Wondering about the unusual flare in "Super 8"

GrahamH

GrahamH

Well-known member
Did anyone else find the pronounced blue linear flares in "Super 8", often extending right across the entire screen, and occasionally along weird diagonals, to be distracting and rather .... odd?

Can anyone shed any light (ouch - unintended pun) on why they looked the way they did?
 
Haven't seen it, but sounds like standard lens flare from an anamorphic lens.

IMDB technical stats say it was shot with Panavision cameras and lenses. Probably G-series anamorphics.

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I guess that's all it was. The thing that struck me was that there seemed to be very little 'ovalish-ness' to them ... they were very linear And some were not at all horizontal. Thanks for the reply.
 
They just looked like anamorphic flares to me. I've shot with some anamorphics based off the panavision design, and they had very similar flaring characteristics. It happens pretty easily with those lenses when you don't use a mattebox.
 
When JJ Abrams shot Star Trek they pointed high-powered flash-lights directly at the lens to produce these pronounced lens flares, and my guess he's doing the same thing with Super 8.
 
They weren't nearly to the extent that they were in Star Trek. They were definitely there, but seemed more like just flares from whatever regular light sources they had just off camera instead of a flashlight shooting in. They didn't seem as deliberate as they did in Star Trek.
 
I haven't seen Star Trek in a good while, but I must say this seemed pretty darn deliberate in Super 8. Nearly distracting in fact.
 
LOL

Andrew Kramer, from videoco-pilot.net, did the lens flares on STAR TREK and SUPER 8.

They're totally overdone and fake IMO
 
Yeah anamorphics, you can see the rectangular ghosts in some of the flares.

I didn't notice the flares as much in star trek, partly because they were intentional to make it feel very bright and vibrant in that movie. i think it fit the bill pretty nicely. Not so in super 8. I felt they were distracting and grossly overused. Horses for courses and all that.
 
I agree with Erik-these were a major distraction. They worked in Star Trek-but I think that J.J.
got caught up with his love for this effect-it just dosen't work as well in Super 8.
 
Yeah, Abrams loves his fake anamorphic lens flare. He consulted in the designing of it for video co-pilot.

It's excessive in Super 8, it worked in Star Trek because it added to the metal, glossy look of the space ships in space, it helped establish the setting.

it was so distracting before the train crash in Super 8, pans down on a dark and grungy 1970s set and I felt like there were light rays attacking me before the scene even went all crazy with explosions.
 
I didn't see Super 8 yet, but the extra material on the Star Trek DVD goes into great detail on the whole lens flare thing...
I thought it was a very cool, and pretty natural, effect in Star Trek.

I'm looking forward to seeing Super 8 (lens flares notwithstanding).

GJ
 
Just for the record, the flares in the films themselves are real...but Andrew Kramer added them to the animated titles and the closing titles. Those are REAL flares you're seeing in the films to my knowledge. Star Trek it made sense and gave the film a great style. Super 8 had far too many flares in places that didn't compliment the style all the time but instead as others said distrated the viewer. The worst scene for this from what I can remember was the scene with them playing back the Super 8 footage. The shots were held a long time with flares over key areas I need to see in shots that long...the actors eyes. The flares in Star Trek never stuck around long and when they did they were in very specific places that helped not hurt.
 
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