Redrock micro follow focus systems sold here!!!

Here at pictureline we are really excited to be a part of the "DSLR VIDEO" transformation. With a ton of new products added to our line up, it's a must to come into one of our stores to check out the fun new things. Don't worry if you are not into shooting DSLR VIDEO, you can us a lot of our new products for shooting still images.

Abstract: Digital filmmakers –visual storytellers who use digital video or HD as their preferred medium – have in recent years have developed an arsenal of cinematic tools to enhance the look of video towards more of a "film quality." The Micro35 adds the last and arguably the most critical element – film-style cinematography – to achieve truly ‘film style’ digital video.

Film and Digital Video

Filmmaking is rife with key moments in its history; perhaps none more so in recent years than the advent of Digital Video (or more specifically Mini-DV). For the independent producer, gone was the prohibitive cost of exposing silver nitrate on celluloid: the new format seemed to be a tremendous improvement over home-video of the 1980’s, and offered many inherent advantages, such as the ability to edit inexpensively on PC computer systems in a nonlinear fashion.

Nevertheless, it’s been a tough sell for distributors, film-festival submission committees, and personal tastes alike: no matter how good the lighting, or how perfectly the actors all hit their marks, projects shot on Mini-DV seem to be forever branded with the stigma of being "video" and not "film." Not even George Lucas could escape the wrath of cinema traditionalists who scoffed at the idea of acquiring moving images digitally. And so began the effort to find ways to get video, especially Mini-DV, to look like "film."

What Makes you Stop and Watch?

Everyone agrees it's the story that makes a movie stand out. This is especially true for independent movies where the story is not so easily hidden behind big budget Hollywood effects. But, when you are flipping through channels, what is it that makes you stop and look long enough to find out about the story?

Usually it's way the story is being presented - lighting, camera movement and the overall look of the picture. Generally, those visual clues are associated with a film production. That is not always the case. And with the tools that have been finding their way into the market over the past few years, it is becoming easier and easier to leave film behind and maintain that familiar look.

Focus Creates Attention

One of the more common of these visual clues is selective focus. That allows the director to guide the eyes of the viewer to a specific object or person on screen. By focusing on a person and allowing the background to go out of focus, the viewer's attention is naturally drawn to the part of the screen that is in focus - the person. In the case of two people having a conversation, the one that is in focus gets the attention.

Focus on What’s Important

"Keep your eye on the ball!" In other words, stay focused on what's important. That's easy in a ballgame, but what about in your movie? You can't just scream at the viewers, "Watch where she lays down that book!" Or can you? If you use focus effectively, you can lead the viewers' eyes exactly where you want them to look. In other scenes, you may want them to take in the whole screen. You can choose that as well.

Or, you could just let the camera decide and leave it in auto focus. You could also set you car to cruise control and take a nap. Both of these techniques lead to less than optimum results, and believe it or not there have been reports of people doing each of these.

However, the systematic, precise control of focus is one of the distinguishing characteristics of modern filmmaking and good cinematography.