How was this shot achieved? Dolly into eyeball (TVC Style)

[Safaran Qureshi]

I'm hoping to replicate something similar to this reference - dolly into an eye.

Originally the frame is quite wide (Wide/Mcu of subject sitting in chair), we then dolly into a macro of his eyeball (same as reference)within one shot -I am not sure which lens would be best to use for in this scenario.

If I use a probe lens to pull this off (Probably the loawa)- I'm not sure that I'd be able to get the wide field of view needed for the start of the move (I'm not too familiar with probe lenses having never used them).

Any advice, input or tips would be greatly appreciated!

Thank you!

[Robin Phillips]

at some point he move becomes a digital push into the eye with a circle mask in the pupil done digitally (think a circle transition but more controlled by VFX). I've seen this same thing done with the laowa 24mm probe lens, as it can stay in focus damn close to its subject. This may or may not have been a move on a motion control arm, not sure. the benefit of doing a move like this with motion control is you can guarantee your stop point, which is important if you wanna get close enough to get that kinda paralax on the nose. But I think if you dont need that (or are willing to cheat it with some digital geometry in vfx), you could do it without motion control. Just shoot as high resolution as you can so you can do the digital blow up without the image going too grainy

[David Mullen ASC]

If you're going to do a fast drop down like that at a face, often you shoot it in reverse -- it's safer. But at some point you either have to zoom into the eyeball (but then the shot is on a zoom lens, which won't focus as closely without a diopter -- plus it's heavy) or you digitally zoom, probably morphing into a tighter shot of the eye that is higher resolution (like a digital still) or a CGI eyeball.  When they did a similar shot at the start of "Star Trek: First Contact", they got as close to the eye as they could with a 50mm macro lens and then they composited in a hi-res still photo of the eye's iris that they could zoom further into.

You also have to take into consideration that the closer the camera and lens gets to the eyeball, you have to light it from an extreme side angle in order to not get a camera shadow on the face.

It's even possible that the coach and actress were leaned/mounted against a wall vertically so the move could be done on track.

[Daniel D. Teoli Jr.]

I always like these kinds of shots. This one looks somewhat easy to do, as it has a transition and is not seamless. I like the seamless transitions from in and out or out and in with no change of the scene.

Spike Lee had one in Do the Right Thing. In and out of a window, from what I remember. They had a commercial a while back coming in and out of a sunroof in the car up in the sky. I like to rewind and rewind to see the transition to find the seam. The best ones are flawless and you can't tell. Done by real artists. Roscoe Dickerson did the one in Do the Right Thing. Digital makes it easier to do. Roscoe did it with film.

Roscoe Dickersen ASC and wife