I performed a search on this topic, and came up empty-handed.

Questions:

1. How do you know what lenses to buy, and what will be the effect for each? Is there a good general-purpose lense that will work for most situations and give you good cinema-style shallow DOP? Or do I need to buy several lenses? Is there a good rule of thumb to follow? Or can someone suggest a good lense setup? (note: I know nothing about still photography. )

2. I can get shallow DOP with my HVX as is, but it's so inconvenient. First I have to be really far-away from the subject. then I have to open the iris. Then I have to put on the ND filter. Such a pain in the ass. And, with this method, it is virtually impossible to get nice shots inside a small, inclosed space such as an automobile. Question: does a 35mm adapter allow me to get good DOP without having to do all of the above? In other words, with a 35 mm adapter, could I achieve DOP effects while standing, say, three or four feet from the subject instead of three or four yards?

Sorry for the long-winded questions. And thanks in advance for your response.

The 35mm adaptor you're looking for isn't just a lens adaptor, it's a ground glass plane upon which the image is resolved for the camera to shoot through it's normal optical path.

These adaptors will take a variety of lenses, to see what the difference will be, go to a local camera shop and express interest in seeing what the different fixed focal length lenses will do for you. I would say go as low as a 17mm lens and as high as a 200ish-mm. Look at the backgrounds as you do this, test at different distances from the subject to see the effect on the background.

You will generally need to take some of the same steps to keep the iris open and light management, the 35mm adaptors will eat some light on the way through - so you'll end up adding more light. But the result is a more cinematic feel to the images...couple that with careful camera movement and you can get a very cinema looking image.

p.s., the DOP you refer to is actually DoF (Depth of Field). This refers to the distances from the camera between which your subject will be in focus.