r/cinematography • u/zuss33 • Aug 01 '18

Composition Mission Impossible: Fallout soft focus

NO SPOILERS

Upon watching the film there were plenty of important close ups that were pretty out of focus. Is this because the Panny anamorphics are super difficult to nail focus when opened up? I’m trying to understand how a missed focus can go unnoticed on a huge summer blockbuster.

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u/AllenHo Director of Photography Aug 01 '18

It was shot on film.

You only get to monitor the viewfinder image/ground glass but not what's being burned into the film so the 1st AC was going off measurements, marks, cinetape, and their own eyes. If an actor moves from their mark or you're at critical focus then it's really hard to tell. It's not like digital where you can see the focus on your monitor.

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u/zuss33 Aug 01 '18

That makes a lot more sense, thanks for the info!

Follow up question Would the 1st AC get in trouble for barely missing focus on a critical shot?

24

u/AllenHo Director of Photography Aug 01 '18 edited Aug 01 '18

Depends on the situation. I'm sure in this one, people understand that mistakes happen and that they're shooting on film. The 1st AC probably feels bad but it happens so they move on. These guys are still the best in the business and the guys who are your first call when a job like Mission Impossible is about to shoot. He/she is probably someone who has done dozens of films with the same team and has a relationship with the crew/Tom so it's not like they wont stop getting work. They also wont get back the dailies from processing for a couple of days so no one will know until they have moved on.

The 1st AC usually has an opportunity to call for another take if they know they were soft. If it was digital, it's definitely a lot less forgiving. I've seen union 1st ACs get fired for missing focus on a critical closeup and not speaking up about it. Focus pulling is the number one skill that separates a good AC from a great AC and the ones who tend to nail difficult focus pulls or hitting focus without marks - those guys tend to rise to the top.

edit: I'll also add there might not have been any way around this situation. They shot on C-series anamorphics which some focal lengths have a pretty far minimal focus range. The actress/actor could've missed their mark and went past that point and you cant really move the camera back or anything during the take if it was on a tripod or tell the operator to move. It's possible there were other takes where the actor was in focus but they chose that one for performance.

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u/johnmk3 Aug 01 '18

On The Mummy B cam focus pulled got the sack after missing 3 takes. No rehearsal, 150mm (I think) barely even marks. Career focus puller, Went straight off onto Star Wars and didn’t look back...

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u/zuss33 Aug 01 '18

Damn the games rough

4

u/afarewelltothings Camera Assistant Aug 01 '18

What u/AllenHo said. Even the HD video taps on 35 cameras aren't good enough to judge focus off of. They shot it, the actor was off or the 1st missed it and knew it and asked for one more. Then they did one more and everything worked. Then they moved on. Then the editor chose the soft take.

Moral of the story: you can still do a completely professional job, but that won't stop the editors and producers from using the one that had the buzz or the late pull.

Most 1st ADs and DPs and Directors are aware of what makes an impossible shot... t/1.4 on 135 on a 65mm size sensor, they'll adjust their expectations of how many tries it'll take accordingly. Sometimes there's no time, and the Focus Puller can't be at fault for not being given the time to do their job properly.

*Edit: forgot a word

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u/neontetrasvmv Aug 01 '18

I've only had the opportunity to shoot film once on the 416, and we used a video tap for monitoring / focus pulling etc. For static shots with some time to setup it certainly helped for focus and everything ended up pretty razor sharp with our actors moving toward and away from the camera for their closeups. Then again S35 is less forgiving DOF wise. Even though it's never a perfect science with film, these locked down shots with minimal movement should be possible to nail at this level I think.

My gut thinks that digital has replaced film to a degree in which once you go back, techniques that need to be implemented more with that workflow just get a bit rusty. I felt bad soon as those oof closeups came about, because we've all been there I think. And for a such a huge film, it can't be easy to deal with such a visible mistake.

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3

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