I see a lot of commercials with a blurry side of the screen effect. Is this a filter or something done in post? Is there such a filter that can do this?

Sometimes, it only has the center in focus and the outer ring is blurry

thanks!

This is almost certainly always an effect produced during post-production using a simple mask overlay or a matte. You could also accomplish this by blurring part of a clear filter but such a technique would be far less flexible and more of a production hassle than simply using your nle or a product like AfterEffects.

If you're using Final Cut Pro, there's a very inexpensive set of filters I use called "Joe's Filters" that have various blurring methods. I used the center spot blur in a short film that I'm finishing up now. You can see what he has to offer at

http://www.joemaller.com/fcp/joes_filters.shtml

Nice filter set, John. Sold!

Thanks alot!

I got another question for you guys if you dont mind?

1- If I wanted a very bright look (like over exposed light in film) what kind of a filter would I need? And what would that do to the subjects in the shot?

Example- A man opens a garage door and I want the sunlight to appear as a white light and then a truck or vehicle will come from the light and drive into the garage

thanks again!

My first inclination in this case is to shoot the scene for this effect by overexposing the garage door as it's opening.

The original question referred to having partial amounts of the image in focus--this may be a post effect as described here, but the effect is also often achieved using a swing and tilt system. This is a device that allows the lens to be shifted around in various axis including one side away from the lens mount, which moves the focal plane from being parallel to the film plane or CCD to cutting diagonally through it. The result is a range of focus in the image. You can see this used theatrically in the opening scene of "Swordfish". The effect was popular in commercials six or seven years ago, when every closeup of a face had one eye in focus and the other out, or the eyes in focus and the mouth out. It's a cumbersome system, probably easier to regulate as a post effect, but there is a difference in the results.

It depends on what you want to do. You could make the adjustments in post, or you could try some of the filters available that might achieve the same look.

Nathan, what type of filters would do this? Im clueless when it comes to filters and the different effects they can create.

Also, what part of louisiana is that?

Gateway. What specific commercial(s) are you referring to?

Hmmm, I cant think of a national spot right now that uses this effect. Do you not understand the effect that I'm asking about?

No, I can't recall an effect where the subject is in focus and the background or half the screen is blurred. The only thing that I can think of is that they were shooting the subject with a longer than normal lens throwing the background out and if the subject was screen right or left it would appear that half was blurred. It's possible that you saw a radial blur which is similar to a center spot filter described in an above post. This appears as if you were looking down a frosted glass tube that is slowly stretching. As soon as you can give me an example I bet I can help you. I have done quite a bit with the identity blur/mosaic where the blur is keyframed and tracks the face of the subject.

Gateway (wish I had a real name to call you),

I think you may be talking about a bifocal (split-field) diopter. Very common in films from the 60s and 70s, but not as widely used today. They work just like bifocal lenses...and left a distinct line through the center of the shot. Is that right?

I have made some frame grabs of some spots I shot for a TV news station a number of years ago utilizing the swing and tilt lenses I described earlier in this thread. With any luck they will illustrate the sort of effect Gateway is describing!

I have asked one of my fellow moderators to put them up on the web for any interested party's perusal.

Note that with the two shots of the newscasters, their right shoulders are out of focus while their left shoulders are sharp--the eyes are in focus, the left side of the hair is out. In the picture of the switcher, the left side of the frame is obviously softer than it would normally be considering it is in essentially the same plane as the rest of the board.

These were not manipulated in post, they were generated as in-camera effects using the swing and tilt lenses.

Gateway, is this what you are talking about??

Gateway,

I've posted the photos that Charles mentions at

http://zchildress.com/swing-and-tilt

Charles, is that John Marler in the first picture? He was in Atlanta back in the early to mid '90s. He's still wearing those suspenders I see.

Yup, that's him. I did these spots around '96 I think, so he was still pretty new in Boston at the time. Probably moved on since. Don't know if the suspenders are still in effect!

Yep, those look like the effect...but this can be done in post correct?

Thanks!

I think we're travelling in a circle here <g>. Yes, this can be done in post.

John,
Just wanted to let you (and others) know that I just used a couple of the "Joe's Filters" on a project and they were perfect for the job. Thanks very much for passing that reference along.

No problem, Ken. Yep...Joe has put together a pretty handy and affordable set of filters. If you get a chance, watch his "Ice Cream" video.

I'm gonna give away my age.

Long time ago we used vaseline petro jelly to blure our shots on wide format stills and 35mm.

It still fun to play with. We also used window or door screen for special efects. Just set you f stop to and adjust your iris and play.

I have know some guys to shoot video through 'wax paper' and plexiglass. You can also shoot through tinted two layer glass panes. We made boxes for the cameras and just slipped the glass or screen element into the box. We slid the clear glass into the box and covered it with petro jelly. Sometimes we even colored the jelly with food colouring!

All this was before cool filters were developed for us. And post work.

All this stuff worked for still and very shot video clips, but for full feature it takes to much time and hard to match the previous shoot.

Post filters are cool.

A tilt-and-shift (also known as a perspective correction lens), when used right, can give you that half-frame blurred look as well.

If you've got the EOS adapter, there are some Canon Tilt-and-Shift lenses you can play with.

The TS lenses are wonderful. The drawbacks are cost and the fact that combined with the EOS EF adapter they all become telephotos ranging from about 200mm to over 600mm, in 35mm terms (4X to 12Xmag.). But great for tight shots.

Jeff