FreshDV Film School: The Art of Pulling Focus (Part 3) at FreshDV

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FreshDV Film School: The Art of Pulling Focus (Part 3)

Published by Matthew Jeppsen September 30th, 2007 in Cameras, FreshDV, Interviews, Lenses, Production, Tutorials

FreshDV recently spent a day with Bob Sanchez, a Chicago-based career 1st A/C with 30 years of feature filmmaking experience. In Part One and Part Two of our video series with Bob, Kendal Miller interviewed him on what exactly it takes to do the job, and the tips and tricks heâ€™s learned over the years. Bob explained 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. In this Third and final segment, we take you behind the lens as Bob shows us how he works hands-on. You’ll get a chance to see us block out a few scenes with an actor, and watch over Bob’s shoulder as he pulls focus on the HVX handheld 35mm adapter rig while Kendal operates. In the split screen you will see both the operators POV synced with what is actually being shot through the 35mm lens. Watch the Part 3 video below. You may also be interested in our video review of 5 popular Follow Focus systems.

The Art of Pulling Focus Part 3 Demo - 720p HD [15:00m]: Download

450MB ZIP containing a 720p HD version of the Part 3 Demonstration.

15 minutes, 90MB Flash video stream.

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.

24 Responses to “FreshDV Film School: The Art of Pulling Focus (Part 3)”

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1 gpcreative Sep 30th, 2007 at 8:55 pm

Fantastic Guys! In this one little video I’ve learned so much more than all the videos I’ve seen on the internet. Why this stuff isn’t taught on the web is beyond me. Great job! And I also learned a great spot to hook my monitor on to my Zacuto!
2 Matthew Jeppsen Sep 30th, 2007 at 9:02 pm

Thanks for your kind words, greatly appreciated. I think we all learned a thing or two from Bob. He has an amazing amount of practical experience and knowledge, and we appreciate the time he spent with FreshDV.

Isn’t the Zacuto rig the shiznit? It’s just a pleasure to shoot with, so configurable.

-Matt Jeppsen
3 gpcreative Sep 30th, 2007 at 9:10 pm

Yeah, I like the Zacuto but I’m still working out a few bugs. Tomorrow I’ll try the monitor on the bottom like you have it.
4 pablo korona Sep 30th, 2007 at 10:59 pm

i think this tutorial is one of the best behind the scenes pieces i’ve seen.
I feel the focuspuller/AC is one of the most critical people on the set, and this is proof positive of this - not to mention this sold me finally on cine lenses vs. still.

I find the zacuto rig is simply fantastic.
5 steve Sep 30th, 2007 at 11:04 pm

Great series! Like you guys said in the video, it’s not so easy to get access to true industry veterans like this. I’d love to see more stuff like this– I don’t even know if a film school can offer great little concentrated packets of knowledge like these. It’s things like this that’ll keep the “new” digital generation of filmmakers from wasting all the innovation and work that’s been done by their predecessors, while allowing them to take the craft forward from there.

On top of that, it helps amateurs aspiring to be pros (like myself) learn the right habits and techniques right off the bat.

thanks FreshDV!
6 Kendal Miller Sep 30th, 2007 at 11:30 pm

Hey guys this is where we really want to move forward with more stuff along these lines so please as you have more ideas for topics and tutorials please email them to me at Kendal@FreshDV.com and do us a favor please link these type of articles everywhere you can, and pass on the word the more hits we receive directly enable us to be able to create more content like this.
7 Chris Oct 1st, 2007 at 8:45 pm

Excellent content, really this is top notch stuff. I’d love to get an iPod download, maybe through iTunes or something, but other than that it is awesome!
8 Werner Oct 1st, 2007 at 10:57 pm

Fantastic insight into how things are done in the professional world. I particularily liked that you showed the patience and rehearsals needed to get it right. Please more of this!
9 Rob Oct 2nd, 2007 at 10:33 am

This was a terrific three parter. I love to learn from real experts like this. The only improvement to these would be of you could add a part four and follow Bob on an actual professional shoot.

Keep up the great work.

Rob:-]
10 Martin Corona Oct 6th, 2007 at 12:45 am

Great stuff. One question, did you mount the monitor upside down or does it have a flip function?
11 Matthew Jeppsen Oct 6th, 2007 at 12:54 am

Martin, the IKAN monitor was mounted upside down using a Zamerican arm from Zacuto (it’s like a Noga arm). There is no flip function. You can read our review of the IKAN here: http://www.freshdv.com/2007/09/freshdv-review-of-ikan-lcd-field-monitor.html
12 Andrew McMillan Oct 25th, 2007 at 1:09 pm

What is that on the back off the camera. It doesn’t look like a battery.

P.S. it would have been nice to a matte box on that thing just because it looks cool.
13 Matthew Jeppsen Oct 25th, 2007 at 1:36 pm

Hey Andrew, the box on the back is a Zacuto counterweight. They do offer a battery plate option as well.
If you are into matte boxes, stay tuned…we’ve got a few matte box video reviews coming very soon.

-Matt Jeppsen
14 Josef Hrehorow Jan 27th, 2008 at 9:54 am

you didn’t include the finished product..kinda what i was waiting for
15 Joe Aug 12th, 2008 at 8:35 am

Excellent tutorial on pulling focus, I really hope you do more of this kind of thing.

On a down note - terrible depiction of how to work with actors. I know this is not what the video is about, but you should try to be aware of that in any others you do. This sets a bad example. The actor comes across as a movable prop who is spoken to without any courtesy and has his actions changed to suit the technical side of things.

Worth considering…
16 Kendal Miller Aug 12th, 2008 at 10:45 pm

Joe as you pointed out the point of this video had nothing to do with actors, simply marks and focus. On the budgets we have to work on this we simply have to focus on one area and hit it hard, sorry but the other areas simply will suffer. Glad you enjoyed it, it could be pointed out that on a real set an AC wouldn’t even be talking to the talent.
17 Alexa Cantin Sep 10th, 2008 at 8:45 am

very cool series– I am an AC who has always wondered how my processes
compared to other ACs-
thanks for putting it out there!
18 Roger Vidal Dec 18th, 2008 at 4:42 pm

Vraiment le meilleur tutoriel q’on peut trouver su internet, merci les gars pour l’info!!!

Roger Vidal

Paris 8