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Anamorphic and CGI ? Is it more expensive?


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Hi,

 

My name is Reynald Capurro, i'm about to shoot my first feature in Canada next year and I would like

To know if it is more expensive to shoot anamorphic vs spherical ? Is it more time consuming on the set also? Concerning the visual effects concerned I would say that we might have a little bit of everything.

Blue screen / erasing / mate painting /...

I'll be shooting in Arri Alexa prores XQ with Hawk Vantage ( need to make some comparison test)

Thanks for your help.

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Generally anamorphic lenses are more expensive to rent, they can be harder for focus-pulling depending on your stop (due to the generally shallower-focus), they tend to flare more, and they take more work for a vfx compositor to add elements to or combine elements with due to unique distortions in the lenses. But if they give you the look you want and you can afford them, then give them a try -- fortune favors the bold.

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There are some great anamorphic look plugins to add distortion in programs like After Effects, which is what you'd probably use to do the compositing of the VFX elements before sending them off to finishing.

 

The best way to deal with visual effects today in this modern high-res digital world, is to shoot the plates open gate, with a high resolution camera (Red Dragon 6k) which gives you a lot more information for reframing. Using spherical lenses, prevents any distortion from effecting the visual effect shot. This technique is common place with big movies that shoot on green screen.

 

In the past, visual effects shots would be captured with VistaVision or even 65mm for a larger negative that holds up better through the optical effects workflow. I can't think of a good example of anyone using anamorphic lenses on green screen shots, maybe David remembers.

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I'm sure the vfx people doing the Marvel anamorphic movies like the recent Captain America ones deal with green screen anamorphic shots all the time whether or not they'd prefer the unit switch to spherical for those shots, it mainly requires all the anamorphic lenses be mapped carefully in prep. And certainly with all the distortions, it makes their job harder. I'd probably keep with the anamorphics if it's just a background window with a greenscreen but for a heavy greenscreen sequence I'd probably switch to sphericals.

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