Here’s an interesting blog post from Mike Jones.

“The ‘film look’ is a Crock, Shallow depth-of-field is Banal and Rack focus is Lazy. Would all you indie filmmakers please Get Over It..!”

His premise is that when digital video filmmakers try to emulate the film look, they are just carrying over one of the remnants of film that wasn’t an aesthetic choice. (Mike’s words are in italics, mine are not).

“The ‘film look’ is a cultural rather than aesthetic understanding; one drawn from our legacy of personal cinematic experiences in the movie theatre watching a projected image – Nostalgia not Aesthetics.. Thus, when it comes to making ‘films’ in the digital age for ourselves our base instincts are to want our films to evoke those same nostalgic memory associations we have with celluloid.”

He takes the point a little too far by saying that deep focus is actually preferable to shallow focus because it allows the viewer to make their own choices (I agree in some circumstances, but not all). There is definitely some validity to his argument that composition and staging should be at least as important as depth of field in any individual shot.

“That said, the problem is not Shallow and Rack Focus unto themselves as techniques but rather that they are not seen and used as deft Tools and problem solving Options. Rather they act as blithe and banal default methods fueled by a misguided desire for an association with nostalgic ‘high-art’.”

The trend of shallow focus and the elusive “film look” have certainly taken too much of our time as digital cinematographers. The art of lighting, composition, and movement should be equal partners in the conversation when discussions of our craft take place. However, the tools that allow us to incorporate one of the aspects of old-school film aesthetics shouldn’t be discarded simply because they imply “cheating” our way to a familiar convention. If it adds to your story and gives you the visual meaning you’re trying to create, by all means, use a shallow depth of field and/or rack focusing. Just don’t use it simply because you can and sacrifice the other elements of well-crafted cinematography.

Before I left for Mexico, I was actively working with Shane Matsumoto from Highland Recorders on his local TV show called Indie Music Phoenix. Indie Music Phoenix is now on AZTV (channel 14) Thursday nights at midnight and Saturday nights at 12:30. The show was a great experience on all levels. We interviewed both local and national touring bands including: In This Moment, Mayhem, Butcher Jones, Property 6, Dirty Heads,

I learned a lot about field production and being a one man crew. Live events present a whole new set of challenges where there is no take 2. For example, if you are panning left as the band introduces themselves and some members whisper their names and others scream them, your audio levels are going to be all over the map, and holding the camera with one hand and adjusting levels with the other while maintaining your pan will almost inevitably cause an error in one of the three tasks.

Just wrapped nine days of shooting! Some photos from my latest project – a psychological thriller, Doug Brekan wrote and directed. Leeann Dearing stars. Thanks to Ellen Weiss-Iwanski for her assistance.