FreshDV Film School: The Art of Pulling Focus (Part 1) at FreshDV

FreshDV @ PVC

FreshDV Film School: The Art of Pulling Focus (Part 1)

Published by Matthew Jeppsen September 2nd, 2007 in Cameras, Featured Content, FreshDV, Interviews, Lenses, Production, Tutorials

Image focus is one if the most critical aspects of film and video production. It can also be one of the hardest to get right. Keeping your images in focus become particularly difficult when shooting with your lens aperture wide open, during fast-moving action, and when shooting video film-style with a 35mm lens adapter. On a production set the crew member generally tasked with image focus is the First Assistant Camera position. Depending on the size of the crew, other tasks for the 1AC may include building and breaking down the camera rig, setting the lens and aperture, keeping lenses clean, slating, and loading/marking film canisters. It is an important position, and a good AC effectively frees up the DP/Cinematographer to better perform his job.

FreshDV recently sat down with Bob Sanchez, a Chicago-based career 1st A/C with 30 years of feature filmmaking experience. In part one of our video series with Bob, Kendal Miller interviews him on what exactly it takes to do the job, and the tips and tricks he’s learned over the years. Bob explains his unique method of focus pulling with a speed crank, how he approaches measuring and marking a scene, and the tools he uses on a daily basis. This was a very informative experience for us, and we feel you will agree when you watch it. Watch the Part 1 video below. Part 2 and Part 3 are both now online. Part 3 is the unique segment where we take you behind the lens as we demonstrate the techniques Bob uses. You may also be interested in our video review of 5 popular Follow Focus systems.

FreshDV would like to thank the following companies for their involvement in making this segment possible:
Zacuto for providing a fully-loaded handheld studio rig.
Fletcher Chicago for providing a Zeiss 85mm PL cinema lens.
Zeiss for providing a set of ZF prime lenses.
Cinevate for providing a Brevis 35mm lens adapter and PL-mount.
Bruce Allen for providing a Sekonic cine light meter.
Bartech Engineering for providing a remote wireless BFD focus system.
Palomar Engineering for providing the M-One focus motor for the BFD.
16×9 Inc for providing a Chrosziel matte box and follow focus.
Ste-Man, Inc for providing a Petroff matte box and follow focus.
Cinetech for providing a matte box and follow focus.
Redrock Micro for providing a follow focus.
IndiFocus for providing a follow focus and dolly system.
Ikan Corp for providing a HD reference monitor.
Lowel for providing a fully-loaded production lighting kit.
Mole-Richardson for providing a fully-loaded production lighting kit.

21 Responses to “FreshDV Film School: The Art of Pulling Focus (Part 1)”

Feed for this Entry

1 gpcreative Sep 2nd, 2007 at 9:50 pm

Are you guys gonna put this up so that I can watch it on my ipod?
2 Kendal Miller Sep 2nd, 2007 at 10:30 pm

We are debating on whether to offer this one in h264 or not, at this point we are undecided.
3 AM Corona Sep 5th, 2007 at 3:01 pm

When is part 2 coming and will Bob gives us some sample footage along with narration?

How the heck do you follow focus with a steadicam and NOT shake the camera? Sounds like a pain to pull off
4 Matthew Jeppsen Sep 5th, 2007 at 7:57 pm

Part 2 goes up on Sunday morning. Generally Steadicam ops will have a remote (wireless) follow focus unit on their rig. We go into this in Part 2, Bob demonstrates how he would use the Bartech BFD unit.
5 Kendal Miller Sep 8th, 2007 at 10:23 am

Part 3 will be a show and tell where bob will deconstruct a very simple scene and you will be able ro see his methodology as he walks through the process.
6 Dennis Wood Sep 9th, 2007 at 8:45 pm

Guys, this was excellent. In fact, now that I’ve viewed the entire clip, I’ll be checking out a few more of these tutorials :-)
7 Alexander Oct 5th, 2007 at 7:03 pm

I’d LOVE to see this in a format compatible with iPods / iPhones.
8 ESTEBEVERDE Jan 1st, 2008 at 8:06 pm

Can you add a .mov link please.

Thanks
9 Kendal Miller Jan 1st, 2008 at 10:39 pm

There is a .mov file of part 3 no movs for these first two parts have been released yet.
10 Steadycam Frank Jan 3rd, 2008 at 2:36 am

Loved the vid, an option for embeding in other sites would also be great.
11 chris Feb 23rd, 2008 at 5:17 am

i would like to download all three videos is that possible

cheers chris
12 Matthew Jeppsen Feb 23rd, 2008 at 11:36 pm

We don’t currently have H.264 download versions of parts 1 and 2 up. We will at some point, it’s just a time factor right now.

-Matt Jeppsen
13 Gev Apr 16th, 2008 at 2:29 am

Hey guys this looks like a gem,if i could only get it to play. I’m on OS X 10.5.2 with safari and the videos do not load for me. Any ideas?

Thanks,
Gev
14 Matthew Jeppsen Apr 17th, 2008 at 11:25 am

Gev, the video clip has been fixed. Should play just fine now. Thanks for the heads up!

-Matt Jeppsen
15 Gev Apr 17th, 2008 at 8:58 pm

Great Thanks!
16 keno game Dec 31st, 2008 at 10:27 am

I can find many things that I look for here! Thank you very much!
17 guide Jan 2nd, 2009 at 7:25 am

You have a great website. Keep up the good work.