Distances from talent or structures

[Kris Mckay]

I have been testing a lot of s16 with a canon 8-64 zoom but I have had this trouble with primes as well. Is there a standard in ft from talent for certain shots like establishing shots, MS, CU that I can look at or find out? My distances seem to be a little off. Like my establishing shot seems too far, MS seems just a little too far as well. So if I knew some lengths that are used for these shots pretty often with success I could build on it, my eye seems off just enough to make my shots look like something is wrong.

 

Any thoughts?

[Brian Drysdale]

The distance will depend on the focal length of the lens you are using. For example shooting a MS with the 8mm end of your lens you will be a lot closer to the subject than when using the 64mm end. Perhaps you are not happy with the focal length that you are tending to use for your shots. Shooting Super 16, a 16mm focal length is popular with quite a few people, try using that for different shot sizes, then try longer and shorter focal lengths. I rather like around 25mm to 35mm for the CUs, check this out for yourself, although, I've shot CUs with the 16mm on productions because it worked on that particular film's story and characters/actors.