Shoot a Movie with only 1 Lens

GaryinCalifornia

GaryinCalifornia

Veteran
Was looking up some things the other day and found a few articles on how some classic and even a few modern films have bee shot with only 1 lens.

So if I was looking at the Sirui 50mm Anamorphic which on my Sony Fs5 my has a FOV of 37.5

Now what I call the lottery on Monday (only a 1,000) for the new Sirui 35mm which would have a FOV of 26.3

Which one would you use?

Yes I know about using primes or a zoom if you make a no budget movie.

Again if you only could make a movie on one of these lens which one?
 
Assuming you're making a film with people - and if just one lens - then the longer focal length because it will look more normal on people for close-ups vs. the wider one.

But if you're shooting a film with mostly landscapes or mid-shots of people then the wider one.
 
On the FS5, I would use a 35mm lens. You don't even have to force me. I have long thought it best to shoot an entire movie at one focal length, particularly the normal focal length.

I believe that this is particularly true with fiction, because theoretically you should be able to put the camera wherever you want. So you should be choosing a lens not for framing (long shot, medium shot, close-up) but for feel. A medium shot with a telephoto lens feels different than a medium shot with a wide-angle lens. I'm not really telling you anything you don't already know.

But in particular I feel that the normal focal length feels just right. It is neither too long or too short, naturally :) Especially if you define a normal lens as a diagonal field of view of 45 degrees (on full frame, this is 50mm; and on S35 it is 35mm). There are geometric reasons for this, which I cannot yet describe completely. But I hope to make a post some day.

By the way, I don't know what formula you're using.

35mm which would have a FOV of 26.3
Click to expand...

A 35mm on S35 would have:

diagonal: 44
horizontal: 39
vertical: 23

aov.png

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Anyway, I give more reasons and lots of examples in an old thread: Videos shot with a single, normal, prime lens
 
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This is one of those things that I think is an interesting experiment worth trying, but I don't really know what it ultimately means. I choose a focal length for a given shot for numerous reasons: compression, depth of field (native to the focal length and then via aperture), and that sense of inclusion or exclusion that is hard to articulate. But it is for me always a choice and a consideration. To dogmatically shoot everything on a single lens is to throw all of that away and again I'm just not sure I know what the point is outside of making it an exercise. It's not to say I haven't enjoyed films that were shot with a single lens, but I don't think that is the reason I liked them. Shrug?!
 
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