NYC Documentary Shoot Part II

New York from Cristina Valdivieso + Jon Connor on Vimeo.

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NYC Documentary Shoot

Just wrapped a documentary shoot with Cristina Valdivieso for a great company Queensbury Media out of the UK. Here's some photos. More to come on the shoot soon...

The Director  David McConachie

The Legendary Bert Sugar

The Almost as Legendary Empire State Building

The Producer  Paul Middleton

The Crew

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Can't Afford a Follow Focus?

                         

I have always run into the same problem when trying to get a shot of an inanimate object. For example, Let's say I am shooting a wedding and I want the rings to be out of focus and then to come into sharp focus. It always takes me about ten times to get it right. I have the rings out of focus. I turn the focus ring slowly and then just as soon as I have the rings in focus .... Oops I turned it too far and they are back out of focus. I can't afford a follow focus set up currently. So I had an idea yesterday while working on an edit. The hardest part of the whole process is knowing/being able to stop when the item is completely focused properly. So what if I work backwards. Get the rings totally in focus then rack focus backwards. Know the shot is a one take deal. Drop it into my NLE of choice,and reverse the clip. I am dumbfounded by the fact that I just thought of this. So I would be interested to hear if other people have already been doing this. So anyway this is my brilliant idea of the week.

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