Reply From Michael Muller

Jason

Thanks for your kind words and glad my photos inspire you. Here are my answers hope they help. 

Good luck on your road to becoming a bad ass photographer ;)

Best

MM

What is the process of crating movie posters especially ones like X-Men with loads of composites compared to ones like I think its Spartacus that seem to be more simpler?

Actually both of those posters are composites and I guess would depend on which image and which season your referring to. With that said my first movie poster I ever did was Xmen 3 take a stand. If you look at those you'll see they were ALL shot in-camera and there is NO compositing. That is always my goal but 90% of posters are composites which means it's all about lighting and the finisher who puts it all together and the good ones make them look in-camera. So those are the main things but then there is directing the talent and composition.  Direction is HUGE with anyone you shoot. They are ALL looking to you to direct them, even the biggest actors or a sports star. So you need to walk on your set and own it, believe in yourself and your ideas so they will see that and believe you too and do what your asking them to do for photo. If you don't believe your idea neither will they. So the best thing to do now is work on that with EVERYONE you shoot. Practice arriving at your location and then finding 4-6 different looking backdrops with in a 2 block radius of where you are shooting. If in a studio take them outside and find some great spots to use as well. That way when big jobs come you've trained your eye to do this. It's invaluable skill to develop. 

What is the process of the photographing the celebrities, is there much communication and planning before the shoots, you will have a concept, do the subject know whats going to be happening?

Well above answer addresses a lot of this as well but everyone is different. I don't go in to shoots with too much pre conceived ideas. I let the location and person dictate that and let my creativity flow on the spot but that takes time to develope. You HAVE to communicate, well I guess there are some that don't but most talent don't like to work with people like that. They want you to tell them the idea and then what you NEED from them. Get them to let their walls down and relax and trust process and to be in the moment. 

You are into expedition swimming with sharks creating dramatic images with extraordinary use of (I presume) natural light. You waited one year to get a rare image of the great white shark breaching the water, what kept his motivation after a year?

I actually invented the most powerful waterproof strobes in the world that I have 4 patents on which when you look at the sharks they are swimming out of light!! That's me bringing a studio to the animals in their environment. That's always my goal to do something in a new way, something Never been done before. I don't look at others photos I look to my Mind for ideas. That way it's fresh idea not another's idea that you are "copying" is how I approach. Expeditions are my passion. It keeps me interested cause I'm doing it for my own reasons not a client or a job but because I want to. A lot of freedom in that. Shoot stuff you love or know from sports to whatever. That's always a good place to start shooting. I started photo with snowboarding. 

Hope that all helps!!!

Best

MM