90 Minutes in Heaven

[David Mullen ASC]

If ARRIRAW "crop" mode means cropping to 2.40, I'm not sure I'd use it (though if I shot anamorphic, I wouldn't have any reframing ability either) -- since I am shooting spherical, it's too useful in post to have the extra vertical information to fix headroom issues or make a better 16x9 full-frame HDTV version for broadcast.

 

The script describes Heaven as having a warm light, so I'm planning on a sort of sunset effect for that lighting, so it made sense that the rain storm and car crash that is intercut with Heaven should be cold, plus it helps emphasize the weather aspects. The slightly skip-bleach look for the crash is just a feeling I have, we aren't locked into it (we are recording log), I just wanted dailies to have a little more harshness to the look for those scenes because it seemed dramatically correct.

[Freya Black]

I always forget to say something about ARRIRAW. In the movie I'm working on at the moment we are shooting on ARRIRAW crop mode and apparently it is easier to handle and a bit cheaper because you don't need a lot of cards so maybe you can explore that path for your next movie!

 

 

The other low budget Alexa option which I seem to remember is in the latest SUP now is the 3.2K ProRes mode:

 

http://www.redsharknews.com/technology/item/1976-3-2k-prores-comes-to-the-arri-alexa-xt

 

Freya

Edited March 7, 2015 by Freya Black

[David Mullen ASC]

Good news but it does mean renting the XT version of the Alexa.

 

I like the idea of recording 3.2K for a 2K finish because it will help with visual efx and any shots that need stabilizing or reframing.

[Freya Black]

Good news but it does mean renting the XT version of the Alexa.

 

I like the idea of recording 3.2K for a 2K finish because it will help with visual efx and any shots that need stabilizing or reframing.

 

That's true, the Amira also has a UHD ProRes mode too now which might be handy for working at the indie level but I suspect the older Alexas may have the easiest availability and be cheapest to rent.

 

Freya

[David Mullen ASC]

WEEK FIVE (FINAL)

 

Because of weather problems on the previous week, we only worked three days then, had one day off, and then worked six days straight to finish the movie. The final week broke down into three days at three different churches, one day in a parking lot with rain machines and a green screen to do the car crash on the bridge, one day in a motel room and at a fast food restaurant, and then the final day on a stage using a green cyc for the Heaven sequence.

 

I'm not going to post any photos of the green screen work since it's unfinished and not interesting by itself.

 

The first church we shot that week was a nice Georgian-style chapel with high windows on both sides. I originally planned on having streaks of warm morning sunlight coming in, but because the day exterior portion of the scene was shot on a rainy day with umbrellas, I didn't feel it made sense to have a lot of hard sunlight in the chapel scene. Plus we were denied permission to use a smoke machine so I wouldn't have gotten any shafts of light. So my next thought was to use only the soft available light that day, even though it was rather dim being an overcast rainy day. So I turned off all of the lights in the room and noticed that the natural daylight didn't really reach the altar where the main character was standing. So I ended up shining an 18K HMI through an 8x8 frame of Light Grid Cloth through one window aimed at the altar to bring up that area. This shot was a slow dolly in through the front doors (inside a lobby, not outdoors) into the chapel on a 21mm Master Prime with a 1/8 Black Frost. I think at ISO 500, I was at an f/2.8:

 

I'm skipping the next church on our schedule, a small one in the countryside. Two days later we were in a huge church with giant windows, with the whole room being on the second floor. On the south side of the building, where the sun would come through most of the day, I had a parking lot where we could park an 80' Condor with two 18K HMI's on it. At the distance of the parking lot to the windows, and the huge size of the windows, I knew that only two 18K's would create any sort of effect in the room. I was planning on just dealing with the real sun tracking through the windows, the 18K's were mainly to spot light one area if necessary. On the day, I got lucky again with heavy overcast, so now my 18K's could actually create a sunlight effect, at least through two of the windows. I put 1/2 CTO on them to warm them up and was able to smoke up the room. But because the angle of the condor didn't give me a backlight in some of the seats we wanted to use for the characters, I ended up putting a 1.8K HMI PAR on the second floor balcony, coming in at an angle close to the windows so it looked like some spot of sunlight that fell further into the room.

 

You can see the effect of the 18K HMI coming through the window here:

For fill, I had an HMI Source-4 Leko bouncing into an 8x8 white sheet hung on a crossbar rig ("T-bone"). Again, ISO 500 with a 1/8 Black Frost, I think on a 40mm. With the overcast weather, holding detail outside the window was easy.

 

Also, this angle was lit with the HMI's through the window as well:

Besides the HMI Leko bounce into an 8x8 white cloth near the altar, most of the fill comes from the opposite windows in the room. I put a 1x1 LitePanel on the floor near the wheelchair so the wheels were visible.

 

But this one was backlight by the 1.8K HMI on the balcony:

Fill, besides the ambience from all the windows, came from bouncing the HMI Leko off of the floor in front of the chair.

 

We spent a day in a parking lot doing the actual car crash against a green screen. I picked this frame because the truck driving over the car was blocking the green screen. We shot this at 60 fps with a 45 degree shutter:

 

Finally, a small shot -- this is an insert in the car. I wanted the effect of the pattern of water running down the window to play on the insert, after trying a 4K HMI backed way up, I ended up using an HMI Source-4 Leko to get the hard pattern (easier to see in the moving footage):

I didn't actually use the car window, since the insert was so tight we put the papers on a car seat sitting in the parking lot, tented with floppies, and I put a pane of glass right next to the papers and ran water down the glass.

[Bill DiPietra]

Just getting into this thread now, but I've read every post and this is amazing work, David. It clearly looks like you've taken it up to another level. On a personal note, this is a film I will be very interested in seeing, as an emergency medical technician and a filmmaker. Ironically, my most recent short has a similar theme - the spiritual journey of an EMT as he fights against Death every night.

 

My favorite shots are the ones of the car on this page. Not only are they gorgeous, but they tell a story on their own. The epitome of visual storytelling. Congratulations and thanks for all the information! I learned a bunch!

[David Mullen ASC]

The website for the movie is up and has a few behind-the-scenes shots in the video:

http://90minutesinheaventhemovie.com

[Chris Burke]

I am curious what is meant by "faith based". is it because of the themes of the story or is it where the money comes from to make the movie? it's just because I haven't heard that term before. there are many movies which deal with spiritual and religious themes Where that term has not been applied.

[David Mullen ASC]

It's a term that has developed over the past few years, sometimes describing a movie financed by Christian business people with Christian themes and marketed to Christian audiences, but with the hope of a wider audience coming in. "Seven Days in Utopia" was also produced in this way. I just saw a trailer for a movie called "Do You Believe?" which is also an example of this genre. Some of these movies are more overtly religious than others, and some have more crossover appeal to mainstream audiences than others. Some would call "Heaven is For Real" a faith-based movie even though it was made by a studio -- so the term is rather loose. I'm sure the same questions are asked in the publishing business since some of the books that these movies have been based on were best-sellers.

[Freya Black]

I am curious what is meant by "faith based". is it because of the themes of the story or is it where the money comes from to make the movie? it's just because I haven't heard that term before. there are many movies which deal with spiritual and religious themes Where that term has not been applied.

 

In my experience this is mostly used to refer to a genre of films. You know like you have horror or sci-fi etc.

"Faith based" tends to mean movies that have Christian themes behind them (but I guess it could be other faiths too!)

 

There has been a lot of success in this realm more recently hence movies like Noah and Exodus getting the green light in the hope that Christians will take an interest but that there might be the possibility to take it to an even wider market as well.

 

Freya

[Miguel Angel]

I don't know why I didn't get the responses on my email but:

Arriraw crop in anamorphic means that you can't reframe the sides but the upper part and the bottom part, there is a bit of space there for reframing if you want to.

So in spherical I suppose that you will be able to reframe in any direction.

 

The Amira is amazing, i worked on a 1 day commercial and Panavision provided the Amira because the commercial was going to be all hand - held and "docu" style, and it worked really well.

 

The churches look lovely although, if I can comment, there is something that I miss in any "church interior" in any movie, maybe more light to create the light bouncing all over if it is a sunny day as your frames suggest? I don't know! :)

 

Looking forward to watching the movie though! I watched the youtube video on the website and the crane shoots look nice!

 

Have a lovely day!

[David Mullen ASC]

Like I said, the one white chapel where I thought to have sunlight streaming and bouncing around was shot on a rainy day right after we shot the scene that follows it, just a few minutes later, story-wise, and the characters had to hold umbrellas, because of the drizzle, so I decided against establishing a lot of sunlight in there.

 

The final church had a hot backlight coming in for some angles, but it was a black & brown interior so you wouldn't get a lot of highlights in there other than the backlight on the heads.

 

The middle church, which I did not show a picture from before, was a very short scene -- I had an 18K HMI coming through the windows for a bright patch of sunlight but with the people standing up, there wasn't much light hitting the floor. The walls were white, which is one reason I didn't turn on the overhead tungsten, it made everything too flat. Here is a frame of the wide shot:

 

 

So the first white chapel was the best candidate for that sunny look but was the one tied to an overcast rainy day exterior, so I nixed the hard sunlight effect inside.

[Ted Keaton III]

David, this entire thread is incredible and thank you for taking the time.

 

My sister-in-law was, at one time, a key player with Sony Distribution.

 

She mentioned how Sony executives were the first to admit mistakes with regard to overlooking the faith-based market.

 

Sony's research found the market or audience for one movie was equivalent to seven SuperBowl's.

[joshua gallegos]

Incredible work! And you look like a filmmaking wizard with the beard.

[Satsuki Murashige]

Didn't realize Hayden Christensen was in the film until I watched the BTS. Since you're a Star Wars fan, I was curious if you got any Prequel set stories, David? :)

[David Mullen ASC]

Sure, we talked about the shooting of the prequels but being private conversations, I'm not sure I should repeat anything, even if innocuous.

[Satsuki Murashige]

Very wise :)

[Satsuki Murashige]

Very wise :)

[Justin Hayward]

Sure, we talked about the shooting of the prequels but being private conversations, I'm not sure I should repeat anything, even if innocuous.

 

How about only "good" things? :)

[cole t parzenn]

Other than the use of digital technology, was the cinematography of the Star Wars prequels notable?

[David Mullen ASC]

I'm a fan of David Tattersal and I think he did a good job on those films, particularly with the last one. Soft, elegant lighting -- which is sometimes the best you can do with so many virtual sets and green screen stages. My favorite is still Suschitzky's work on "Empire Strikes Back" though.

[Satsuki Murashige]

I was kinda more curious about 'working with George' stories and 'what the heck really happened, and how do you feel about it now' kinda stories. I've heard some first-hand stuff from former ILM and Skywalker Sound guys, but haven't really heard any stories from set yet. You can kinda piece things together from various sources, but as far as I know no one's written an in-depth first person account yet.

[Satsuki Murashige]

I still need closure... :/

[Miguel Angel]

Thank you for explaining it further Mr. Mullen! :)

 

Have a lovely day!

[Bill DiPietra]

Trailer's up!

 

90 Minutes in Heaven

 

Looks great, David! Interesting choice of release dates, too.