TEST: SHOT ENTIRE EPISODE WITH VOIGTLANDER 25mm

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dtzfilms

Well-known member
After listening to all the lens wars I decided to test something out.

I shot an entire webisode with just the voigtlander 25mm.

I moved the camera back for full shots, moved in close for closer shots. Remember the Voigtlander 25mm focuses up to 6", so one can get an ECU with it. Not flattering in close ups? That's what I kept on hearing. Just shoot ugly people and it won't matter. Or shoot cute people and we'll hardly notice they need a face-lift. King Speech was shot like that, wasn't it? Who cares? Who sir, I sir? Not I sir!

Besides, I do have a Nikon 50mm f/1.8 and a Nikon 85mm f/1.4, but I experimented and shot only with the Voightlander just to see how things would turn out. It's not fantastic, that's the first thing I shot with the AF100, didn't even bother with changing the settings on the camera and we shot at 200 iso. Cine-Like V.

Grading: Desaturated and applied film look to all the shots but the penultimate shot. I don't need anything fancy. I'm a writer experimenting. Constructive criticism and brotherly advice is welcome.

As a beginner, I obdurately refused to spend money I didn't have, getting into lens cock-fighting, but I realized quickly why people use a follow focus. Focusing by hand was a pain.
Until a decent zoom turns up, my only purchase (after robbing Fort Knox) will be a follow focus, a GH2 and Steadicam Merlin for moving shots, and maybe a shoulder thingy to get me off sticks.

So does anyone have the settings to match the AF100 to the GH2? That's all I need, I'll tell my story even with the s**ttiest image coming out of the AF100 which I love by the way. When I hire a DP who
knows this camera more than I do, then we can start pushing the camera to its limits. For now, story telling...


It's replete with errors but I learned a great deal as a beginning director. See for yourself:



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SA5ZqNbt5eY

How do you embed youtube in the forum?

You'll see further examples at http://frenemies-movie.com
It's simple stupid stuff. I wrote it in 2 hours and shot it the following day - Unrehearsed (and it shows).
I simply wanted to work with actors and see how I got along with them, talking to them, etc.

This is my personal Director school. I'll shoot 28 corny webisodes to
teach myself directing, then attempt my first feature. A Sci Fi. From what I've learned, so far
I know I'll be a different director at the end of this web series.
 
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Excellent!

I was very focused on the story and let the images just happen. One of the most successful still photography workshops I ever taught years ago was how to 'see' with only a 50mm lens. Students quickly got over their 'need' to have a bag full of lenses by using framing and depth of field to create varieties. We can all learn from that experiment.
 
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Interesting experiment- think it doesn't work so good on the over the shoulder shots, but excellent on the wides and extreme detail closeups.
 
Cheers NoahK. It doesn't work so well with the OTS shots? An opinion I have to agree with but would you say it detracts from my story?
Point I tried to make was that we should shoot with what we have and stop agonizing over this lens and that lens, this camera, that camera.
At the end of the day, its the story that matters most.

Obviously, I'll use my 50mm and 85mm when I shoot subsequent episodes.
More tools more options.
 
Yeah that was my opinion- I found it distracting because it was an odd looking angle. I'd have suggested you shoot them as clean closeups or staged the characters much closer together. But no biggie. I personally think lens choice and variation is a critical aspect of cinematography so I'm not the right person to advocate single lens approach anyways. :)

Noah
 
Yeah, mostly it was the height difference. The lady in the white-ish clothes was on a strange angle rather than flat shouldered, and she was higher than the other lady in the black top. I would have suggested some OTS shots mixed with a front close-up, or whatever the technical term is, just for variety.
 
evanrm said:
Yeah, mostly it was the height difference. The lady in the white-ish clothes was on a strange angle rather than flat shouldered, and she was higher than the other lady in the black top. I would have suggested some OTS shots mixed with a front close-up, or whatever the technical term is, just for variety.
Click to expand...
Fully agree with you. But the episode was abandoned. What you see is a first assembly edit. I didn't even bother sliding in the close ups - which I did shoot, nor did I bother finding better performances which do exist. Normally, I'd like to then go through and replace each shot with the best available but I just abandoned it. ABANDONED EPISODE is not an attempt at humor - I actually abandoned it and recast two of the actors because of onset difficulties, but thought I'd post it just to prove my point: one can shoot with just one lens if one is as impecunious as I am. So this is the point. Any problems you see are operator error, that's me falling flat as a director-editor, not the lens, not the camera. It IS possible if you are forced to, to shoot with just a 25mm voigtlander.
 
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