Any INDY features shot with a SINGLE Prime Lens?

[michael zaletel]

Just curious if anyone has ever shot an independent feature film with a single Prime Lens either due to budget constraints or perhaps just a matter of style.

Please advise,

-shooter

 

[Rich Schaefer]

Nope.

Good question, I could do it with 2! The 35mm and the 85mm.

 

[Andrew Walker]

Nope.

Good question, I could do it with 2! The 35mm and the 85mm.

I could believe that.

 

[David Mullen ASC]

Most of the shots in a Wes Anderson movie is shot with one lens -- in the case of "Bottle Rocket", it was a 27mm I believe. His later movies were mostly shot on a 40mm anamorphic lens, though he does like to toss in the occasional zoom lens shot.

Most of "Rosemary's Baby" was shot on one lens, a 25mm I think. Again, Polanski did something similar for "Chinatown", which was mostly shot on a 40mm anamorphic.

 

[michaelmadison]

That's a good bit of info that I didn't know. Thanks.

 

[Mike Prevette]

I've worked with Robert Yeoman, ASC a few times (Andersons DP on most his films) I remember asking him about this a few years ago and he said that indeed the 27 for Bottle Rocket and 40 for some of the rest were the only lenses that came out of the case 99% of the time.

Pretty amazing, and a testament to the skill of everyone involved.

 

[Tommy Paine]

Jim Jarmusch's "Down By Law" was shot on either a 32 or 35 only.

 

[Sanjin Jukic]

Yasujiro Ozu

"(Ozu) He shot solely from a low camera angle, using a 50mm lens, and he subordinated spatial continuity to visual aesthetics."

Read more>>>

 

[michael zaletel]

"(Ozu) He shot solely from a low camera angle, using a 50mm lens, and he subordinated spatial continuity to visual aesthetics."

Cool. Thanks Sanjin.

-shooter

"The sets were then specifically created around the focal length and depth-of-field of the single lens that Ozu preferred—a 50 mm. Again, alternate lenses were not of much interest to Ozu, and he almost never used them. Movement of the camera itself, whether panning or tracking, is nearly non-existent in his late style—as are fades, dissolves, or other optical effects. It is through this elegant quietness that Ozu navigates his slight stories around the expected landmarks of dramatic curves and heightened emotions. Nothing is forced. All that is left on screen are the smallest details of human nature and interaction, delivered through a lens that is delicate, observational, reductive, and pure."

 

[Alberto Caprioglio]

Nope.

Good question, I could do it with 2! The 35mm and the 85mm

If it has to be a small packaege, what about a zoom?
For a small project with money next to zero, I would choose a medium/good quality still zoom lens (borrowed, of course)... this would allows almost all the freedom, more than just 1 or 2 fixed focal lenths even if they where the newest Zeiss.

Anyway, I could do with one, don't know if 16mm or 35mm or 50mm... it depends if the projects is indoor or not.
And oh yes, could use 4k, 3k, 2k (2k + sharpening, possibly), to multiply the lens angles possibilities both during shooting and in post. So, using a wide lens is probably better.
But... nonsense... I would avoid all this troubles and thinking if I just used something like a used, old, but good, nikon, canon, leica, pentax, zoom: I can't imagine not being able to afford anything. Than, I would rent out my camera for a day and get one from a used camera shop. No problem.
Better than HDV for sure... and HDV can also be not all that bad, after all. Is it?
It's good to change tools.
And not (always) use the boring stuff every one uses and want to use as if it were the only way.

It's too easy to make decent images with fantastic tools. Try with ordinary tools, or everyday tools. Unless they are extremely bad and unreliable, I enjoy myself more. Not having to pay a mental tribute to a godly lens at every frame.

 

[Zakaree Sandberg]

ive shot 2 commercials strictly with a 28mm..
not because i didnt have anything else..
its just what worked for those commercials.

 

[Robert Berger]

I have just finished a documentary of 52 min. for the dutch national tv with my RED 1265. 98% handheld and only using a 50mm 2.1 Arri-zeiss lens. No focus-puller at all, in 4K.
22 march 2009 you can see it in the Netherlands.

Its about a Dutch still photographer "Kors van Bennekom". I just wanted to use the 50mm because i wanted to limit myself and force to think very good how to take a shot and where.

It was very hard because i only used available light and inside the stop was always f2.1.
It turned out very wll and i and the directors and the AVRO where very, very pleased with the result.

10 days of shooting and a beautiful document, with great still pictures made by Kors over the last 50 years in Amsterdam.

Robert

 

[Sanjin Jukic]

I have just finished a documentary of 52 min. for the dutch national tv with my RED 1265. 98% handheld and only using a 50mm 2.1 Arri-zeiss lens. No focus-puller at all, in 4K.
22 march 2009 you can see it in the Netherlands.

Its about a Dutch still photographer "Kors van Bennekom". I just wanted to use the 50mm because i wanted to limit myself and force to think very good how to take a shot and where.

It was very hard because i only used available light and inside the stop was always f2.1.
It turned out very wll and i and the directors and the AVRO where very, very pleased with the result.

10 days of shooting and a beautiful document, with great still pictures made by Kors over the last 50 years in Amsterdam.

Robert

Robert,

great example and looking forward to see it.

 

[Ketch Rossi]

Just curious if anyone has ever shot an independent feature film with a single Prime Lens either due to budget constraints or perhaps just a matter of style.

Please advise,

-shooter

I'm taking serious consideration to do so for my first feature film and started testing my 85mm 1.2 calculating the crop factor, and visualizing the DOF results as well as the perspective given to the filmed subject depending on the distance of IT from the lens and the distance of IT from the background, end will do a detailed report later next month when Peter returns as we will have a RED ONE with a Birger mount.

I absolutely Love the shallow ( extremely shallow) DOF that this lens can produce, in this particular film I don't have any fast pace action scenes, but it is rather a story for which I like to have a very close fill to it, bringing an added dramatic visual to a particular scene.

I believe that this will create various challenges but even in photography I'm down to almost solely using the 85mm, sure I use the 1Ds III so been a FF sensor the focal length remains that of 85mm, while on RED will be closer to my second favorite lens the 135mm, as this presents a very up close and personal relation with the photographed characters, and as this first feature is all about the characters and what happens to them, I believe this will be ultimately my choice.

Obviously this will be so if I do ending up filming with an adaptor on RED to use the Canon EF 85mm f/1.2L II, but if I end up using PL mount lenses then I will likely use the MP 100mm making also the use of MD's for extreme close up and detail shots, and the only other lens I would use would be the RED ZOOM 18-85mm.

I'll be doing some tests next month, during the shoot of the Trailer for the film, and final decision will be made.

It is likely that the Trailer will be shot, beside with RED one cams, with two SI configured in 3D, as to give me a different perspective on how this film would look if told in 3D.

ciao

 

[Gunleik Groven]

I've been considering doing things on 18mm only. Will probably test on a small project just after new year.

 

[ThunderDownCountry]

Most of the shots in a Wes Anderson movie is shot with one lens -- in the case of "Bottle Rocket", it was a 27mm I believe. His later movies were mostly shot on a 40mm anamorphic lens, though he does like to toss in the occasional zoom lens shot.

Most of "Rosemary's Baby" was shot on one lens, a 25mm I think. Again, Polanski did something similar for "Chinatown", which was mostly shot on a 40mm anamorphic.

Do you happen to know exactly which lens Yeoman used?

 

[Patric Ralston]

I believe that Ken Loach (Director; The Wind That Shakes The Barley) shoots most of his features mainly on a 40mm.

 

[David Mullen ASC]

Do you happen to know exactly which lens Yeoman used?

I believe all those Wes Anderson / Bob Yeoman movies were shot with Panavision cameras, so that would probably be a 27mm Primo spherical for "Bottle Rocket" and a 40mm Primo anamorphic for the later movies. Like I said, there are a few zoom shots mixed in there, and probably some other focal lengths (and possibly a C-Series anamorphic for any Steadicam shots). But the majority of the movies were shot on one lens.

I forgot about Ozu and his 50mm lens, probably the most famous example of a single-focal length movie. Apparently Hitchcock shot most of "Psycho" on a 50mm lens too.

You have to remember though that a 50mm lens, or any lens, is a bit wider in view vertically for an old 35mm 1.37 Academy movie and is somewhat cropped vertically in a modern 35mm 1.85 movie.

So today one is more likely to use a 35mm or 40mm lens for the same overall feeling of a "normal" perspective using a 50mm in an old 1.37 Academy movie.

 

[Ketch Rossi]

David,

am I correct in the calculation of a 85mm Still lens of been closer to 135mm then 100mm on RED?

Will test early next month with the Birger but just curious as no one really has given an exact mm focal lenght, at list not that I have found one, and the RED ONE sensor falls some what in the middle of a 1.5 to 1.6 crop, correct?

Thanks David, always enjoy your reads.

ciao

 

[David Mullen ASC]

I find thinking in those terms rather confusing -- an 85mm on the RED camera is still an 85mm and behaves like any other 85mm lens. It's just that an 85mm lens looks somewhat more wide-angle on a larger sensor like a FF35 sensor instead of a S35 sensor.

So if you like the field of view of an 85mm lens on a FF35 camera, you'd want to pick a shorter focal length for an S35 camera.

Now technically the difference is 1.5X between a 36mm wide sensor and a 24mm wide sensor, but the RED ONE is more like 22mm in 4K mode, so it's more like a 1.6X difference.

That works out to be around a 53mm lens to match the view of an 85mm lens on a FF35 camera, so I'd use a 50mm lens on the RED if you like the view of an 85mm lens on your FF35 camera.

So yes, if you put the 85mm lens on your RED camera, it would be similar in view to shooting in FF35 with a 136mm lens.

Just divide or multiply by 1.6X.

But it's simpler to stop doing all those mental calculations and just get used to the field of view of the 85mm lens on the RED camera. But until you start shooting a lot on the RED, I guess you should do the mental calculations.