. I'd love to be able to shoot footage like that; my night exteriors are flat nightmares and I have to go back and bring down over-bright foliage in post.