follow me focus..

rgdfilms

rgdfilms

Wet poodle
Hey guys

I've never used a follow focus before but now have the opportunity to buy one, redrock is about to release their unit and I have an m2 on order as well - ever since I started shooting, i've always been fine with the focus ring - besides making it easier for an assistant to focus and mark off your rack, are there any other benefits when using an FF ? Ease of use?

Thanks

:costumed-smiley-047
 
It's just easier to use/ find/ handle when your shooting. Can you get by without one? Yeah.

But if it's within your means to get one, I would do it; it's one less headache, and you can achieve much better results when racking.
 
I've always wondered the same thing. Is it because of the gear ratio, the marking, or being able to make hard stops, or what?
 
repeatable focus! you dont have to "eye" it in the middle of shooting.
side note- chris, I'll send you the link to the finished video, and it will be on MTV2 this weekend, lemme know if you want details or just a DVD..
 
Since we just released our microFollowFocus package (http://redrockmicro.com/mff_product.htm) let me offer my two cents on the benefits of a follow focus:

1. you don't have to touch the lens barrel - just like any kind of shooting, the more you touch the lens directly, the more you risk bumping or jostling your shot.

2. Accurate and repeatable focus marks - using either measuring or having actors hit their marks and using visual focusing, once you have these set on your follow focus, you can accurately and repeatably recreate the focus required for the scene. Like everything in filmmaking, scenes are repetitive and you want everything - the actors, the lighting, the scenery, the focus - to be consistent from take to take. follow focus helps you do this.

3. Team or single person use - you can use the follow focus with a dedicated person (first AC or focus puller) who is skilled at the art of focusing, or you can also use it when you are pulling focus yourself (by using hard stops between focus points)

4. Depth of field - *especially* with 35mm adapters such as the Redrock M2, your depth of field may be reduced to feet or even inches. With such tight requirements, having the ability to precisely control focus is really *really* helpful.

5. Flexibility - follow focus units also allow you additional flexbility on where and how to handle focus. With a whip (an extension to the focus wheel) you can have someone away from the camera handling the focus. With a speed crank, you can quickly rack focus, faster and with less jerking than you could easily do so just by whipping the focus ring on the lens itself.

6. Handle elaborate focus requirements - Sure it's easy to focus on one or even between two things, but what if you have a scene that requires you to pull focus between 4, 5, even 6 or more points? and do that repeatably between takes? Without a marking disk and marked points, you couldn't reliably do this with any precision.

Hope that helps - just my two cents. I'm sure others have additional thoughts as well

Brian
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top