Photo blogger describes exposing video using "180-degree rule"

[Guest]

I think you have about 45 degrees in either direction from a 180 shutter of grace before it becomes noticeable. There's generally not much of a creative look to a wider shutter (more open), it just gets a bit smeary and I can't think of a time when I saw it used for an interesting effect. Obviously the skinny shutter look has been a favorite for action scenes, fashion/music video etc for many years.

Shooting a feature on the F900 many years ago I accidentally turned off the shutter on the first day and was delighted to see that I gained signfiicant stop, so I did a setup with it. On playback I saw how it mushed out motion and went "OK, guess I should leave that thing on". In my defense, one must remember that prior to that, turning on the shutter on a video camera was a specialty choice, usually to dial out a frequency issue with a monitor etc and came along with an "!" in the viewfinder to remind you that you were doing something out of the ordinary and to remember to turn it back off again.

I remember just leaving it off when shooting 60i or 60p, when shooting some news stories. Gave a dramatic essence and got that extra stop, like you said. Never for 24p though.

 

[Guest]

In my operating days I sometimes would have a director ask me to pan faster at a given moment and I'd brace myself for the typical conversation that would follow:

"I can pan faster, but it will strobe"
"Well, just a little faster then".
"This is as fast as I can go without it strobing" (UNSPOKEN--"which is why I'm panning at that speed")
"How do we fix it?"
"I can go a lot faster"
"Show me"
I pan just fast enough to get beyond the strobe window.
"That's too fast!"
I look at him and shrug. [UNSPOKEN - "Physics!"]

At least this one was based on a director understanding that there actually is a "no-fly-zone" for pan speeds at 24 fps. Slightly less frustrating than them asking me to bend light rays, place two cameras in exactly the same spot or be in two places at once.

For the record, I never consulted a table or formula on this, I just developed a sense of it from practice. And that in the film days, where you couldn't see the effect in the viewfinder and didn't have instant playback that was reliable to tell you if it was happening or not. Part of the required skillset of an operator.

Relating too hard right now. haha

 

[CharlesPapert]

Gotcha - but no use in opening up the shutter to combat strobing?

PS if I may "fan out" for a moment, I recently found out on another part of the forum that you shot Key & Peele. My wife and I nearly died laughing at that show so many times, and the feature-quality cinematography was definitely a part of that. Thanks for the good times, man.

That is an interesting point Abe, I'm not sure I've explored that...perhaps for short shots where this is the primary movement. If the shot continues and people are moving through it etc., it's starts to look smeary.

Thanks on K&P, glad you enjoyed. Comedy Central keeps releasing sketches online (they were super-stingy about that when we were on air) and I think people are discovering ones they've never seen before which is fun.

 

[Guest]

That is an interesting point Abe, I'm not sure I've explored that...perhaps for short shots where this is the primary movement. If the shot continues and people are moving through it etc., it's starts to look smeary.

I think there are plenty of less formal projects that allow for 1/24th shutter to get around challenges. Like cars use LED light that often have a slow refresh rate. So, there have been times the establishing shot is shot at 1/30th or something just to get around the light flickr of the headlamps or brake lights.

 

[morgan_moore]

My best friend from high school's daughter is the most intuitive filmmaker I know in the YouTube blogger world. She's not a technical person at all. She doesn't know the "180 rule", or what a "180 degree shutter" means in context to her work. She's never studied film making. She could care less about what kind of camera she has, or the feature set, yet she winds up effectively using ALL the camera offers. For her, film making is just a form of personal expression or journaling as she works through what life is all about.

She's dammed effective telling her own story....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X7scafSOmhs

That video was from several years ago in a happier time, and she's had many challenges in her life, and is creating difficult challenges for her family, and ultimately "film making" may or may not be what carries her forward or defines her life. You can see this change in her other works if you care to search, but even with nothing but a cell phone propped up on a box, she finds a way to express the complications in her life.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_6BBDLYD04o

She looks like the same sort that can take decent photos on a phone - content not kit. But there is some film making going on there You say she is not tech but there is good skills from audio onward.

 

[Guest]

End of “The Good the Bad the Ugly” has some nice long lens fast pans. When the “ugly” is running around searching for the grave.