Terrence Malick "Sun Stars"

[Drew Angle]

I'm talking about the look of the sun synonomous with Terrence Malick films. It was all of The Tree of Life, showed up a few times in To the Wonder, and I'm pretty sure a similar technique was used in Mud.

 

When the sun is in frame, it appears to have a circle of very defined lines portruding around it. How is this effect achieved? I know that Tree of Life shot using Ultra Primes, is this result achieved by stopping down the UPs? Or is this effect achieved using a filter?

 

Let me know your thoughts!

 

http://www.moviola.org/images/TreeofLife.png

 

http://www.ropeofsilicon.com/american-society-of-cinematographers-award-the-tree-of-life-best-cinematography-of-2011/

 

 

(The effect can be seen in both these stills)

 

Best,

Drew

Edited May 22, 2013 by Drew Angle

[David Mullen ASC]

It comes from stopping down the lens, usually at least to an f/8... I believe the number of points in the star are related to the number of blades in the iris.

[Chris Millar]

The sun is about as natural and easily accessed 'spatial' step function that you can find that'll give you a quick analysis of your lens... What you see is effectively a plot of the lens characteristic. The hard part is unfortunately being able to interpret it - but there are some tricks as David points out - i.e. being able to count the iris blades.

[Joerg Polzfusz]

Hi,

 

IMHO the "rays"/"lines" are the result of a filter, either a "Sternfilter" ("star filter"?) or a "Gitterfilter" ("cross screen filter"?):

http://www.amazon.de/Hoya-0803-Sternfilter-6x-58mm/dp/B0000AI1HU

http://www.amazon.de/Hama-87358-Effekt-Filter-Gitter-8x/dp/B00005YVF1/ref=sr_1_2?s=ce-de&ie=UTF8&qid=1369380244&sr=1-2&keywords=gitterfilter

There are various versions of these filters, resulting in a different number of "rays".

 

Jörg

Edited May 24, 2013 by Joerg Polzfusz

[Chris Millar]

Hey you might be correct, but ... ;)

[David Mullen ASC]

Terence Malick isn't using star filters on his lenses...

 

Anyone who shoots regularly runs across this phenomenon from stopping down the lens (and anyone who has used a star filter knows the issues that come with that, especially if you stop down the lens). I was even on the set of "Smash" a few months ago on a Broadway stage looking from the stage out into the bright spotlights pointed into the lens and had to stop down to f/8-11 to silhouette the singer and hide the fact that the house wasn't full of people... and the director at the monitor asked me if I had put a star filter on the camera.

[Joerg Polzfusz]

Maybe you should ask the producers of this video (originally shot on film) as it has got the same effect:

http://www.cinematography.com/index.php?showtopic=59885

[Drew Angle]

Thanlks for all of the responses. Wondering if anyone out there has any videos with the results that they have personally experienced. I would be interested in seeing an example and hearing the details. I.e. format, lenses f/stop, time of day.