What focal length to use?

[Snapper123]

Hey guys, for a certain important shot in one of my films, I have the scene set up where two teenagers, a boy and a girl walk into a dusky, farmhouse living room from the front door, and to capture a certain angle of this action, I want to place the camera in the hallway that leads to the living room from the left of the front door, with the camera capturing a diagonal angle of both the couple's faces walking in and a wide-angle view of the entire living room. Basically, from a diagonal far left angle, the camera is facing the front windows, part of front door, the actors' faces, all of the furniture, yada yada.

Now, since the hallway I'd be working with would cut off the camera's view unless the camera was right up front where the hallway ends, I know right away that I have to use a wide angle lens that can capture what's both beside the lens and in front of the lens, I would say in all, I need at least a 75* degree view of this room from an angle, and I would almost say I need 90*. So far, this fits perfectly with my vision, because I both want an intimidating and personal (but only to a non-comical and subtle aesthetic extent) slight fish-eye effect. I also do not want depth of field, I want the entire room to be in focus for the most part, and despite the fact I need a low aperture such as 1.4 for the lighting style, a wide angle would give me plenty of focus plane.

Now here's the problem; what lens and focal length should I choose? I would probably gather that a 24mm lens may be enough, especially if I pair that with a rented MKII, but even then, would opting for any certain brands yield me with more cinematic results? Are there any brands that hold more realistic views at wide-angle focal lengths? (For instance, creating a view that looks more cinematic than just distorted, I saw a Zeiss 8mm do this once.) Basically, aesthetic wise, Hills Green would be an alike aesthetic and tone for the scene I'm trying for, nothing comedic or cartoonish, a serious, farm-house aesthetic with just a touch more freedom in the focal length department, as I do want to implement touches those "focal length moods" that give just a slight camcorder-esque freedom and a bit more of a 'teenager'-ish feel. Any advice on this?

P.S. I just did a approximate distance test in an entirely different location, and it seems as though I may need a 18mm lens paired with a MKII, or if I have to use the crop DSLR's, I probably need as much as a 15mm. I'm just afraid it'll distort my image too much to retain a cinematic feel. Hmm...Would using a 1080P camcorder be a possible choice in this? They have lenses that are made to be like 10mm at wide angle, but distort the image much less (as it's designed for the crop sensors). Would that be the wisest choice?

 

[j1clark@ucsd.edu]

Hey guys, for a certain important shot in one of my films, I have the scene set up where two teenagers, a boy and a girl walk into a dusky, farmhouse living room from the front door, and to capture a certain angle of this action, I want to place the camera in the hallway that leads to the living room from the left of the front door, with the camera capturing a diagonal angle of both the couple's faces walking in and a wide-angle view of the entire living room. Basically, from a diagonal far left angle, the camera is facing the front windows, part of front door, the actors' faces, all of the furniture, yada yada.

You do really have to have a clearer idea of the camera you are going to use, and attendant actual optical values. There are calculators for various cameras/lenes etc. which would allow you to find the 'right' lens length for a given frame 'window' at the subject. Is the talent composed for something above the head, to feet, say requiring a vertical length of 7ft. I have an iPhone app that calculates Field of View info based on lens and distance and for a GH-1 camera setting, a 14mm lense would require a 10-12 foot subject/camera distance to get approximately in the ball park of a full length shot.

I used a HMC-150 several years ago, and was 'amazed' at how distorted the image got when I used the 'short' zoom focal lengths, but that was what I had to live with to get the shot that I wanted... approximately...