wide angle?

Hi, I'm brand new to this. My first question of many is:

When should you use a wide angle shot and when should you NOT use a wide angle shot?
 
What lens focal length to use is mostly a creative decision. A good rule of thumb is to use wide angle lenses for establishing shots, action scenes and shots with things that you want to look very large, long, etc. Use telephoto or medium telephoto when doing close ups of people, or when you want to compress distances. A wide angle lens does not flatter a person's features, but you may still want to use one, if you're going for a carnival / freaky look.

Rather than select lenses by broad guidelines, learn the attributes of different focal lengths and pick the best focal length on a case by case basis. Sometimes you are force to use a short lens because you're working in a small space, etc.

Next question?

Doug
 
I've made an entire 30 minute film with a wide angle. Lots of movies use them ALOT....it's all about finding your individual style. I myself am trying to back off of their use so that I can use them to have visual exclamation points. I find they work really well with swoops, close objects that come even closer to the lens, the need to have something dominate something else by shooting low to high, anytime someone is moving from one camera side to another from far away to closer.

I also dig the use of a camera really far away for medium shots, as it does interesting things to peoples faces and the background.......

Again all this stuff is personal decision.

Some folks go for establishing, medium, close.....all square, all perfect, and rely entirely on the actors, dialogue, props, etc. etc..........find your style :)

Here's a trailer from the movie I did DP/Cameraman on in all wide angle(some of the shots really suck looking back lol) :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/pU7bRbl97YY&hl=en"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/pU7bRbl97YY&hl=en" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>

That's me all the way at the end looking all crazy with the long face, crazy hair, and crazy wide eyed look.
 
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