cinematography Is my director's camera technique a bad idea?

H

harmonica44

We are shooting a scene in the woods, and her camera has a feature where you can open up the aperture while shooting, and it doesn't look choppy. It opens and closes very smoothly. She is using this during shooting, and will open up as the forest gets darker, and close it, as it gets brighter, from sun to dark shade, and vice versa.

I've never seen a movie do this before so I told her maybe it's not a good idea since you never see it movies. She said Hollywood opens and closes the aperture while filming all the time, it's just they do it so smoothly, you don't notice.

I told her that Hollywood just lights their movies so they don't have to change the aperture while shooting, and she says they do, otherwise they wouldn't put that smooth aperture feature on a camera made for pro filmmaking.

I could be wrong of course, especially at my level, but I don't want her to screw up her first feature, which we are all working on for free. I figure we might as well try to fix such an easy thing if we can. Or am I wrong and it's normal do that in a movie, and we just don't see it, unless we are watching for that?
 
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No I haven't asked this one before. I asked about focus pulling before, but this is the first I have ever heart of Iris pulling. It's never been talked about on here or in my research that I have seen. But I was wrong, my mistake.

I didn't tell the director flat out in front of everyone though. I just voiced my concern that I have never seen it done before or ever heard of it, and therefore it might look unnatural or unprofessional, in private with her.
 
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di·rec·tor
/diˈrektər/
Noun
A person who is in charge of an activity, department, or organization.
A member of the board of people that manages a business.
Synonyms
manager - leader - head - conductor - principal

Let her do her job, and just keep on doing your job. You are not the director. You are a brush of the painter.
 
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Yeah I've never noticed before, accept for in The Spy Who Loved Me in one part, but I thought filmmakers just screwed up there, or did something wrong to adjust to the light.

It just seems unnatural to do, cause if you see the brightness go up or down on screen, you know it's a movie and get taken out of it.
 
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They aren't super difficult to hide, you just have to find the right transition point as the image changes and have a very smooth and consistent touch. It's just like pulling focus, it takes practice to make it invisible.
 
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Iris pulling definitely isn't uncommon practice during an outdoor shoot, but I think it probably depends on many variables as to whether it should be used.

An example of a no-go is if the lighting attributes drastically change such the sun dipping in and out of clouds., because then the characteristics constantly shift between hard and soft lighting.

But if the lighting is unchanged throughout the day, it's probably a good idea to iris pull. But you have to be careful about the depth of field changing if you drastically open/close the aperture.

As the others mentioned, it's all in the job of a director. Unfortunately if it goes wrong, it makes everyone look bad. But if it goes well, it makes everyone look incredibly good.

Have faith, young padawan.
 
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To be 100% honest, it's really more the job of the DP to instigate an iris pull, and decide whether or not an iris pull is appropriate. Some Hollywood Directors will be much more knowledgable and demanding of what they want, but in general it should be the DP to decide.

From the sound of it, this Director was also the DP, in which case she was the right person to decide (not one of the actors).
 
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I myself am a director and if my actor told me how to use my camera well.. you probably wouldn't be my actor. I need you in character, rehashing, walking your scene out not worrying what me and my DP are deciding on for the camera, then telling me I'm wrong cuz hollywood don't do it. Screw hollywood I'm glad your director is doing something different why stick to the same old things we see in every blockbuster?

Just cuz u haven't seen it before doesn't make it "bad" it makes it unique and original. Wait for your dailies then have THE DIRECTOR decide whether or not she should do it.

About the "I'm doing it free" thing. What does that have to do with getting paid? i understand money is nice but you should put just has much into a free gig as u do a paying one. after all its YOU on screen wouldn't you wanna look good? Also if you were getting paid would you say anything about the camera or just let it go cuz well "I'm getting paid who cares how it turns out"?
 
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Well I was just concerned that it would ruin the movie. I mean it's like putting your ISO on auto, then going from outdoor sunlight, to indoors and you see the ISO change. It would be written off as unprofessional which is why most filmmakers choose an ISO instead of sticking it on auto. As long as pulling iris works then fine. I was just concerned and mentioned it privately afterwords.

I felt it was okay to say something like that out of concern. And I wouldn't be fired for something like that cause the director/producer is not going to ruin the production schedule to look for another actor.
 
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Actors are replaceable... Crew is hard to come by. To many people want to act. Not everyone wants to haul the shit around for a credit after yours, the people tend to not see because the movie is already off. Just saying
 
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Actors are not replaceable on this director/producers budget. The production was already delayed by a year already cause of people dropping out and I don't think she'd want to delay it any longer and redo ithings again.
 
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IF their are whiny people that just hurt the production its better to recast than to put out a good movie with a shitty actor. You can have the best screenplay lighting and crew but if you have a bad actor that just kills everything. I was a month from ending my production this summer when me and the producers had it with our lead and had to recast. In the beginning everything can seem perfect but its not till the filming starts you realize who and what your really working with here in the low budget indie world. Needless to say i recasted in a week sure i had to re-film it all BUT its much better so don't think that to directors recasting isn't always there if it needs to be done.
 
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That's true. I am actually the most committed to the project I feel and have shown up for all the days. Other actors did not and now the director/producer is just using friends and relatives as replacements with no acting experience as far as I know.
 
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