VARY DEPTH OF FIELD IN FILM
VARY DEPTH OF FIELD IN FILM
The Cinefade is a really useful and very subtle tool to use in moments of extreme drama. A way of immersing an audience inside the mind of a character during a pivotal moment.
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There are a handful of moments in The Commuter where Liam Neeson’s character discovers clues while riding on a train. Director Jaume Collet-Serra and I wanted a severe depth-of-field shift to accentuate his experience - something to isolate him from his surrounding world. Cinefade was exactly what we were looking for.
Depth of field in motion picture is a powerful cinematic storytelling device. In the past, Cinematographers have always been limited to choosing either a shallow or deep depth of field that stays consistent throughout the shot.
A variable depth of field has vast creative applications. Instead of simply communicating the emotional state of a character, the effect of a changing depth of field may be used to express a shift in the subject’s emotional state.
The transition from a sharp background to a blurry background forces the viewer to shift his focus to the subject. The Cinefade could be used in narrative film and TV to immerse the viewer into a protagonist's world or in a commercial to make a client's product stand out from the rest.
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A custom lens control system and light filter
A custom lens control system and light filter
Depth of field is manipulated by increasing or decreasing the diameter of the lens' iris. When the lens is focused on a foreground subject, the background will become blurry and go out of focus or vice versa become sharp.
However, by opening or closing the aperture more or less light hits the camera's digital sensor or film, affecting exposure.
There are various ways of compensating for the change in exposure caused by a varying aperture size. Shutter speed and ISO sensitivity could be slaved to the iris but these methods cause distracting motion blur and sensor noise and can not be employed over a wide variety of different camera systems.
Cinefade uses a variable ND filter that sits inside a matte box in front of the camera lens and is slaved to the iris. This solution is compatible with any digital and film camera system and cinema lens.
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The custom Filter Tray fits inside a matte box and is connected to the custom cmotion Lens Control System. The system will work with any digital and film camera and cinema lens with a manual aperture and geared ring.
Cinefade uses a light filter to compensate for the change in exposure rather than shutter speed or ISO compensation. The camera accessory is compatible with all film and digital cameras that use a cinema lens with manual aperture control
Cinefade is not limited by the camera's shutter or ISO capabilities. It is possible to to achieve a Cinefade of up to 5 T-stops within the lens' limits without any loss in quality or undesirable artifacts, such as unnatural motion blur or sensor noise.
The custom cmotion software and custom Filter Tray work together to allow fast and easy calibration of lens and Filter Tray at the push of a button, as well as full control over the Cinefade via a slider on the hand unit.
Cinefade uses Formatt-Hitech polarizing filters to attenuate the light with no loss in optical picture quality up to 5+ stops stops of extinction. There are no undesirable artifacts, such as unnatural motion blur or sensor noise to worry about.