Ask David Mullen ANYTHING

[David Mullen ASC]

I don't think Welles' ideas re: acting have the first thing to do with Brecht's, except incidentally. Brecht was all about making the audience aware of the actor as a distinct entity from the character in order to preclude maudlin sentiment or purely emotional response--thereby facilitating easier reading of a political/discursive subtext. Welles simply acted (and directed) in an over-the-top, self-conciously formalist way that derived from theater.

"Brechtian" is probably the wrong word, but there was a certain anti-naturalistic streak in Welles, especially in a later film such as "The Trial" despite the use of real locations, which, like Terry Gilliam, Welles manages to make look like theatrical sets. I don't think Welles thought that "artifice" was a dirty word. His acting reminds me of Kubrick's comments to Jack Nicholson that James Cagney was a better actor than Henry Fonda, because Kubrick felt a performance should be judged by how interesting it was rather than how real it was.

[David Mullen ASC]

Lets say I'm lighting an actor with a kino flo and an HMI for his backlight. But I want to use the practical light of the city as a background.

If I push the ISO of the RED to hight numbers to make my BG lighter, how can I protect the light on the actor to clipped? I mean I can use flags, ND gels,… I already have some ideas, but I'm very interested by listening what you have to say about these kind of situation.

My question is about the balance between powerful cinema lights again city street lights (once again, only as a BG, so the frame doesn't looks empty).

Also, what is for you the maximum ISO we can set on a RED (original Monstro sensor, not M-X). Since the camera were "rate at 320 ISO", everyone that I know that use the RED always shoot 320… I would push it more (may be 800? or is it foolish?), and I'm find with some grain, as I will crush the blacks in post anyway (the director is looking for a comic book style)… But still, what set up, according to you, for an acceptable noise floor?

Generally you balance the levels of your lights so that they match the background to the degree you want -- so if the background is very dim, you either use dimmer lights, or you use bigger lights backed farther away, or you knock down the lights with scrims, dimmers, etc.

And you pick an ASA rating that suits that level and the f-stop you want to shoot at, or can shoot at.

As to how fast you can rate the original sensor... well, how much noise you can live with is a matter of taste, so you should test it and look at the results on the largest screen that the final project will be shown on. But the visibility of the noise is dependent on how lifted or crushed your shadows are, so if you are crushing the blacks a bit, that will help. It's also affected by the base color temp, the closer to daylight, the better. So if you can live with tungsten lighting going a bit orange, you'll get less noise in the blue channel.

800 ASA on the old sensor is certainly usable, but borderline -- if you can get faster lenses and live with 500 ASA, you'll be happier.

[Julien Deka]

Thanks for answering so fast... Your advices will definitely help me to find the right approach.

Thanks!

[Scott Crawley]

Whoa... Deep water! With that, I can approach Touch of Evil and Kane with different eyes. I've had mixed feelings about pre-Method techniques. I've managed to remain somewhat ambivilent about Heston, not understanding what it was he was doing. I wouldn't call it self conscious, but there was that artifice about him that I found distracting. It seems pretty clear that Welles didn't have a problem with it. I always felt that it prevented me from giving in and suspending disbelief, regardless of how much I desired to. Maybe with understanding I can embrace it more.

Thanks guys.

[Martin Stevens]

Hello David,

Do contemporary motion picture film cameras have a Rolling Shutter issue?

The reason I ask is that there is a test for Rolling Shutter on Ryan Walters website.

Click on this link.....
http://www.ryanewalters.com/Blog/fil...he_Titans.html

It appears that the new Red MX sensor still has a slight Rolling Shutter issue.
But I am confused, because if the MX has a film like refresh rate, then does this mean that film cameras have a Rolling Shutter issue as well?

Also, do you know if the MX sensors refresh rate changes when a different Redcode rate is used?

[David Mullen ASC]

Jim posted the refresh rates for the new sensor and what a film camera shutter's equivalent rate is. I don't recall the numbers off the top of my head.

A film shutter is mechanical but since it slides/rotates in front of the frame to cover it, a certain (small) percentage of the frame exposure happens during that movement, creating artifacts -- but it's pretty mild.

The current M-X refresh rate comes closer to film's rate.

[Martin Stevens]

Jim posted the refresh rates for the new sensor and what a film camera shutter's equivalent rate is. I don't recall the numbers off the top of my head.

A film shutter is mechanical but since it slides/rotates in front of the frame to cover it, a certain (small) percentage of the frame exposure happens during that movement, creating artifacts -- but it's pretty mild.

The current M-X refresh rate comes closer to film's rate.

Sorry to persist about this "Dave" (2001: a Space Odyssey voice), But perhaps I can ask in a different way.

If you were to pan an Arri movie camera back and forth
horizontally very quickly, would there be skew like the skew
depicted in the MX test footage from the link I provided?
Would there be any skew?

According to what I’ve read online, the M sensor has a
9 ms refresh rate, the MX a 5 ms rate, and film has a 4 ms rate.

I'm not looking to fault MX, I'm just trying to understand if traditional
film camera also have low Skew.

(I have also asked this in a new EPIC section post)

[Douglas Underdahl]

Martin -

It depends on the Arri camera - some, like the IIC and III have shutters that wipe from top to bottom, much as the rolling shutter of the RED. Others, like the 535 and 35 BL, have shutters that wipe from side to side . . .

[Ryan E. Walters]

I have also heard, that when the shutter in a film camera wipes across the frame, due to its relation between the lens and the film plane that the shutter creates a soft wipe across the frame where as a digital sensor's "shutter" is electronic and more "exact" which also contributes to the difference in motion rendering.

[Joe G.]

Hi David,

Hope all is well. If you get curious, maybe take a peek at this anamorphic adapter (panasonic ag-7200) on a 5dm2:

http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?p=1902384

Would this lens setup be of professional quality in your view, or just short?

The shaky-cam / bad exposure of the test wasn't great, but the anamorphic lens characteristics looked very promising -- to me anyway.

Would you avoid such a setup, or maybe give it a test drive?