Anamorphic Film Look - How does this look?

thefilmaddict

thefilmaddict

Veteran
I love the look of Anamorphic Film, but Anamorphic Lenses are expensive and Anamorphic Adapters can be difficult to use (some require focusing multiple elements). I took my camera out and shot with a vintage lens (the HELIOS-44-2 58mm) to see if I could recreate the Anamorphic Film Look. Then at home, I brought the footage into Adobe Premiere Pro and added some effects to see if I could make the anamorphic look even more convincing. I ended up with an 8K file for YouTube. How does it look to you?

https://youtu.be/2C7U2-jGxQI
 
If you want to go really crazy, you can apply the VashiMorphic40 distortion template to further simulate the anamorphic look.

I really like how anamorphic maximizes camera resolution, but that's not much of an issue in this day and age with Blackmagic releasing a 12K camera.
 
It only maximizes resolution if you have a 4:3 sensor to begin with. But it can be a cool look for sure
 
Beyond using the old russian lens, I did add: LENS DISTORTION & VR CHROMATIC ABERRATIONS in post. It did help. It's funny, I could have gone more intense, but I didn't want to go overboard.
 
Lens mods like elliptical aperture disks and fishing line can be pretty convincing in faking the anamorphic look.

A 1.33x anamorphic lens on a 16:9 sensor should yield something around a 2.39:1 aspect ratio.
 
Being 100% brutally honest, it looks like an old, soft lens in need of a trip to the bench to be re-built or just shelved until a hipster comes wanting to rent it for their masterpiece... Nothing about that screamed anamorphic to me. Even if you said, "Surprise, it really is an anamorphic", I'm still not impressed. Not critiquing your actual shots, just the image/lens quality.
 
It was an experiment. Back to the drawing board. Anyone using this and think it's worth the money: SLR Magic Anamorphot-50 1.33x Anamorphic Adapter
 
Run&Gun, I was going for a grainy camera defects look (that's why I added grain and shot with that vintage soviet lens wide open -- it's definitely sharper when its closed down). Sometimes I like the "Hipster" look. That being said, sometimes it's just too much. Here's the anamorphic look added to a modern lens below. Do you guys like this better?

https://youtu.be/rgY5elxbHhU
 
I like the look you've achieved. Doesn't fool me into thinking that it's anamorphic, but you've effectively injected some more character into a lens. Thanks for sharing!
 
Thanks, quickhitrecord. Do you prefer the first video with the Helios lens and film grain or the second video shot with a modern canon lens and no grain?
 
I think it looks kind of flat but it's probably the lens. One filmmaker I worked with once had a device called an anamorphic adapter in order to try get more of an anamorphic look, and it looked impressive in some shots, but do those work well?
 
Doesn't look anamorphic at all really. If you want the optical artefacts of squeezed lenses, you just have to use squeezed lenses. There are a lot more sets of Atlas Orions out in the world these days, which are much cheaper to rent than the more expensive traditional options.

If you have a project that you feel really needs to be shot scope, just rent a set. The Atlases are wonderfully easy to work with compared to older anamorphics - they have a consistent front end that you can use clamp-on matteboxes with (which makes filtration and diopters much less of a hassle than they usually are with scope glass), and the focus and iris rings are consistent throughout the set, so it's as simple to change lenses as spherical glass.

Scope glass is still specialty glass, so I really don't think it makes much financial sense for many people to own them. Just rent them as needed, it's easier and cheaper now than it's ever been.
 
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