Films Of M. David Mullen ASC

Greg Gross · August 24, 2004

Does anyone know if Mr. Mullen has his own web site? I have read his

comments about Norfork and that production. I would like to research all

of his films and read his comments about the films, if available. I know he

posts here on our forum and I appreciate his comments. Would like to foll-

ow his carreer and make technical notes for my journal. At present time I

am just learnig how to operate a motion picture camera. From time to time

I have coffee with producers,directors,actors and I would like to pass his

filmology along to them.

Jon Tubb · August 24, 2004

M Dave Mullens is on IMDB.com.

I love reading his comments, he definately knows his stuff!!!!

David Mullen ASC · August 24, 2004

No, I don't have a website -- when I get more time, I may start one so I can put pictures from my shoots on it.

Not all of my films are worth studying or reading about, I can assure you!!! I tend to go for quantity rather than quality when it comes to finding work...

Anyway, I have written articles on Twin Falls Idaho, Jackpot, Foreign Affair, New Suit. There were also articles by others on Twin Falls Idaho and Northfork. There is an interview with me in the new US edition of The Guerrilla Filmmakers Handbook by Genuevive Joliffe.

Otherwise, some of my comments are in the archives for this forum and for the CML.

I saw in a video store that A Foreign Affair is out on DVD under a new title, Two Brothers and a Girl (???). It's a very small HD film I shot in St. Petersburg, Russia in 2001.

Phil Rhodes · August 24, 2004

Hi,

If it was hi-def and has been released, it is not a very small film!

Phil

David Mullen ASC · August 25, 2004

I'd say a shoot where my entire grip and electric department were two Russians with a van full of Kinoflos counts as "small"... we didn't even have an art department or script supervisor in Russia. Our week-long shoot in Mexico for the beginning farm scenes (mostly trimmed) were a little bigger though. It was made for less than $300,000, which is small in U.S. production terms.

Greg Gross · August 25, 2004

Thank you Mr. Mullen for you post and thanks so much for you're time.

Best regards and wishes for your future in film. I will follow up on the

information in your post. I've seen your picture in the book- The Guer-

illa Film Makers Handbook, page 274 "The Digital DP"and I enjoyed the

interview very much! Learned a lot from it! I can't begin to tell you how

much I love the light in Northfork and I could talk about it here for a long

time. I've read your comments on the making of the film and enjoyed

them very much. If you have time in the future could you tell us someting

about how you manage two cameras and their crews?

Phil Rhodes · August 25, 2004

Hi,

Guerilla Filmmakers' Handbook?

Is that Chris Jones' book? I'm surprised you'd want anything to do with the guy!

Phil

David Mullen ASC · August 25, 2004

He wasn't involved with the US version, just Genevieve Joliffe. What's the story with Chris Jones?

Phil Rhodes · August 25, 2004

Hi,

Chris is Jen's partner, or at least used to be - I haven't met him in over a year. Together they have produced three features under their Living Spirit Pictures company:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0105296/

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0108558/

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120423/

The first two, "The Runner" and "White Angel," are unwatchably crappy. "Urban Ghost Story" trails well, but I haven't seen it - there was a recent Region 1 DVD release. Their fourth feature, "Rocketman And Vampire Girl", has been "shooting soon" for -ooh, what, six years?

Absolutely the only interesting thing about Mr. Jones is that all of these have been released in some small way, which is indescribably difficult to achieve in the UK. It is undoubtedly true that he has made much more money out of selling books on how to make films and giving speeches than he has out of filmmaking, which is an irony which exercises me considerably - notice that the first thing they promote on the website (www.livingspirit.co.uk) is the book, not the films. I keep meaning to suggest that they change the name of the company to "living spirit publishing," and the books themselves are rather from the Robert Rodriguez school of inspirational but utterly impractical and very inadvisable writing. They give instant gratification to hopeless underfunded filmmakers, but very little else. It's all a bit of a fraud, really.

Not to turn this into a personal crusade, but I also find Mr. Jones to be personally abrasive. He is a staunch advocate of deferred payment and working for free, something which it was interesting to see him debate with Martin Spence (Head of the Camera branch of BECTU). Essentially, I conclude that he's abused a lot of crew to make some very poor movies and he's been dining out on the experience ever since. This would be inexcusable enough in LA, but even nastier in the UK where even getting a film released seems to put you on enough of a pedestal to do this.

Phil

J. Lamar King IMPOSTOR · August 27, 2004

Hey Phil, people like that exist in the USA too. Witness one Dov S-S Simens. I'm not making any particular accusations but a read through of his book can leave you scratching your head at how precarious some of the situations really are if you don't know anything about bussiness.

I don't care how clever you are in writing a contract, if someone invests in your film and you don't return their money, you are going to get sued! Espescially if you omit telling them the whole extent of the risk.

J. Anthony Gonzales · August 27, 2004

You can see Mr. Mullen at work in some of the sequences of the behind the scenes mini-documentary on the Northfork DVD. There's also a funny scene between one of the Polish brothers and Jimmy Woods kicking cow poop at each other.

John G.