Zooming in narrative filmmaking

L

Legion6789

Active member
Earlier I started a thread asking about parfocal zooms for the 5D3. My initial desire for a zoom lens came from shooting stills and getting tired of constantly swapping out primes. But I figured if I was going to invest a lot of money in a quality zoom lens, then I should get one suited for video as well, hence my desire for a parfocal zoom. However, I'm thinking about all the movies/tv shows I've seen and I rarely see the camera zoom in/out. So, workflow benefits aside, do you find you regularly zoom in/out for a shot in narrative film shoots? i.e. in the finished video, the audience sees the camera zoom in/out.
 
Legion6789 said:
Earlier I started a thread asking about parfocal zooms for the 5D3. My initial desire for a zoom lens came from shooting stills and getting tired of constantly swapping out primes. But I figured if I was going to invest a lot of money in a quality zoom lens, then I should get one suited for video as well, hence my desire for a parfocal zoom. However, I'm thinking about all the movies/tv shows I've seen and I rarely see the camera zoom in/out. So, workflow benefits aside, do you find you regularly zoom in/out for a shot in narrative film shoots? i.e. in the finished video, the audience sees the camera zoom in/out.
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Not really, but who says you can't create you own lane?

Personally I think punch in zooming can look pretty cool if used effectively also vertigo shots. As a Director/DP if you can create a scene that calls for a zoom in a shot and used it creatively I feel it can work.
Peace
 
The zoom shoot is filmmaking technique that is best used very judiciously. There are some classic examples of the use of the zoom shoot. The most famous that I know of is the very opening shot in "The Godfather" where a very slow zoom out, performed with a "Computer" controlled zoom lens, is used. Stanley Kubrick also used zoom shoots in the movies "A Clock Work Orange" and "Barry Lyndon" where slow zoom outs were used to establish many scenes. He also used "Snap Zooms" in the ending freak out part of "The Shining". Snap zooms were also a staple of 1970's Martial Arts and other action oriented exploitation movies. Quentin Tarantino, a devotee of 1970's filmmaking, also used snap zooms in the "Kill Bill" movies. When I think about zoom shoots I really associate them with 1970's filmmaking. I think that the development of high quality cinema zooms during that time, like any new innovation, lead to their overuse and may be why they fell out of favor. That and the fact that most amateur home movie cameras have zoom lenses and there was a tendency for home movies to have multiple zoom in and zoom outs (Called "Tromboneing"). I also think that the development of quality camera stabilizers, like the Steadicam, lead filmmakers to start using the moving camera more confidently.

A zoom shoot is definitely part of the filmmaking arsenal, but it has to be used carefully. I have been looking for a fast parfocal zoom lens also, but have not gotten one yet. I did pick up a 28-105mm Vivitar Series 1 lens that has a max aperture of 2.8 to 3.5. I only intended to use it as a vari-prime lens, but I have used it on occasion in run and gun situations (On a FS-100) and I have been able to get usable zoom shots, covering moving subjects. The lens is a push-pull lens and while that has many draw backs it actually helps make doing a zoom with the non-par focal lens possible (You do not have to deal with two lens dials for zoom and focus). It is not an ideal lens to do zoom shoot with but sometimes you have to work with what you have.
 
Modern films (e.g. Bourne) also have some zooms in the final edit. Use with lots of care, though, it can be a giveaway of your not-quite-$200M budget.
 
It's fairly common to augment a dolly move with a judicious amount of zoom, when circumstances demand it. When done properly, the zoom aspect is unnoticeable. I can't think of any examples to post, again because it's pretty common.

Outside of the stylized examples listed above, the super-slow creep-in for emphasis during emotional scenes is another staple.
 
In Bourne, it's just a plain-old whip-zoom-in during fights. I saw it first in the bathroom fight in Bourne Ultimatum, and thought they might have used it because of the very tight spaces (a dolly might not have been an option). But it is elsewhere too, so it may be just another aspect of the Bourne shakycam look. The edit masks it to great extent, you may have to watch the scene a couple of times to find the zoom if you get carried away by the action.
 
What? Judiciously? Oh come on, you old men you. Zooms are f'ing great! Hard to make but when done right, they look awesome. That's why A LOT of CGI-shots have been starting to use snap-zooms. Man of Steel? Snap zooms (only in CGI), Firefly (great usage of it), Episodes 2&3 of Star Wars, etc etc etc.

And the whip-zoom during fights? Excellent. When it works, it really works. When it doesn't, it doesn't. Just like any other technique.
 
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