William Middleton

Thanks. That helps alot.

My apologies if this is a dumb question or has already been covered--does anyone know how the extremely shallow depths of field are attained in modern feature films today? This 'style' seems to be very popular at the moment; I've seen it in a number of films recently, one of which is 'Side Effects'. There were even a few moments in the movie where everything in the scene was out of focus until the actor moved a literally just a few inches and came into focus. What exactly is causing this interesting effect? Is it a particular Lens? Camera? Some combination of the two? Is it a result of newer lens/camera technology or has this type of DOF always been possible?