Ask David Mullen ANYTHING

[William Dempsey]

Thank you for your answer David,

While not the exact effect I'm after, I was just wondering if you know any of the details on the transition sequence in the Wizard of Oz, when they went from B/W to color. I know the transition shot was not a pure B/W but rather a sepia. There was also a door to help isolate the transition boundaries . Was that a lighting effect or did Technicolor do some sort of optical isolation to aid the effect in post.

[David Mullen ASC]

From Wikipedia:

...the inside of the farm house was painted sepia, and when Dorothy opens the door, it is not Garland but her stand-in, Bobbie Koshay, wearing a sepia gingham dress, who then backs out of frame; once the camera moves through the door, Garland steps back into frame in her bright blue gingham dress (as noted in DVD extras), and the sepia-painted door briefly tints her with the same color before she emerges from the house's shadow, into the bright glare of the Technicolor lighting.

Look at the end of the clip:
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=WhQySxqSANU

So it's basically art direction, a sepia set and a stand-in all in sepia opens a sepia door to reveal the color set and then Judy Garland in her color dress steps into the frame.

[Will Keir]

Hey David, nice meeting you briefly at the expo, really appreciate all you do here, hope to see you again.

Best.

[David Mullen ASC]

Thanks... It was nice meeting you and other Redusers at CineGear and NAB this year!

[William Dempsey]

Hey David,

Again thank you for your answers. As you say , in camera, it is primarily a matter of art direction . I suspect digital intervention would probably be the easiest route these days.

[David Mullen ASC]

It's always best to do as much with art direction, costume, make-up, etc. as you can to create the color effect you want, plus lighting of course, because then the end product will look less digitally manipulated. But sometimes if a specific digital effect is needed, you have to design the shot around making that possible. Depends on how stylized the effect is supposed to be, versus how natural.

[Yousuf Abbasi]

Hi David
I know an 80-series filter such as 80C is useful for balancing color temp closer to Red's native temp. For that reason, I use these indoors.
My question is, does the 80C also help reduce the Blue-channel noise inherent in Red's sensor, or does it make it worse - (assuming all else equal and there is available light to compensate for the lost stop of light)?

Thanks.

[Nicholas Matthews]

Apologies for the lengthy post.

I'm lighting a set with an ancient middle eastern aesthetic. I'm hoping to create strong shafts of evening sunlight pouring through grated windows. The camera will pass through these beams. Given the lack of space outside the latticework, I was planning on using number of smaller units to individually punch through each window. Furthermore, I'm hoping to light the main talent using oil lamps of the time period (with supplemental lights if necessary) and don't want to overwhelm the firelight.

That said, are there units you would strongly advise using for the beams. (Was considering ganging 2k molebeam projectors or if possible, I'd love to save the money and use Mighty Moles. Would lekos work in this case, as I own a number of those?) If I have to use mirrors for the "sunlight" I imagine lekos or fresnels would be my best bet?

Will be shooting with the Epic for its dynamic range.

As always, your posts are a wellspring of knowledge. Wish we had some way of giving back. Thanks!

[David Mullen ASC]

Apologies for the lengthy post.

I'm lighting a set with an ancient middle eastern aesthetic. I'm hoping to create strong shafts of evening sunlight pouring through grated windows. The camera will pass through these beams. Given the lack of space outside the latticework, I was planning on using number of smaller units to individually punch through each window. Furthermore, I'm hoping to light the main talent using oil lamps of the time period (with supplemental lights if necessary) and don't want to overwhelm the firelight.

That said, are there units you would strongly advise using for the beams. (Was considering ganging 2k molebeam projectors or if possible, I'd love to save the money and use Mighty Moles. Would lekos work in this case, as I own a number of those?) If I have to use mirrors for the "sunlight" I imagine lekos or fresnels would be my best bet?

Will be shooting with the Epic for its dynamic range.

As always, your posts are a wellspring of knowledge. Wish we had some way of giving back. Thanks!

Stage set or location? If location, shot at night or during the day? If during the day how much real daylight do you have to deal with?

[David Mullen ASC]

Hi David
I know an 80-series filter such as 80C is useful for balancing color temp closer to Red's native temp. For that reason, I use these indoors.
My question is, does the 80C also help reduce the Blue-channel noise inherent in Red's sensor, or does it make it worse - (assuming all else equal and there is available light to compensate for the lost stop of light)?

Thanks.

Yes, a blue filter like the 80C will reduce the noise in the blue channel if you can compensate for the light loss from the filter, which is actually cutting back on the opposite color wavelengths so that the blue channel is more equal or balanced, but the noise is improved only if you then compensate for the exposure loss from the filter.

However I don't think the blue channel is that noisy any more on the MX sensor, I'd only bother with the 80C for chroma key work or whenever you need a cleaner blue channel.