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  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

Focus Pulling

Harry Clark said:
Turns out that focus pulling is a bit more difficult than sitting in front of a computer...
Cheers,
Harry
Click to expand...

i could not agree with you more, a great focus puller is a very rare thing, there are a lot of good and even more that are o.k....but the great ones are one's you have to hold on to!
 
Indeed.
I also think what keeps good focus pullers from becoming great is not being a little more insistent on needing a bit more time PRIOR to the take to get better marks etc. I know that the temptation is to be low-profile and to not make the show about focus, but it's far worse to have to use those words you quoted, "can I have another for focus, I can do better" If you say that phrase too often you find yourself out of a job. Better to make a little fuss and get the take. Maybe it's a self-confidence thing...
Cheers,
Harry
 
This current trend in digital shooting of focus pullers pulling by handheld monitor using focus controls like peaking rather than getting distances with a tape measure and getting reference marks has a number of downsides, mainly that the actor is always sharp... once they stop moving. But once they move, the focus puller has no frame of reference other than the image on the monitor. On one show, the focus puller said "I just need a couple of takes to get it right" and usually he was correct, by the third take he had timed his pulls with the motion of the actors... but what if the director preferred the performance of the first take? The first few takes always looked like "auto-focus" was on the camera, as it was always late and chasing actors until they stopped moving. I miss some of the old-fashioned techniques, like actually taking out a tape measure and putting marks on the ground (if off-camera) so that if an actor misses a mark, you still know what distance they are.

The other problem with remote focusing is that the operator no longer has the ability to grab the focus ring on the lens and adjust it himself, he's at the mercy of the focus-puller who may be sitting on the other side of the room.
 
David,
I couldn't agree with you more.
I guess styles change, often as a consequence of technology. The "anticipatory" style of focus pulling may soon be, in a subtle way, a style of the past.
Especially on lower budget movies and episodic TV, there is usually a maniacal pace set, and it's very easy in digital for the AC to "wing it" most of the time.
I've often thought that it would be handy for Preston et. al. to make a small encoder knob that we could leave on the camera that overrides the primary wireless unit, that the operator could grab as necessary.
Anyway, it's a tough racket, pulling focus...
Cheers,
Harry
 
I have a more 'Walleyed" approach to modern focus pulling. I feel like measurements still need to be taken, and marks put down, but I can predict movements for the subject just as well on the monitor as I can by watching them with my own eyes. It's not that I'm looking for "sharpness" on the monitor, but rather subtle movement cues. Combine that with using your other eye to see how close they landed to their mark. My point being that these two different styles of pulling are not mutually exclusive. The benefit of using both becomes clear in handheld rapidfire situations. In the end nothing replaces experience and zen.
 
Of course not everything will be perfect all the time, but pulling focus is much more than just getting it right, regardless of the method employed. You want to be late, or early, or right on time --on purpose. If everything is late, then you lost a layer to speak through. It is a tone thing for me. Delayed focus can feel like we are chasing after the action, trying to catch up with what is going on. It might also be interpreted as a forced "you are chasing after our work" effect, which could come off as pretentious (if the rest of the work lends itself). If your ACs can give you "right on time", you now have an additional instrument in the orchestra.
 
I don't think any single technique can suffice, a focus-puller has to use all of the tricks and tools at his disposal, there isn't a one-size-fits-all approach that works 100% of the time.

But I agree about the pace problem on the set, which is why the focus-pullers are just going for the eye-focusing by monitor trick over and over again. At least when the actor stops moving, even on a 250mm lens in a tight close-up, they are tack sharp... a millisecond after they stop moving. If we were shooting film, we might never know if it was tack sharp unless the operator has good eyes and can confirm it for us.

But sometimes an actor never stops moving / settling down, so you end up with a very "swimmy" focus if the focus-puller is trying to pull by eye, just before he's "got it" the actor is moving again.

And I recently had a medium shot that was soft because the actor moved into a shadow and no longer had a glint in their eyes, there was no contrast on their face to pull focus using peaking... but on the big 32" HD monitors, I could tell that it was soft. The focus-puller said he couldn't see the focus anymore since the actor was in dim lighting. Well, if he had gotten a distance with his tape measure (the actor was standing at a desk, making that fairly easy) he would have gotten the shot, it was only waist-up after all, at f/4. But because he was only pulling by eye on a handheld HD monitor and lost anything for the peaking function to grab onto, he was in the dark so to speak regarding the actual distance.
 
In the middle of two 9month tv series shoots. The ac have their measurring tools right there. Along with their monitors. No peaking, though...
 
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