Light flare

[Niki Mundo]

I noticed alot of films Jan De Bont DPed have alot of creative light flare. Is there some special technique to getting cool light flare or is just trial and error/ happy accidents?

[Chris Keth]

I noticed alot of films Jan De Bont DPed have alot of creative light flare. Is there some special technique to getting cool light flare or is just trial and error/ happy accidents?

 

Can you post a few stills to illustrate what exactly you like? Every lens flares, not all lenses flare attractively. Some lenses flare really cool, some are just kind of annoying.

[Niki Mundo]

Oops! Found the answer. This is the kind I like..from wikipedia.

 

"There are artifacts that can occur when using an anamorphic camera lens that do not occur when using an ordinary spherical lens. One is a kind of lens flare that has a long horizontal line usually with a blue tint and is most often visible when there is a bright light, such as from car headlights, in the frame with an otherwise dark scene. This artifact is not always considered to be a problem. It has come to be associated with a certain cinematic look and is in fact sometimes emulated using a special effect filter in scenes that were not shot using an anamorphic "

[Michael Nash]

There's been LOTS of discussion about anamorphic lens flare here.