Blurry faces
- Thread starter Kpnuts
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Oh FFS, thank you, I think even an 8 year old knows what that is.
Read the original post, that's NOT what I was talking about.
I'm talking about, a conversation between Spock and Spock Prime in the hanger bay... the camera is on Spock's face, pin sharp. The camera cuts to Spock Prime, and his face is blurry.
Or,
The camera is on the Narada bridge. Nero approaches it to the look at the viewscreen saying "we wait...", his face is out of focus, he steps back once and it's in focus.
As if the focusing is locked to a particular length, and the actor has to be standing at the exact length the remain sharp.
Exactly.
And Spock Prime in the ice cave.
And Pike in the bar.
Exactly again.
The Spock/Spock Prime conversation is a perfect example, that's where it's at it;s worst.
Wow, only took 6 weeks for completely immaterial threads on pointless topics to start coming.
A basic film-making technique is suddenly mysterious and amazing!!?!???
Next they'll all be moaning that they spoke, instead of using caption cards!
A basic film-making technique is suddenly mysterious and amazing!!?!???
Next they'll all be moaning that they spoke, instead of using caption cards!
I don't think you understand the point I was trying to make, nor understand what the blurring issue is I'm referring to.
Changing focus to blur foreground objects and sharpen background objects (and vice versa) is a basic film making technique yes. Making whole closeup shots of speaking characters with nothing of consequence in the background and nothing else in the foreground is just bad film making though.
It doesn't make the shots look more "realistic", "gritty", it's not "artistic" and it doesn't add anything to the scene. It's distracting and looks like a projector problem the first time you notice it.
It's nothing like the "beauty shots" of female characters in TOS. It just looks really really bad.
From my re-viewing of ST VI the other night, it happens often in that - and many, many other movies. The scene that particularly caught my attention had Spock in the captain's chair, and Chekov at navigation. Chekov speaks while Spock is in blur, then Chekov goes blurry so Spock can speak, just as his image is sharpened. Nothing unique to JJ.
And we have another good definition of racking focus... which has nothing to do with the OP. I'm thinking this may be a side effect of seeing this film in IMAX, that the occasional soft focus (when it clearly should have been sharp) is magnified to the point of becoming distracting.
No one is asserting that any film is perfect in this regard (human error and all that) only that there were several glaring instances. The one's I most notice are Spock in the turbo with Uhura and Spock Prime when speaking with his younger self.
These did not come across as stylistic choices... merely imperfections. I've tried not to let it bother me, but I certainly noticed a few occurrences.
Yeah I noticed it... (But only in the final scene of NuSpock and PrimeSpock) I think they just goofed with the focus pulling. I'm really surprised they did not catch that as they were shooting.
number6
Vice Admiral
Can't we go back to bitching about Pine's eye color, or the size of the nacelles or something??
I just clump them all together, it saves a fortune on bitching. But to each their own.
For the ten millionth time, READ the original post. I know exactly the focusing technique used to switch between one character to the other. An 8 year old would be able to recognise that.
As GNDN says, I wasn't talking about that.
Next time you watch the film, look at the faces in the following scenes:
- Pike in the bar in Iowa
- Spock Prime in the ice cave during the campfire talk
- Spock Prime talking to Spock at the end.
There are 10x more instances in the film where this happens, but those 3 are the easiest ones to mention.
^^^
And I thought it was my eyesight
I only noticed it during the conversation between Prime and NuSpock in the hangar, and after the third viewing decided something was wrong with my theater's copy. So, regardless of our ignorance of the finer points of filmmaking, I'm happy it wasn't just me, because it was just so damn noticeable.
I didn't notice the other examples (and I do have crappy vision), but the examples cited :Prime Spock and Pike in the bar have one common denominator- the actors are both older men. Was the effect a byproduct of the cameraman trying to use a soft focus to avoid having facial lines show up too prominently in their closeups? That's what I thought, but again, I only noticed the effect in that one scene. But the contrast in the sharpness of the closeup of Quinto , and the fuzziness of Nimoy, was extreme.
And I thought it was my eyesight
I only noticed it during the conversation between Prime and NuSpock in the hangar, and after the third viewing decided something was wrong with my theater's copy. So, regardless of our ignorance of the finer points of filmmaking, I'm happy it wasn't just me, because it was just so damn noticeable.
I didn't notice the other examples (and I do have crappy vision), but the examples cited :Prime Spock and Pike in the bar have one common denominator- the actors are both older men. Was the effect a byproduct of the cameraman trying to use a soft focus to avoid having facial lines show up too prominently in their closeups? That's what I thought, but again, I only noticed the effect in that one scene. But the contrast in the sharpness of the closeup of Quinto , and the fuzziness of Nimoy, was extreme.
I only recall seeing it once, but I do think I know what Kpnuts is talking about... on the Narada bridge after Robau has been captured, when the camera was focused entirely on Robau, it briefly goes out of focus like the camera passed behind a blurry piece of glass while trying to stay focussed on Robau. I believe it was right before Nero offed him.
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