Hold all three of them, stay with actor 'A' for the beginning until actor

Particular shot is OK, but it goes back in for the next shot.īut usually his instructions to me were something like, 'If you can't Stops, so we often use a lot of ND filtering outdoors. For day exteriors he likes to work within a stop or two of the interior Picture,' or a 'T2.8 picture,' and rarely will he vary that for lit Gordon would tell me at the beginning of a film, 'This will be a T4 To increase D-of-F, and only very rarely will he add light to stop down. I don't think we ever widened a shot he had blocked just Telling me who should be in focus for which parts of the shot, or maybe by moving theĪctors' marks, or by moving the camera (rarely), or by removing some NDįilter so I can stop down. ('Prayer Wheel'), and inform Gordon, and he will solve the problem, by Pushing our D-of-F to the limit, I will check my trusty SamCine Calculator If these three questions don't solve the problem for the 1AC, I wouldĪsk Gordon where he wants the focus. The order of their 'Star' status, and therefore generally in 'size of paycheck' Number on the Call Sheet!' (On most call sheets the actors are numbered in Who is getting the biggerĪnother DP I work with is fond of the quote: 'Stay with the lowest Is facing the camera? and most important, 3. Questions and rules of 'Who Should Be In Focus: 1. As for focus and Depth-of-Field, 99.99% of the time there is no question

MikeDoug Hart was very kind to reply to my question and gave me permission to quote him over here: Here's a couple from him about the art of follow focus and his and Gordon Willis' filming of 'Stardust Memories'. In any event, please check out his work in STARDUST MEMORIES, and in fact, all of the films he has shot for Woody Allen. There were lots of exterior, daytime shots where all of the background was out of focus. I really loved his use of shallow depth of field. but the shot would still hold and you would only hear their voices. Last night I watched Woody Allen's STARDUST MEMORIES. If anyone can tell me where I can get a DVD or VHS tape of the film it would be greatly appreciated. I'm looking for it on DVD.Īnyway, one of my favorite parts in the film was Gordon explaining how he was sometimes referred to as 'The Prince of Darkness' for his underlit scenes and how he admitted that he really did go to far in Godfather II in a scene where Michael was talking to his mother.

Funny how I can't find any reference to it on the net. In desperation I came here to '' figuring someone here would know the name of the film, and bang, there it is mentioned on the first thread I come onto. Nothing on Google, nothing on any of the major film sites, nada. I could have sworn it was 'Masters of Light' but thought I must be wrong because I couldn't find a single reference to the film anywhere on the internet. The reason I joined was because I have been racking my brain trying to think of the name of a doc I saw about ten years ago about cinematographers throughout the history of film. I just recently joined this forum so let me begin by saying hello to everyone. In any event, please check out his work in STARDUST MEMORIES, and in fact, all of the films he has shot for Woody Allen. Where does it say that everything has to be in sharp focus in every scene? I couldn't help notice how completely effective it was to have lots of STARDUST MEMORIES out of focus! As the world wants to move faster and faster into HD filmmaking, and everyone's goal seems to be having the highest resolution and the sharpest overall image. Like a feast for the eyes.Īfter the film I really thought about Gordon's use of film and space and focus. If you are into black and white I would highly recommend this film. Shot in black and white, with great long shots, scenes where the characters would walk out of frame, but the shot would still hold and you would only hear their voices. As I was watching it last night, I couldn't help but notice how INCREDIBLE the cinematography was. It's a film that most Allen fans don't rate very highly, but I just love it.

Stardust memories vhs