Fast Shutters!

[Guy Meachin]

I've noticed that many 'reality' war drama's and films like Saving Private Ryan are shot with fast shutters that give that strobing kind of feel. What sort of shutter speed are we looking at to create this? If it's a seriously high shutter speed then how do they get enough light to compensate for this? Do they overlight? Does the type of stock have an influence?

 

Guy

[John Sprung]

Try about 45 degrees, which is two stops down. I really don't like the short shuttered look. Real combat footage isn't like that.

 

 

 

-- J.S.

[Adam Frisch FSF]

It's been done to death. Avoid like the plague.

[Marty Hamrick]

It's been done to death. Avoid like the plague.

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Especially in the last ten or fifteen years since video cameras have added the feature.It looks cool for certain scenes,Gladiator had some nice high speed shutter shots,I can't imagine another way to do it.It doesn't look "real",but what you're going for is a "push yourself to the envelope's edge feel".When the adreneline rush makes everything seem hyper real.If you're gonna use it be sparing.

[John Pytlak RIP]

By reducing motion blur, the image becomes more "strobey". Can be especially disconcerting on a really big screen, less so on a video monitor.

[Alessandro Machi]

Try about 45 degrees, which is two stops down.  I really don't like the short shuttered look.  Real combat footage isn't like that.

-- J.S.

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True, but from a psychological point of view the shorter shutter creates the feeling that each moment in time is a violent snapshot.

[Matt Wells]

I think that Saving Private Ryan was a 90 degree shutter.

 

Matt

[David Mullen ASC]

I think that Saving Private Ryan was a 90 degree shutter.

 

Matt

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45 degrees for most of the extreme strobiness you see during the battle scenes.

[Stephen Williams]

45 degrees for most of the extreme strobiness you see during the battle scenes.

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David,

 

Do you know if the camera was shooting at 24fps for the battle scenes?

 

Stephen Williams DP

 

www.stephenw.com

[David Mullen ASC]

David,

 

Do you know if the camera was shooting at 24fps for the battle scenes?

 

Stephen Williams DP

 

www.stephenw.com

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Yes, except when it wasn't. It was undercranked to 6 or 8 fps and stretch-printed for that strobey, blurring moment when Hanks loses his hearing and sees the soldier pick-up his own arm off the ground. There was probably other frame rate changes elsewhere but overall, it's shot at normal speed with a short shutter angle, not slightly undercranked like to 18 fps like some people have said.

[Dan Adlerstein]

In the AC article from Aug. '98 Kaminski also talks about throwing the cameras shutter out of sync -- adjusting the phase relationship of the shutter to the movement -- where the film is being exposed while in transport as opposed to being rock steady. He says it created a nice streaking effect on the highlights in particular.