Ask David Mullen ANYTHING

[number6]

Tungsten halogens? They are commonplace in movie lights. You mean inside hardware store worklights?

Yeah, Black and Decker stand with dual 1500?, maybe 1000 watters.

[David Mullen ASC]

If it puts out light, it can be used. It may not be as controllable as you'd like, but for a DIY lighting kit, they can be useful. Don't make an entire kit out of a bunch of these lights though because your money might be better spent in creating a package with more variety.

[rascom]

Hey, I would like to know what your approach to shooting miniatures are.
When shooting wide or close up of a miniature to get that 'larger than life'-look, is it better to use a longer lens away from the model or to get closer with a wide angle? And what about DOF?
I read somewhere that for example shooting a RC-miniature (or any other moving miniature for that matter) overcranked at for example 75 fps gives the effect of a much larger object moving.
Of course, I think, shooting a miniature should be done in coherence with the rest of the cinematography, but what can be done cheat the viewers perception to make a small model seem huge?
Rasmus

[David Mullen ASC]

You have to think about what the perspective would be of a camera if this object were full size, so often low and close, and wide-angle, gives the miniature some sense of being larger. But there are some circumstances where a telephoto view would be justified, like for a telephoto perspective.

You need as much depth of field as you can get. Rarely would you have too much depth of field. Think about it -- if this object were real and was twenty feet away at the closest edge, then all of it would fall into focus in real life. So basically you want to avoid having part of the model go out of focus.

Overcranking is necessary to give motion scale when it interacts with things like dust, dirt, moving cloth, water, whatever. Or there are explosions in the shot. If not, then it's easier to get more depth of field by undercranking and just moving the model very slowly, like for a spaceship moving through space.

Overcranking and stopping down requires a s-load of light, which is why some people shoot miniatures outdoors in real sunlight. Sometimes tilt-focus lenses can be used to create a fake deep focus effect if everything falls along a diagonal plane to the camera.

[rascom]

Thanks for the tips. The shot I'm trying to figure out is sort of a sfx shot with a strange globe(suspended with fishwire or similar) spinning/orbiting in space, shot on green screen. The globe doesn't physically interact with anything like with a spaceship flying through space, so the option of undercranking and spinning it very slowly is great. With this kind of perspective(earth from space) would it then be best with a long lens or maybe to give it a huge perspective/volume to shoot it with a fish eye and stop it all the way down to f/16 or to when diffraction kicks in?


Rasmus

[number6]

If it puts out light, it can be used. It may not be as controllable as you'd like, but for a DIY lighting kit, they can be useful. Don't make an entire kit out of a bunch of these lights though because your money might be better spent in creating a package with more variety.

Thanks David. I just have a couple of the light sets in the garage and since they are switchable to 500 watts, thought I could maybe use them for an indoor scene or two where I will have AC pouer. Also plan to build a couple of groupings for using screw in fluorescents. By mixing and matching white and yellow bulbs, as well as different wattages, I hope to be able to regulate temperature and intensity. It will be time consuming, but time is cheap when you are on a nello budget.

edit: thanks for the tip about the reflector lights earlier. That will become a part of my kit as well.

www.nelloproductions.com (site under construction)

[Yannick Hagman]

Thank you, David.

[Jay A. Kelley]

I think this is the longest running thread on REDuser.net

Jay

[number6]

I think this is the longest running thread on REDuser.net

Jay

Yeah, it should have its oun search feature.

[Shawn Nelson]

Yeah, it should have its oun search feature.

You can search for specific posts within only a certain thread, it's an advanced search feature, very helpful.