Flims/TV Shows with generally Deep Depth of Field

I'm confused - a deep depth of field is our nemesis - it's the shallow depth of field we play h** trying to achieve - or am I missing something ?????
 
Here we go ...

Both a deep and shallow DOF are methods that can be used to tell our stories.

I'd suggest Googling Gregg Tolland and Citizen Kane as a primer.

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I used to be convinced that a shallow DOF was the way to go, but these days I'm realizing it is not an end all.
 
J.R. Hudson said:
Here we go ...

Both a deep and shallow DOF are methods that can be used to tell our stories.

I'd suggest Googling Gregg Tolland and Citizen Kane as a primer.

-

I used to be convinced that a shallow DOF was the way to go, but these days I'm realizing it is not an end all.
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I'm with you here. There are some shots of mine where I was really praying to the gods for some deeper depth of field. Case in point: today i was shooting a video, and i needed to focus both on a girl who was right in front of the camera, and a plane flying overhead. Perfect focus on both is technically physically impossible.
 
MalcolmOng said:
I'm with you here. There are some shots of mine where I was really praying to the gods for some deeper depth of field. Case in point: today i was shooting a video, and i needed to focus both on a girl who was right in front of the camera, and a plane flying overhead. Perfect focus on both is technically physically impossible.
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Malcolm, you could actually put a split diopter filter on your lens to focus on two different depths at the same time. This was used in a lot of deep staging films, such as Citizen Kane and The Best Years of Our Lives.

Edit:
Of course, a plane flying overhead could easily be a cg plane comped into the sky.
 
Oh...never heard of a split diopter filter....doubt it would have worked anyway - I don't have a mattebox, but it sounds really interesting. Yeah it was supposed to be a CGI plane, but there were some buildings in the shot, and the sky wasn't very blue - it was white
 
Deep and shallow DOF are just elements in our artistic palette, like light and shadow. Both have their appropriate uses depending on the siituation.

The fact that 1/3" CCD cameras tend to have inately deep DOF unfortunately makes discussions of how to obtain shallow DOF seem disproportionately important.
 
MalcolmOng said:
I'm with you here. There are some shots of mine where I was really praying to the gods for some deeper depth of field. Case in point: today i was shooting a video, and i needed to focus both on a girl who was right in front of the camera, and a plane flying overhead. Perfect focus on both is technically physically impossible.
Click to expand...


A technique you may consider nextime is shooting the shot two different times.

One shot of the girl in focus and then change focus to a plane flying overhead and then composite the two together. If there is SKY (Which I assume) dominating a good portion of the frame, you shouldn't have much trouble with the merge.
 
Barry_Green said:
Generally deep depth of field? Watch any sitcom, they're usually nothing but deep depth of field.
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True, very true. I guess I'll be a little more specific, if any of you know of anything.

I'm curious as to shorts/films where the camera is in on the action, much like a film, whereas sitcoms have that general "four camera" studio style. Something with a more "run-and-gun" feel to it, even when the shots were well thought out.

I'm sure there have to be notable short films on these boards used with stock DVX/HVX, etc. If anyone remembers any in particular, which didn't utilize 35mm adapters, please let me know.
 
A lot of old B&W had deep depth of field. Part of the reason for it was that without color, there are less mental distractions by a busy colored background.

There are films of late with relatively deep depth of field: Apocalypto, for one. Both Collateral and Miami Vice have a lot of moderate and selective DOF. Both shot on HD, for the most part (big chip cams though). Those films were shot by Oscar winners I should note. There's also a surprising amount of footage in The New World that has a moderately deep DOF (shot on film). The Michael Mann/Dion Beebe films were shot using the moderate DOF in a very artistic manner. I believe both Apocalypto and New World were shot that way because of the scenic nature of the films. I'd have to watch them again, but I'd bet almost all of close-up's had shallow DOF which is something you're probably wondering, or they had another trick you can use, very dark, flat background on CU's.

I agree completely though with the statement that it's not the end all and it's a bit of a mistake perhaps to think we must have it, when as William and JR point out, production design, composition and lighting play huge parts.
 
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