Forfeit

[Ian Tilson]

I wanted to share a few frame grabs from a short film I recently shot.

 

I shot ‘Forfeit’ on an Alexa Classic Studio camera capturing the images in Raw using a Gemini 4:4:4 recorder.

The director wanted an anamorphic look but we did not have budget for true anamorphics.

Instead, I purchased two vintage Russian prime lenses (Mir 20mm, Helios 58mm) and converted them to ‘Anamorfake’ lenses by taking them apart and inserting an oval aperture disc as well as a fishing line to promote a horizontal flare.

In the end, we got a unique look and the visible bokeh does have some anamorphic characteristics.

 

For lighting I used a mixture of Arri HMI (1.2K) and Tungsten (2Ks, 1Ks, 650s, 350s) lights to play with multiple color temperatures, kinda the first time I had really attempted to do that.

Also, gelled red some of the tungsten fresnels to mimic the trucks brake lights when we look back at the police car and see the officers in and around the car.

Color balanced to 4300K so the HMI ‘moonlight’ would go blue and the warmer tungsten and red gelled lamps would register a warmer temperature.

 

Overall, a very challenging shoot as it was below freezing most of the night (down to 28 degrees) so trying to keep my hands warm enough in order to feel the focus rings on the lenses was a real challenge!

In the end, the cast and crew was up to the task and I’m pretty pleased with how the final images came out.

 

Now we wait to see if we’ve been accepted into some of the film festivals we submitted to.

We’ve already heard back from the ME Film Festival and will play there in November!

 

Cheers!

Ian

 

 

 

[Phil Rhodes]

13 hours ago, Ian Tilson said:

Instead, I purchased two vintage Russian prime lenses (Mir 20mm, Helios 58mm) and converted them to ‘Anamorfake’ lenses by taking them apart and inserting an oval aperture disc as well as a fishing line to promote a horizontal flare.

That's a nice flare you've got out of that. Real anamorphics, especially modern ones built to flare in as pronounced a manner as possible, can be a bit unsubtle, but that's quite tasty. Maybe post a photo of how you installed it? I think that's much nicer than the horizontal streak filters which can be a bit over the top.

How does it react as you pan around?

13 hours ago, Ian Tilson said:

Color balanced to 4300K so the HMI ‘moonlight’ would go blue and the warmer tungsten and red gelled lamps would register a warmer temperature.

That is becoming a very popular idea and I think it works. I've seen high end sets do that quite a bit in the last few years, so you can get a controlled colour contrast without anything being just cyan or orange.

P

[Ian Tilson]

Thanks Phil!

Here is a photo I took while working on one of the lenses.

You can see I had to remove a number of glass elements in order to get to the aperture blades and that is where the 'anamorfake' oval and wire was inserted. This does mean that you only get the anamorphic bokeh shape if you shoot wide open because as you stop down, and close the iris, the oval shape becomes more rounded when the blades pass the shape of the cutout. In my case, we were shooting at night and these lenses weren't all that fast so I was shooting nearly wide open the whole time....but that also meant that focusing became a very tricky proposition!

Here's also another flare frame grab from the movie.

I agree, the flare is not over the top and I like your word..."tasty" ?