Anamorphics inside cars

[Domenic Barbero]

Doing a feature later this year and I'm shooting a lot of the movie on Alexa mini and Hawk Anamorphics as well as Dragon for some aerials. A good amount of the shoot is inside of a car. In terms of FOV, would most anamorphics be too tight to get wide coverage inside of a car? Or would it make more sense to shoot sphericals inside the car? Also that being said, Does Dragon at 6k anamorphic yield any wider FOV than the alexa sensor at 4:3?

Thanks y'all.

 

[David Mullen ASC]

The height of the Red Dragon sensor for recording anamorphic (6K 6:5) is 15.79mm -- for the 4:3 Alexa, the sensor height is 17.82mm, so the anamorphic lens will have a wider view on the 4:3 Alexa.

Plenty of car movies have been shot in anamorphic, it's mainly about finding the smaller lenses with a wide-angle view that can focus to at least 2'.

 

[Marc Wielage]

David is absolutely right (as always). The first movie I can recall that had a lot of real car interiors shot handheld in anamorphic was Spielberg's Sugarland Express (1973), one of the very first films shot on a Panaflex. DP Vilmos Zsigmond broke a lot of new ground on that film.

I'm not a fan of anamorphic lenses in general because a) you have no easy ability to reframe in post (or at least it's greatly reduced), b) the lens is heavier, c) close-focusing is tougher, d) the maximum aperture of anamorphic lenses is more limited, and e) anamorphic lenses are a lot more expensive (rental or purchase). I totally get that people like some of the effects of anamorphic lenses, but I think a lot of these qualities can be simulated to a point in post. Still, I'm always on the side of giving DPs the freedom to choose anything they can for a project.

BTW, a contemporary TV series that uses anamorphics is Fear the Walking Dead, which (last I heard) was shot on Alexa XT and Panavision anamorphic lenses. And it's a great-looking show that totally works for what they're doing. They just chop out a 1.78 chunk of the 2.39 frame, so they have some ability to reframe horizontally (but not vertically). Clearly, it works for them and there's several other shows going this route: True Detectives and I think the British show Outcasts did it as well.

 

[Matt Bai]

+ you can use diopters.

 

[Christoph Tilley]

Shot this last week from the backseat of really tiny cars on a Kowa 40mm 2x anamorphic on our Weapon Helium in full res.

 

[Domenic Barbero]

this is great. Those grabs are a big help.

 

[Marcus Friedlander]

Those are great frames! I was going to recommend Kowa 2x's as well! They seem to fit the bill exactly for what you need.

If you want to take a look at some more stuff shot on kowa's let me know.