Achieving the Wes Anderson Lens Look with a none anamorphic Lens

I

Ignacy

Member
Hi Dvxusers,

I'll be shooting a commercial in the style of the Grand Budapest Hotel in a few weeks with a Sony a7s in APS-C mode.
I know that a lot of things go into achieving the Wes Anderson look other than Lenses (Set Design, Costumes, Whip Pans, Dolly tracks, Planimetric staging etc etc etc) but I obviously want to prepare the best I can in this department as well and thus intend to stay true to his favorite lens choice. Apparently he mostly uses 40mm Anamorphic.
A 21mm in APS-C mode or a 28mm in full frame would come closest to achieving this angle of view. I’ll add black bars on top and in the bottom in post (heresy to some here probably but I'm fine with it).

Here come's my question:

Would you guys advise me to rent a 21mm lens (Zeiss 21 2.8 ZF) or stay with my Contax and rent a Metabones Sony E mount speedbooster which will provide me with an acceptable approximation of the 21mm aps-c look?
What are the advantages/disadvantages of one over the other?

I'm also considering renting out a Tiffen Black Pro Mist 1/8 lens or do you think the Contax look suffices and will provide a soft enough look by itself?

PS: I don't intend to rent out anamorphic Lenses (I don't have that budget). Nor do I intend to use Cinemorph Style Anamorphic Filers.
I'll be shooting with the Sony A7s in APS-C mode.
 
Emulating a "look" can be difficult without using the same type of locations, lighting, camera, lenses, art direction, etc. The first step is to clearly define, in your own mind or the clients, what appeals to you about that specific look. For me, I would take a few hero-frames from the film then use specific technical words to describe what it is that appeals. "The scene is a static wide-angle shot, evenly lit with rose-tinted, soft-lighting from the left side," is something I can begin to duplicate. "I like the way the texture interplays with his character," is much less precise and subject to a lot of interpretation.

IMDB says that the film was shot with Arricam ST, Technovision/Cooke, Cooke S4, Varotal and Angenieux Optimo Lenses using 35 mm Kodak Vision3 200T 5213 FILM. If I remember correctly there were different aspect ratios used (to delineate different times in history.)

Also, IIRC, the coloring for most scenes featured one very dominant color, usually red/pink and/or teal. Probably achieved with a mixture of lighting, styling, and color-grading. Film, itself has a characteristic look - 24p/grain/diffusion/etc. You might plan on researching the "film look" discussions that dominated the video world discussion in recent years, if you haven't done that olready.

An anamorphic lens can be somewhat simulated with a wide lens and black bars on top and in the bottom in post. But again, ask yourself what is appealing about some particular scene shot with an anamorphic lens. Some folks like sweeping vistas or the way things change shape as they move across the field-of-view. Others like the horizontal smearing of light and non-round lens flares. Much of that can be simulated in post. Actually shooting with an anamorphic lens has it's own set of learning curves, and shooting a commercial might not be the best place to learn.


Jim
Colorburst Video
 
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Ignacy said:
Hi Dvxusers,

I'll be shooting a commercial in the style of the Grand Budapest Hotel in a few weeks with a Sony a7s in APS-C mode.
I know that a lot of things go into achieving the Wes Anderson look other than Lenses (Set Design, Costumes, Whip Pans, Dolly tracks, Planimetric staging etc etc etc) but I obviously want to prepare the best I can in this department as well and thus intend to stay true to his favorite lens choice. Apparently he mostly uses 40mm Anamorphic.
A 21mm in APS-C mode or a 28mm in full frame would come closest to achieving this angle of view. I’ll add black bars on top and in the bottom in post (heresy to some here probably but I'm fine with it).

Here come's my question:

Would you guys advise me to rent a 21mm lens (Zeiss 21 2.8 ZF) or stay with my Contax and rent a Metabones Sony E mount speedbooster which will provide me with an acceptable approximation of the 21mm aps-c look?
What are the advantages/disadvantages of one over the other?

I'm also considering renting out a Tiffen Black Pro Mist 1/8 lens or do you think the Contax look suffices and will provide a soft enough look by itself?

PS: I don't intend to rent out anamorphic Lenses (I don't have that budget). Nor do I intend to use Cinemorph Style Anamorphic Filers.
I'll be shooting with the Sony A7s in APS-C mode.
Click to expand...


Since you have a couple of weeks before your shoot why not do your own testing to see if what you have will be acceptable before you start renting based off of forum response?

For what it is worth, I have been asked to shoot with lens focal length Y or Z on various jobs by folks with the best intentions wanting to emulate the look of a movie, or the work of a DP they follow. But many times the focal length lens they want to shoot with is completely wrong for the shot. For example I work on occasion with a producer that is all about wanting Kubrick wide shots. But lacks the budget & location availability to pull it off. I almost always start with a 35mm for his projects to frame out blank empty set.

I guess the point I'm trying to make is, if you have the time do a location test in advance. The focal length lens you think you want to use may in fact be the wrong choice once you see the location.

All the best!

Dave
 
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^ That's a very good idea. Though it wasn't easy for me to actually call it an idea because it's a blatantly obvious thing that you should very definitely do.
What lenses do you have at hand?
 
"For what it is worth, I have been asked to shoot with lens focal length Y or Z on various jobs by folks with the best intentions wanting to emulate the look of a movie, or the work of a DP they follow. But many times the focal length lens they want to shoot with is completely wrong for the shot. For example I work on occasion with a producer that is all about wanting Kubrick wide shots. But lacks the budget & location availability to pull it off. I almost always start with a 35mm for his projects to frame out blank empty set."

Which is a great point, David. There's nothing wrong with having a director who is thinking in conceptual terms, but the DP's job is to translate that into the mechanical and spatial realities of the world. I hope your director's have been flexible enough to change things up :)
 
Guys! Thanks a bunch for all these answers!

Arco, thank you for the tips. I'm definitely with you on clearly defining and thinking through all the aspects of note that will make the product resemble the Wes Anderson style as much as possible.
I've analysed the Grand Budapest through and through as well as peaking into some of his other more recent films (other than having done so by being a fan earlier on already ;) and have created different mood boards to discuss with each respective team member (lighting, set design, etc). Currently I'm anxiously awaiting being green lit by the producers for the last storyboard/screenplay proposition.

David, Indeed on my project I won't be able to limit myself to just one lens (or mostly so) as Wes Anderson seems to do with the 40mm, since I don't have the luxury of big spaces, locations and set design options (it's a rather small budget thing).

Samuel, as for the lenses, these are the ones I have:

Primes: Contax 28 F2.8, Contax 50 F1.7, Helios 58 F2, Mir 37 F2.8, Nikon 135 F3.5 (undervalued great lens!).
Zooms: Canon 10-18, Canon 24-105.
Zooms Minolta: 35-70 F3.5 / 70-210 F4 (Beercan).

I'm considering shooting with the Contax Primes only and there's one extra vintage little sequence I have in mind for the Helios 58 F2.
In one of the locations where we'll be shooting I feel I need a wider Lens than the 28 and that explains my question above.
Also, for one of the car scenes (Camera middle backseat, two drivers in front) I might use the 24-105 at 24mm but I'm affraid this will be too tight still, especially in APS-C (Which I must use on the a7s to avoid Rolling shutteR). I will have to do some testing before the shoot to see how close I can get the Contax Primes to the look of the canon but I'm quite afraid these won't mix well. I tried once with the 10-18 on a project and wasn't very convinced.
So far the screenplay does not call for any Telephoto shots....
 
Oh, and I was temporarily also considering The Minoltas instead of Contax (for their warmer golden glow and less analytical feel than the Contax primes) but I'm affraid the images might run too soft. I'll also have much more difficulties follow focussing with the Minoltas.
 
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