lenses are used for portrait-type shots.
Telephoto lenses range from approximately 75 mm to 300 mm and are considered “long” lenses due to the fact that they are physically larger than wide or normal lenses due to the glass they contain to get closer to the subject. They will compress and soften the background focusing the viewer to look only at the subject in focus. These lenses bring the subject closer to the camera without being physically closer to the camera. This is more the beauty shot lens because all you see in the frame is the subject that you have focused on everything else becomes a soft blur. Longer lenses are often used for close-ups.
■ In Amores Perros, we used different focal lengths to tell the stories, in the story of the homeless guy with all the dogs we used longer lenses because we wanted to convey more of a sense of spying because he was going around looking at people, another story was more kinetic, it was all handheld but with different lenses, it was something I brought to Alejandro which he liked.
(Rodrigo Prieto, ASC, Frost interview, July 2007)
8. Arri Prime lenses
With prime lenses, each individual focal length — wide angle, normal, and telephoto — is a single lens. They each have a fixed focal length and they do not zoom or shift focal length like a “zoom” lens does. A set of prime lenses might be something like a 12 mm, 27 mm, 35 mm, 55 mm, 75 mm, and 150 mm, covering your range of wide angle, normal, and telephoto. A zoom lens is one lens with a focal range of 20 mm to 80 mm, or 30 to 300 mm, or the like. There are many combinations but basically the zoom is one lens containing all focal length between its widest focal range and its maximum telephoto.
■ I generally prefer using primes mostly because I like the movies that I work on to have a kind of architecture that relates to those lenses. I’ve shot some movies with mostly just three sizes of lenses. The other thing is that I find if you have a prime on, nobody says, “Why don’t we zoom?” That eliminates that conversation.
(John Lindley, ASC, Frost interview)
■ I like prime lenses, because once we find the frame that we like then that is what we are doing. With zooms the director typically wants to zoom in to get closer, and I would rather move the camera. Sure, it would be faster to just zoom, but then all the coverage will be with a long lens, which could be fine if that’s what you are going for. But I generally prefer to be close with the camera; the feeling of intimacy is very different with a 100 mm or a 40 mm that is close to the actors. It really feels like you are with them, invading their space with the camera a little. For the audience, it’s the difference between being voyeuristic and safe, looking at something or someone from a distance or being right there with them. That’s why primes work better for me because it forces me to move in for coverage.
(Rodrigo Prieto, ASC, Frost interview, July 2007)
■ There is a formal and rigid discipline that using prime lenses gives you. If you are doing a lot of handheld using primes you tend to know exactly what you are getting with the prime.
(Michael Bonvillain, ASC Frost interview)
■ The prime lens makes you think about what kind of shot it is. Is it a 27 mm or a 50 mm? I want the audience to be here looking at this with a wide angle, or I want them to be here looking at the character’s face with a 50 mm, or I want them back here looking at the character’s face on a 200 mm — it’s aesthetically and emotionally a totally different effect. I think just by getting into the regime of changing lenses every time you change a shot, it makes you more aware of what you are doing, and it really doesn’t take any more time to change a lens; in fact, it takes less. And there you have it.
(Roger Deakins, ASC, Frost interview, November 2007)
■ I used to think that primes were better because there is less glass that the light has to go through. But there are zoom lenses that have gotten so good that it doesn’t matter. I do like the convenience of changing things. I think, if I had my choice, I would want the zoom. I love what the zoom does, and I feel that it’s truly a tool of cinema. There is no zoom anywhere else. There is nothing that does what a zoom does. I love using it and I love the long, slow creeping kind of zoom. In the right moment, it could be the best way to describe a certain beat of the film. But I’m not a stickler to one or the other, nor am I stickler to any type of equipment. It’s like my attitude for lighting: If it’s the right for the job, I’ll use a whiskey glass as a lens.
(Harris Savides, Frost interview)
■ Nic Roeg is the master of the zoom. For instance, in Walkabout, the zoom is used for great effect in the outback of Australia where nature is virtually breathing and he would zoom in and out and suddenly these rocks would appear to breathe, incredible to see, magical stuff. The zoom is coming back, and a lot of filmmakers are warming to it again. Of course in the ’70s everyone used it, but I think it has creative uses.
(Seamus McGarvey, ASC, Frost interview)
■ I did all of Good Night, and Good Luck with zoom lenses, two cameras all the way through, two 11 mm–100 mm’s. It’s a matter of taste. But on Paul’s (Thomas Anderson) movies, I don’t think we ever used a zoom lens once.
(Robert Elswit, ASC, Frost interview)
ZOOM LENSES
9. Zoom lens (Canon) up to 200 mm
The zoom has a wide range of focal lengths, it can be a 20–300 mm, which means at its widest opening it is a 20 mm (wide-angle lens) and zoomed in it is 300 mm (telephoto lens) and every focal length in between. The size and weight of the zoom lens is much larger and heavier than the prime lens because of all the glass in the lens for the varying focal lengths. The camera can be placed a further distance from the subject and when zoomed in the subject while be isolated while also softening what is in focus in the background. This can create a slightly voyeuristic quality since the camera is farther away.
10a-d. The Graduate (Zoom out to reveal her isolation)
When the lens is zoomed in it tells the audience only to look at this subject because the background will be completely soft focus. The focus can shift with the zoom lens, racking focus from one subject to another. Using the zoom can be convenient if you are in a difficult-to-control situation and need to zoom into a tighter shot without changing out the lens, such as in a documentary film or when you are grabbing a shot on the fly.
At a longer focal length the zoom lens can get the subject in a closer shot but at the same time it will compress and soften the background, isolating the subject so that they are all we see. These can be very aesthetically pleasing shots, almost like a portrait.
The zoom lens was first used in films in of the late ’60s like Easy Rider for a very obvious effect. The zoom in was like the eye of the
