Graduated Fog Filter

Ryan Patrick O'Hara

Ryan Patrick O'Hara

Veteran
Hello everybody, I am currently in preproduction for a film which takes place as a storm is moving in. I am shooting for a very muted color palate with soft light. In the scene outside, the sky is gray and overcast. I was hoping to have some fog and while researching methods of achieving this I found a graduated fog filter at
http://www.adorama.com/CKP150.html

This looks great, and I love how it is graduated! The sample picture looks fantastic, and my question to you guys is if you think this would work for a moving picture. Sometimes filters that replicate fog or other spfx look good in photography but reveal themselves when the camera starts moving.

I of course will most likely be testing this, but before I buy to test, I would like to see if anybody has any experience using this filter.

Thanks!
 
Like you said, the effect looks great when the camera is static, but as soon as you start to move around, the filter looses its effect, and kills the realism of the shot.

Why not just use fog on set?
 
Ok, I've been thinking about this long and hard...

So this graduated fog filter looks nice for photography and it is my opinion (confirmed as well by Andrew) that this will lose it's effect once the camera is in motion. I would say this happens because we will notice the 'static' fog due to the non static camera.

So I have been brain storming... and this is what I have concluded. I am thinking of this sort of like the GG of a lens adapter. It's got static grain... How can I make this fog 'jump' to life. Give it some organic feel. Spinning it would only work if I had a large circular filter with the outer rim fogged fading into a clear center, and having only the radius of the filter in front of the lens... Not possible. They don't sell 100mm circular fog spot filters. But then I thought about what other lens adapters do... vibrate!

This I really think I am going to test, but again, before I begin, I would like to bounce this idea off my fellow dvxusers. What do you think about a very subtle yet effective vibrating graduated fog filter? It might bring that fog to life, looking like it's organic and changing. Hmmmm....

If this doesn't work i've been thinking about digging small little trenches across the field and inserting lots of rows of garden hose (punctured every 4-5 feet) which will be pumped full of smoke from a very high powered smoke machine. (Like a reverse sprinkler system)... but I fear that the slightest wind will blow the smoke making it look more like Gettysburg cannon fodder, rather than genuine haze/smoke.

I'm probably starting to sound crazy but hey. :2vrolijk_08:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top