Today i borrowed a camera from UCA and started to film the shots for my project. The shot i was most worried about not being able to get right was the dolly zoom shot. It's really important that i turned out well because i think it is the shot that represents Altered states the best, so i need to get it right.
I wanted to get a dolly zoom in on the characters face so it looked like the world was closing in around them, and also a dolly zoom in an empty corridor, to it makes it look long and never ending, which i really like the look of.
Some examples i have come across when watching films in my spare time are below:
Scene from Jaws (1975), when Martin sees the shark attack in the ocean
Scene from The Incredible Hulk (2008), when the police see the hulk for the first time
Scene from Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) when StarLord finds out his dad killed his mum
Scene from Red Notice (2021) when Booth finds out Hartley double crossed him
As i mentioned in my previous post, i couldn't find anything to push me on in order to make the shot as smooth as i can. I tried looking for a skateboard or even a pair of roller skates to make the shot look smooth (to act as a dolly track), but instead i just had to try and balance the camera and not let my footsteps disrupt the shot too much.
Face Dolly-Zoom Test Shots:
After i figured out how to actually do a dolly-zoom, i got on a flat surface and tried it out. The first problem i faced was what i expected, my footsteps disrupted my filming and stopped it from being still and smooth.
Test Shot #1, too far away, so the shot was bumpy because of footsteps.
I found out this was because i was too far away when i started filming it, so i tried the shot again but closer (so i wouldn't take so many steps), and it turned out pretty well, except now the camera wasn't focusing well on my subject. I checked the AF settings and made sure to turn face recognition on, but it still wouldn't track it, probably as i was zooming out as well as moving forward, the camera couldn't track my actors face.
Test Shot #2, AF didn't track face
Test Shot #3, AF still didn't track face, face comes into focus at the end
This was annoying because now the effect actually worked really well (after a couple practise tries, i managed to finally get the dolly zoom effect i wanted), but my actors face kept going in and out of focus. I tried to turn the auto focus to manual, so i could adjust the focus ring myself, but as well as zooming out, moving forward and trying to keep my actor in the centre of the frame, i couldn't multitask that well and it didn't work.
Test Shot #4, Trying to manual focus the camera
I also tried to do the shot really slowly (and then speed it up post-production), to give the camera time to actually focus on my actors face, but it just kept going in and out of focus, and wasn't stable, so i wasn't happy with how it looked.
Test Shot #5, Doing the shot slowly
That was a bit annoying, as it was the shot i really wanted to get right.
Corridor Dolly-Zoom Test Shots:
I thought i'd try the dolly zoom in the corridor instead to see whether that would work any better, but i actually found it more difficult to do, as the corridor is long, and you don't have a subject to focus on so you have to move forward more in order for the effect you want to be made.
Test Shot #1, Shot with camera, footsteps were obvious throughout, +went out of focus
I really really didn't like how any of the shots taken on the camera turned out, and thought about using a vimble to steady it, but the UCA Equipment hire only has vimbles for phones. So i thought i'd try the effect out on my phone instead, as that way i'd have more control over how steady the shot is, and apple cameras are actually sometimes better quality than DSLRs, so i tried i.
It was a lot easier to steady the shot and hide my heavy footprints throughout, and the focus wasn't going in and out either. The only problem with using my phone to film is that the zoom motion isn't as smooth as i would have liked it to be, but that's the price i have to pay for a smoother shot, and ultimately i did prefer how the shots taken on my phone looked, compared to the camera ones.
Test Shot #2, Shot on phone (without vimble), steadier but zoom isn't as smooth
I then decided to borrow a vimble from the equipment department, to see whether it would help the shot in any way, and to be honest it just made it a lot harder, and the shot looked a lot slower because the camera was a lot more steady (therefore not even creating the full dolly zoom effect i was looking for.
Test Shot #3, Shot on phone (with a vimble), not very fast moving forward.
So overall the best effect i managed to get was the shot on my phone without the vimble, but in the future when i am making another film, i will definitely be trying to create this effect again, as i love the effect it creates.
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