Special situation, lens questions

[Guest Christopher Wedding]

I have a shot coming up that is consuming all of my brain at this point.

 

Parameters;

 

Shooting on either the Genesis or F900. *probably the F900, but there is

hope. Have half a day to pull this shot off. Will explain more at the end.

Rating Genesis at asa 400 or F900 asa 320.

 

Basically the setting is a kitchen at night. One guy is one the ground and

another is kicking the crap out of him. Now, there is coverage here, but

then we go to a wide shot. From the wide shot is ALL ONE SHOT.

 

The kitchen cabinets are on the left and there is a kitchen island on the right.

We're looking from a low, low angle at the two guys, one on the ground

and one kicking him at the end of the 'corridor' formed by the cabinets on

both side.

 

OK, suddenly the guy standing gets shot and falls into the foreground. The

camera is on a steadi cam, or some sort of jib, and moves over the dead guy

seeing gruesome details of a gun shot to the head, his hand twitching,

up to the other guy's stunned face and around the corner of the kitchen

island and boom up a few feet to reveal who shot him.

 

That's all one shot. The director wants everything in focus. So that means

in order to see all the gruesome details of the gun shot wound as we're moving

by the guy I'll need a good lens choice.

 

First of all, I realize that I'll need a ton of light - F11 to F16 depending on

how close the director wants to get.

 

I've been looking at the innovision system

 

http://www.innovisionoptics.com/download/hdman.pdf

 

http://www.innovisionoptics.com/download/35p2plusman.PD

 

and the digiprimes (if we shoot F900).

 

 

I like the innovision system, but I'm unfamiliar with it.

If shooting the F900, the 5mm distorts to much,

so I'd probably use the 8mm at around F8, set at 21"

to be able to get about 12" away to 8 feet away in focus.

 

If the genesis, I'm looking at the 12mm around F8, at

21" for a similar DOF.

 

OK the questions...

 

A, has anyone used this sytsem?

 

B, If the F900, would a 5mm digiprime yield as passable result?

Does the 5mm distort? and is 16" minimum focus good to get

a good up close shot of the gunshot wound?

 

C, the other lens I've looked at is the Panavision Macro Zoom.

Anybody know if it could do the trick? I can't seem to find

too much info online about it.

 

D, is there a different lens or lens system you'd recommend?

 

Anyways, I'll keep you posted on what I find. This shot, is uber

complicated since everything needs to be in focus, we're using

a location and not a set, and lighting wise I need a ton of light and

have to hide it from the camera during a move that starts as a wide,

wide low angle (good thing I have the island to help hide stuff) and

moves around the island 90 degrees to show the cause of the gunshot.

 

I'll also be posting in the lighting section!

 

Thanks for reading, and let me know if you have any suggestions.

 

I'm hoping to go down to innovision today to get some better ideas

about the system.

 

Cheers,

Chris Wedding

[John Holland]

Everything in focus all the time ? why? pull focus to show the horrible close ups of the gore will work much better , plus no way on location are you going to be able to light to levels you are talking about .

[John Sprung]

For the kind of DOF you want, 2/3" would be better than the film-sized Genesis. Instead of F-900, try for a Viper.

 

 

 

-- J.S.

[Adamo P Cultraro]

This may sound sarcastic, but it is merely my ignorance showing - wouldn't having the entire scene in razor sharp focus look far too 'video-y' (for lack of a better term)?

 

I mean here are most of us trying to make everything look ultra cinematic with a shallow DOF and your guy wants what any $10K camcorder can deliver right out of the box.

 

I'm sorry I don't have anything constructive to add to your dilemma - I'm just puzzled by it.

[Guest Christopher Wedding]

Thanks for the responses guys. I've just looked at the 3.3 Softsun as one

way to pump some light in there since it doesn't give off a huge amount of

heat, so long as it has good airflow. John Sprung, I think we are going with

the F900 which will definetly help my cause.

 

As far as DOF is concerned and the puzzlement, DOF is not the only cinematic

trait of a good frame IMO (although it never hurts!), and 'ultra' cinematic should

still depend on the story, no? My gut instinct was to rack as well, but the more I think

about the moment and what it is in the story, the hyper real experience could work.

 

Can anyone answer about the 5mm Digiprime and whether it distorts or not?

It would be much appreciated.

 

Best,

Chris

Edited October 5, 2007 by Christopher Wedding