I liked this viewpoint article on DSLR shallow DOF etc :

Canon T3i / 600D, 60D, T2i / 550D, 1D Mark IV, 7D, 5D Mark II.
Panasonic DMC-GH2.
Nikon D7000, D5100, D5000, D90.
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Doughie
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I liked this viewpoint article on DSLR shallow DOF etc :

Post by Doughie »

http://www.freshdv.com/2011/04/a-camera ... -make.html

Anyway, i really do think that this statement from the article on freshdv:
" I’m fed up with Vimeo, shallow DOF, slider driven. montage sequences with credits on them masquerading as films."
has a lot of validity!!

any viewpoints on this?
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Doughie
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Re: I liked this viewpoint article on DSLR shallow DOF etc :

Post by Doughie »

[note: this thread recreated here]
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Re: I liked this viewpoint article on DSLR shallow DOF etc :

Post by ejf »

i couldn't agree more: get a story, stick to the story, have your actors work the without having post-production take the place of lighting and sound!
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Re: I liked this viewpoint article on DSLR shallow DOF etc :

Post by Stephan »

I like shallow DOF!

And I hate slider shots. True indeed, they often seem to be there just for the purpose of demonstrating one's craft in handling slider shots. Except maybe that video from our friend DouglasAraujo, where they did serve some visual purpose.

So I agree with the statement overall somehow, but come on... So much snobbery in that post! People need to learn. And share their apprentice work, get feedback, learn the hard way, improve, then rinse and cycle again. Let's give them some slack and opportunities to learn. I'd say technical skills account for 20%, the story for 20%, and the remaining 60% for one's ability to network, market their skills, and gather help from the proper hands.

So why is the author getting defensive? Feeling threatened by all the apprentice filmmakers with DSLRs who are entering his market? Everybody is someone else's dwarf, and it seems to me he overlooked his own lesson #6. Learn some humility.
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Re: I liked this viewpoint article on DSLR shallow DOF etc :

Post by acgold7 »

I think there is a sort of reverse snobbery in the piece, but overall I agree that many of the tools we take for granted are woefully overused to the point of cliche. The first time you see paper-thin DoF or a tilt-shift lens or motion posterization you think, hey, that's pretty cool. But by the third or fourth inappropriate use of these techniques you are ready to gouge your eyes out.

To me everything -- everything -- is there to service the story. Anything that calls attention to how brilliant you are -- unless you are Scorsese -- defeats that. If people notice your technique then you are pulling them out of the story.

We are storytellers. We happen to use a medium that is primarily visual. But we should never, ever, do anything simnply because it "looks cool." Ignoring this maxim is what is wrong with Movies today.
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Stephan
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Re: I liked this viewpoint article on DSLR shallow DOF etc :

Post by Stephan »

acgold7 wrote:If people notice your technique then you are pulling them out of the story.
Absolutely, the best effects are those that people won't notice. Kind of frustrating in a way (why spend some time on something that people shouldn't notice?) but once you've gone past that decision point, quality improves dramatically.

Maybe it's a fad, though. A bit like when people used Magic Bullet Looks to slap a canned look onto their videos (oh no! another Magic Bullet video!) and aren't doing that so often now anymore? Or I may be wrong.
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Re: I liked this viewpoint article on DSLR shallow DOF etc :

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acgold7 wrote:We are storytellers. We happen to use a medium that is primarily visual. But we should never, ever, do anything simnply because it "looks cool." Ignoring this maxim is what is wrong with Movies today.
Yes totally agree.
Last night in fact i watched (for the 783rd time probably) "Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid", directed by George Roy Hill. Great movie and it's all about STORY and CHARACTERs. almost zero special effects. Simply shot, great cinematography, i applaud that era where there was no (or minimal) special effects, no CGI. Anything they had to do, they did mechanically, for real.

But yes back to the DSLR thing, i am pretty tired of the whole "here's a pretty 4minute sequence, with lots of pretty images shot at f1.4, and nice melodic piano music put to it". Thats nice for a while, but it's been done to death and its got NO story. Its' not a short film, IMO, it's a pretty montage sequence. Nothing wrong with that per se, but it's not got a STORY and therefore its not a film. Its kinda shallow-DOF p0rn.
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