Bloddy Filter

[Miguel Bunster Claudet]

I was shooting this small feature film in Chile on Red with Highspeed lenses which was a big challenge and fun. Half crew was student, half profesionals...now I could barely order any filters and I rented one only a 1/2 soft FX which i have used a lot lately and like it a lot.

This shoot was so run and gun that i told the ac to put 1/2 fx and leave it there..its pretty subtle. I had no time to watch monitor so was shooting with light meter and on board monitor..all wsa well but when i looked at shots on the laptop later it felt more diffused than usual but i moved on...8 days later it was bugging me to much and I ask the ac to do a quick test with the soft fx 1/2 and when i grab it it says Soft Fx "1".. I go &*@(@)....

Literally every day i mentioned "is the soft fx 1/2 in?" and nope it wasnt..so i dropped the "1" and got a new "1/2" and used that for the rest of the movie and some scenes where i wanted more detail and harshness didnt use any.

 

My big concern is that 80% of the movie is shot handheld on a 18mm lens, for wides and CU.

and most of the time at a t2.0 for a certain look.

 

I am deeply concerned that the soft fx 1 will make all the footage look out of focus and not just fussy...I will test post sharpening and stuff but o hell....

 

Would love to hear your opinions about this and how you feel soft fx 1 on the mentioned conditions would make it just a bit more soft or totally "O my god that is out of focus" in the big screen.

 

Best regards

m

[David Mullen ASC]

The #1 Soft-FX is just the next step heavier from the #1/2, which is the lightest, so a #1 isn't that heavy, you should be fine.

[Saul Rodgar]

I realize only the DP of the particular project can make this sort of call. But as far as I am concerned, the RED can use all the softening it can get, as its sharpness is what bothers me the most about it. So you may have not gone nowhere near far enough with the Soft FX filtering. ;)

[Chris Keth]

Also, handheld on an 18mm is pretty much the situation in which you would notice diffusion the least.

[Mathew Rudenberg]

Also, handheld on an 18mm is pretty much the situation in which you would notice diffusion the least.

 

Someone looking for it might notice it, or a colorist, but the lay person probably wouldn't. I don't think anyone is going to go OMG it's out of focus unless it is actually out of focus.

 

You'd probably get more mushiness if you opened a zeiss super speed under T2, they really start to fall apart.

[Miguel Bunster Claudet]

hi thanks for all your kind replys.

I think it iwll be ok its just not the level of diffusion and we were doing day ext CU on 18mm around t2.0 and 1.3 for specific reasons...now i had to drop the aproach in some scens for other reasons...its jsut that I like subtle diffusion and the difference between Soft fx 1/2 and 1 is pretty big I feel...

i will post some stills pretty soon. This movie was the most crazy / fun one i done but the aproach to work at that stop needs a really planned aproach and it was hard here and we do have soft shots and the diff doesnt help.

i was able to do a few test and is not the end of the world but it does make a difference...o well...

thanks for your time and replys!

Miguel