ASK & DISCUSS INDEX

10 years, 4 months ago - Paddy Robinson-Griffin

Hi Robert, yes, renting fancy lenses will be potentially better, but learning to balance the finance in a shoot is a key skill. Only you know what that one shot is worth to you - is that rack focus actually adding to the story or is it just there because you want a rack focus shot on your showreel? It's fine if you do, but then don't shoot a short dramatic piece, simply line up a load of effects shots and shoot mute.

If you've got a few hundred quid budget overall, spending £x00 on a lens for one shot in one scene is poor budgeting, especially if you then can't pay people anything to work on your project and lunch consists of Asda value burgers. It's all about balance. Almost certainly the money is better spent elsewhere (sound, lights, cast, crew, expenses, catering, location, whatever) in a dramatic short.

10 years, 3 months ago - Gareth Rees

Hi Robert
One consideration is what lighting/light levels you will have when shooting. On my feature film (Written In Dust) I was working with no additional light and shooting at night (urban areas), so I made sure to get, in addition to a reasonable zoom, as fast a fixed lens as possible, which gave me more options for aperture/ISO etc., and allowed me to get shots that I couldn't get with the slower zoom lens.
I'd always recommend doing some camera and lens tests before hiring, if possible. Plan a few shots that match your ideas for your film e.g. light levels and range, depth of field, shooting space (working in a small room may need a wide etc.). See what you can achieve with your basic set up, and then decide if you need/want extras.

10 years, 4 months ago - Andrew Morgan

What Sigma lens do you have? Some of them are *very* good. Also, if you want to get the most out of a BMCC shoot, think about shooting RAW. The BMCC and Pocket are great cameras that don't *need* cine lenses to produce wonderful results - familiarity with the camera and good lighting will probably benefit you much more than a fancy lens.

10 years, 4 months ago - Paddy Robinson-Griffin

Personally, I'd spend your money elsewhere. Primes may be a bit brighter, may be a bit sharper, but unless you're experienced enough to get the specific results you need, you'll spend more time chasing the shots than directing the action.

Put another way, there's no point in having fancy lenses if they're filming a poorly lit scene with dodgy sound and lousy performance from hungry cast! You know who else uses multi-length lenses? Spielberg. I spent few days on War Horse, yes they used multi-length lenses regularly. They may be better multi-length lenses than you've got, but then everything was better.

There's nothing inherently wrong with multi-length lenses, despite the fetishism you often hear! The biggest crime is to change the lens length during a shot ;-) OK, you'll get people saying 'but bokeh!!!' - and that's valid if everything else is in order, but you've only got a few quid which you'll get better value from spending on lights/sound/crew ;-)

10 years, 4 months ago - Robert Stanton

I can't say which model unfortunately, all I know is that is has a Nikon mount.
Regrettably RAW likely won't be an option. the storage requirements are too large and it will be too demanding on the editing laptop.
With regards to the first answer I was wondering whether a decent cine prime might be useful not out of any inherent hate of zooms, more that i figured the glass would simply be sharper, and racking focus might be more precise and feature less breathing.