Sandeep Sajeev

You can certainly do narrow shutter angle effects. A "normal" shutter speed for video is half of the frame rate (equal to 180 degree shutter). At 24fps, that's 1/48, although the nearest selection on most stills cameras, which will look the same, will be 1/50. Anything shorter than that and you're into narrow shutter territory, although 90 degrees (1/100) can suffer from exessive subtlety, depending on the subject.

 

The thing is, any of these techniques rely not only on the technique itself but also what you choose to shoot with it. The narrow shutter angle looks interesting on the drummer in those Muse videos, for instance, because he's moving quickly and it would ordinarily motivate a lot of motion blur. If you shoot someone wandering slowly down a street, it's probably not going to do much for you. The defining example of this is the opening battle sequence of Saving Private Ryan, where there's lots of explosions going off and throwing debris in the air, which really sells the effect.

 

P

Thanks for the explanation.

I was thinking about shooting them at night on the streets of Mumbai, there'll be lots of traffic etc in the background, so I was looking to bring the chaos that surrounds them to the fore so to speak. I will take my little Canon T2i out on the street and see what changing the shutter does in this case.

Why superficial when it’s about something emotional?

 

I should choose an opposite way with one extended shot portraying the two characters. I’d try to show them on the peak of their relation just introducing the pain that will sever.

 

Set the camera on sticks, pour light over the two, and catch the fugitive moment, if you can.

Hi Simon,

Appreciate your suggestion. I am exploring their relationship from the point of view of a shared history within a city, so almost all of it will be filmed outdoors. I also want to focus on the many small moments, good and bad, that shape one's relationship with another person. So I feel like I have quite a lot to get through in a short amount of time.

But your point is very valid, and I have been told the same by others as well. I am trying to figure out how I want to deal with the story, and sometimes I find that thinking about technique helps when I'm searching for clarity.

Best,

Sandeep.

Thank you Phil, I appreciate the insight and the Youtube link. Actually, I have been able to get pretty close in the edit to something similar to the cranking effect, but I was wondering if there was a way to do it in camera, so that I'd know during the shoot whether I was getting what I wanted. Hence the question.

Any thoughts on the Slade/Hard Candy effect and it's feasibility on the 5D? I found this thread here:

http://www.cinematography.com/index.php?showtopic=23959

Joseph Zizzo says:

ts an 11º shutter, its sort of one of the director's trademarks. you need an extra 4 stops, though, so plan for it. its definitely nothing to take lightly, especially on an interior - you'll be surprised at just how much light you have to pump in, and if you shoot high speed as well its worse. definitely use a photometrics table, and leave yourself a few extra footcandles, if you can afford to. its worth the trouble if you have the right subject, its an amazing look for a video. scroll down to find the videos called "feeing good" and "hypermusic" by the band muse:

http://www.microcuts.net/uk/videos

Any insight would be much appreciated.

Thanks,

Sandeep.

Hello,

I'm an editor, not a cinematographer, and I'm looking for some advice. I'm making my first personal short film and I would like to convey the deterioration/fragmentation of a relationship between 2 people. The film is going to be about a minute long, and there is no dialogue. I have directed quite a lot of non-fiction for Television and the web in the past, but this is my first foray into fiction.

I am still in the process of finalizing my story, but I was thinking about the way Tony Scott/Paul Cameron use the camera in Man on Fire/Beat the Devil, and David Slade's strobe effect that he uses in Hard Candy and in almost all his music videos, and while it may be a bit too much for my purposes as my film is basically a love story, I feel that there might be something there for points in my film where things start to fall apart for my main characters.

All my reading indicates that this is a film camera effect? Is this not possible on the 5D?

Thanks in Advance!

Sandeep.