I'm quite a fan of the new band, Rumer (being a Radio 2 listener) and am on their mailing list. Today I got a
n invite to look at their new video - shot in a rather relaxed manner, but with really narrow depth of feel - so much so that the singers face is in focus and her hands are soft! Focus also shifts and quite a few times you have to wait while the camera op find it again. As videos go, it's a bit rough.
Nice song but the focus really is all over the place.
Even when there is a good opportunity of pulling focus to use the shallow dof (one example is around 48s) it's missed so the shot to me is just crap.
I bet the camera operator thought it was a really cool style - but what is wrong with keeping the camera steady and the picture in focus?
Or is it just me?
I got Beverly Craven's latest DVD and the James Taylor with Carol King one and they both feature this new searching for focus technique!:D
Might as well give up and leave it to the noo mediah experts!
For those audio observers here, the microphone is a Shure 545, which was the forerunner of the SM57 - a very odd choice of microphone - certainly not the one she really sang into, just a visual thing, I guess to suit the retro monochrome feel.
I don't think it's a shooting technique as such. I think they're using DSLRs because they're the fashion, and they're finding that that simply can't get decent pictures from them, it's too hard.