An article on deep focus and thoughts on a possible return.

https://www.redsharknews.com/production/item/3010-the-return-of-deep-focus-shallow-depth-of-field-is-not-the-only-way

An article on deep focus and thoughts on a possible return.

https://www.redsharknews.com/production/item/3010-the-return-of-deep-focus-shallow-depth-of-field-is-not-the-only-way
Thanks for sharing. A welcome respite from having to hear about breaking the you know what rule.

Oh okay thanks. I don't have to do the project in deep focus, it's just that I thought it would look better to have three characters for example all in focus while talking instead of just one at a time, and taking turns wrack focusing.

Unless taking turns wrack focusing is better, if the locations do not have the most cinematic backgrounds?

I literally just finished watching Unsane, which is a 2018 horror-adjacent movie shot on a freakin’ iPhone. The cinematography is cool as hell and there is not a single shallow focus shot to be found. Deep focus can look fantastic. They did what they did with blocking, angle choice, color, lighting and location/set design.

Oh okay thanks, I will check that one out. Since I am not allowed to paint locations normally, I thought I would just color grade them in Da Vinci and use the qualifier to separate the skin tones, like tutorials show. But every time I try to separate the skin tones, there is more noise on the footage, cause I keep failing to get it to separate correctly it seems. Is it possible to do this in Da Vinci resolve? Cause if I could control the color of the backgrounds, it will look better for deep focus of course.

I watched the trailer for Unsane. The deep focus looks good in wide shots, but I wouldn't want it in close ups. If it's a close up of just one actor who need to be in focus I might as well make the background shallow and only have deep focus on wider shots with multiple actors in them I figure, if that's a good idea?

That choice is up to up you; but deep focus works with CUs as well, however, you have to think about the cheacters' relationships, framing etc. You don't need a shallow depth of field to direct attention, as you would in a still photograph, since there is movement etc in a film

.

Oh well it's just I guess I am worried it's a toss up. One the hand a lot of filmmakers and some cinematographers think that deep focus looks like 'home video', or at least they do based on conversations in the past.

On the flip side of that, master shots with more than one person in might look bad, if it keeps wrack focusing from person to person rather than allowing to the viewer to look at who they choose. So I thought maybe it was best to compromise and have deep focus for the wide shots, and shallow focus for the close ups. But it was just a thought.

Deep focus will look like home movies if you make a film that's shot like a home movie,

Okay got ya. So what is the advantage of deep focus in a CU, of just one actor then?

it will match in more if the rest of the film is deep focus, however, you do need to think more about the background and what it's saying about the character.

Oh okay. I noticed some movies are in deep in the wides with more people but then shallow in the close ups, like Glory (1989). So I thought it would match therefore. But if I should pick just one, then I can.

I suspect nothing has changed stop wise, they've just used longer focal length lenses or moved in closer for the CUs. Wider shots tend not to have a shallow DOF unless you use very wide apertures.

Okay sure, I was thinking that might be the case too. Thanks.