Would this type of cinematography work with this lens?

[Rick Wise]

This DP found a relatively simple solution to your problem. Yes, that solution in turn creates another problem: space. One of the ways art is always made is finding some solution within the means you can bring to the project. It’s amazing what we come up with. Limitations can be a great gift, even if at first they seem like a curse.

Rick Wise
Cinematographer
MFA/BFA Lighting and Camera Instructor Academy of Art University
San Francisco Bay Area
https://www.RickWiseDP.com

[Ryan Elder]

Another thing is, will this Kurosawa style look weird to a modern audience? Cause all the angles are from the side of the actor more so, and audiences are use to chase scenes being down from the camera in front of the actor or behind them, so would this style all done from the side look too ‘second dimensional’, to a modern audience, do you think?

[Rick Wise]

Done well, it will work. Bungled, it will not work.

Rick Wise
Cinematographer
MFA/BFA Lighting and Camera Instructor Academy of Art University
San Francisco Bay Area
https://www.RickWiseDP.com

[Ryan Elder]

Okay thanks. Well having to find good or suitable locations that will be okay with shooting is tough enough, and if I have to make decisions according to space around the location that makes it more tough as well.

What if we shoot on a dolly and follow the actors from behind them and in front of them, with fifty feet of track? Now normally the track will be seen in the shot, but I suggested to the DP that we zoom past the track and the DP said it wouldn’t look right. He said it was hard to explain it just won’t look right, to have a chase scene, where you are following an actor on a dolly and it’s zoomed in past fifty feet of track.

But the DP has no problem zooming in from the side on a long lens. Do you think the DP is right though, and this is a mistake that zooming past fifty feet of track will not look right?

[Todd Terry]

It’s two completely different things.

Stop worrying yourself to death about the dolly track, this is NOT a dolly track situation… so just let that go.

Trust your DP.

T2

__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com

[Ryan Elder]

But the DP is saying we need a location with a lot more space in order to zoom in, which means I have to look for one that is much, much bigger for a telephoto. So I feel the DP is making it harder for me in a way.

[Ryan Elder]

I mean can’t the DP make it work within the location that he has rather than delaying things, looking for a bigger one?

[Todd Terry]

You’ll be fine, for that shot you need a downtown location that does NOT have solid buildings on both sides of the street. Find a location where one side of the street is clear of structures (parking lots. open field, whatever), that will let you get far enough back to shoot your talent across the street with a long lens.

T2

__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com

[Ryan Elder]

Okay thanks, but across the street will not be long enough for these types of shots, that the DP is talking about in Kurosawa movies.

[Todd Terry]

That’s why I said no buildings on that side, so you can back way way way up. You’re not just shooting across the street, you’re shooting across that much further distance than the width of the street. Maybe even a whole block away if you find a empty block, or shoot across a park or whatever. Just not shooting across a street that has tall buildings on both sides of the street…. which would limit your camera-to-talent distance.

T2

__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com