Ask David Mullen ANYTHING

[soren k jensen]

Dear David,
Many thanks for the thorough answer to my 'fire' question. I will try the suggestions, have time for tests.

[Clint Lealos]

Thanks for taking the time to answer my questions about old lenses vs. filters for a vintage 60's look. I had my shoot today and we ended up using a Cooke 18-100 with a 1/4 white pro mist filter. We used Red Cine X to create a low contrast, low saturation, color corrected look for the clients and they loved it! I must say I was quite impressed with the results. The lighting was really the most fun part of the whole process. Trying to recreate what others had to do out of necessity because of technological limitations was a great exercise. Thanks again for sharing your knowledge David. Peace.

[Ariel Weiss]

Hello David

Did you try the mole richardson beam projectors, or some other brand similar light? If you did or know about it, how do you think the 2.5 or 4k compare to 800w joker with source 4 for the same task? Do you think it can be used also for other purposes than only shafts of light? I'm thinking about the crls since they use a beam projector of their own for the base source of the system.

http://extranet.mole.com/public/inde...1906&id=12487#

Thanks alot

[marasco ivan]

hi david,
can you give us some tips about how to put and hidden bulbs behind candle flames or behind a lamp that is visible in the shot?
do you use this method?

thanks

[Martin Weiss]

Shiny (you need to change your screen name to your real name, see here),

With candles, you can either hide a bulb in the actual candle (for example a bare Dedolight bulb, or a Kinoflo miniFlo), facing the talent - or you can use some specialist film candles with two wicks instead of one - burns much brighter.

Or use a camera with MX sensor ;)

On a lamp, you might want to use some heavy ND gel on the bulb, but only the part facing the camera.

[David Mullen ASC]

Hello David

Did you try the mole richardson beam projectors, or some other brand similar light? If you did or know about it, how do you think the 2.5 or 4k compare to 800w joker with source 4 for the same task? Do you think it can be used also for other purposes than only shafts of light? I'm thinking about the crls since they use a beam projector of their own for the base source of the system.

http://extranet.mole.com/public/inde...1906&id=12487#

Thanks alot

I haven't tried all the beam projectors yet but so far I've been a bit disappointed because the beam is not as crisp and sharp as what you'd get from a xenon or ellipsoidal. What I'm really looking for is something like a "tungsten" xenon lamp but the closest I've seen are ellipsoidals like Source-4's and stage Super Trooper follow-spots.

[David Mullen ASC]

hi david,
can you give us some tips about how to put and hidden bulbs behind candle flames or behind a lamp that is visible in the shot?
do you use this method?

thanks

Haven't had to do much of that, the single candle lighting a person as they cross a room carrying it, other than in a theatrical short lit in the style of an old movie, in which case I used a snooted spotlamp to follow the actor.

You can get prop candles with a plastic tube and a real flame at top, and hide a tiny bulb behind that, or behind a real candle if it is thick enough. Or get multi-wick candles which have bigger flames.

[Ariel Weiss]

I haven't tried all the beam projectors yet but so far I've been a bit disappointed because the beam is not as crisp and sharp as what you'd get from a xenon or ellipsoidal. What I'm really looking for is something like a "tungsten" xenon lamp but the closest I've seen are ellipsoidals like Source-4's and stage Super Trooper follow-spots.

Thank you, David.

[Pietro Impagliazzo]

That 360 degree shot that moves around Russell Crowe in "A Beautiful Mind" when he's staring at the wall of projected codes is a good example of making you scratch your head to figure out how Crowe's face is being lit by the glow of the wall and yet the wall of numbers is not blown-out as you rotate around him. I suspect that some dimming of the lights might have been involved, but maybe not... having light sources in the frame is one reason why Deakins is so careful to use lenses that flare the least, like ARRI Master Primes.

David, If I remember correctly Deakins said he lit this shot with lights going underneath, so the lights are bouncing beneath the frame.

I'm not 100% if people were referring to this very shot, but I'm quite sure it's this one.

I need to watch this movie again.

[David Mullen ASC]

David, If I remember correctly Deakins said he lit this shot with lights going underneath, so the lights are bouncing beneath the frame.

I'm not 100% if people were referring to this very shot, but I'm quite sure it's this one.

I need to watch this movie again.

Could be, there could also have been a stop-pull happening when the camera was facing the wall of projections versus back on Crowe's face. Or maybe the film negative held everything.

The point is that it looked very natural with the source of light apparently in the frame itself, which looks easy and yet is one of the hardest things a cinematographer has to do, make things not look lit.