Dean Semler's long lenses for "The Alamo"

[Evan Richards]

Sorry this is going to be a little vague, but if I suspect someone on this forum will be able to point me in the right direction.

I read an article (or watched a video) where Dean Semler talked about shooting some shots in "The Alamo" with really long lenses. If I recall the lenses were 400+ mm. Maybe even as long as 800mm? Can anyone point me towards a reference that talks about this? And which scene(s) were shot with these lenses?

Thanks!!

Edited October 12, 2019 by Evan Richards
Corrected spelling

[David Mullen ASC]

Semler did that for “Dances with Wolves” too — keep in mind that both were shot in anamorphic where the focal length has a 2X wider view, so a 400mm anamorphic would be like a 200mm spherical.

[Evan Richards]

2 hours ago, David Mullen ASC said:

Semler did that for “Dances with Wolves” too — keep in mind that both were shot in anamorphic where the focal length has a 2X wider view, so a 400mm anamorphic would be like a 200mm spherical.

Do you know what the idea is behind this? Was it to increase the background movement in a long-lens camera move? Or was it to say...compress the distance between the buffalo stampeed to make them appear closer to the actor and more dangerous?

What effect is he achieving by using this technique?