I have turned off a few DPs and fellowfilmmakers in my style of shooting. I like things like deep DOF, and long mastershots, and not as much camera movement, allowing the actors to take control of the emotion, generated. This style is much like a movie style before the 60s, where it was becoming more and more phased out. But I was told by my fellow fillmmakers that the style sucks by todays standards and audience are going to see it that way.
You cannot have deep DOF cause people are distracted by unwanted background colors. You cannot have long mastershots, cause people will get bored and you need to be cutting back and forth to keep their minds going. You need camera movement, or distributors will look at it and think that the DP was sitting on his ass the whole time. This is what they told me. A lot of aspiring filmmakers do not like this style, which is why I am practicing shooting with shallower DOF, more cuts to different shots, and faster editing techniques.
However, I showed a group of friend's one of my most favorite movies, High and Low (1963). This movie relies a lot on mastershots, deep focus, and a overall pretty static camera, for a lot of it. However, my friends, all in their 20s, so part of the MTV generation, were never really bored by it at all. They were in for the whole ride, and when I asked, they said they never had a problem loosing concentration or being distracted by those techniques.
I also got see some movies which are going to be screened at the local film festivals where I live. I noticed that a good portion of the movies were shot with very deep focus, and whole backgrounds seem to be in focus, along with the foreground actors. Plus there were other things that you think would distracted but do not. Such as one movie where the DP seemed to leave the ISO on auto the whole time, and you can see the ISO exposure change as the camera tracks moving actors. One movie also showed shutter speed change as the actors went from outdoors to in.
Not that I am condoning that filmmakers do that, it's good to choose an ISO and shutter speed for a whole scene. However, these movie made into the festival, so I have to wonder, how important is shallow DOF or lots of camera movement, when things like auto ISO and changing shutter speed, are okay and made it into festivals, without distracting the judges, who probably pay closer to attention than the audiences who will watch them. I have also seen some deep DOF movies that made it to Netflix as well.
So after a lot of average people not being distracted by such things, I am starting to wonder if whether or not the 'MTV generation', is a myth. A myth caused by fear in filmmakers and distributors, trying to spend money in pleasing their audiences, and lack faith in the audience out of too much worry? Perhaps audiences do not demand lots of cuts, camera movement, or shallow DOF to hide things in the background, which could be supposedly "distracting"
Perhaps people care most about story and are okay with other styles of filmmaking as long as you tell a good story well. Or is the MTV generation perhaps a small minority, that filmmakers are trying to please, as well as a general audience, because it's better to please as many minorities as well?
You cannot have deep DOF cause people are distracted by unwanted background colors. You cannot have long mastershots, cause people will get bored and you need to be cutting back and forth to keep their minds going. You need camera movement, or distributors will look at it and think that the DP was sitting on his ass the whole time. This is what they told me. A lot of aspiring filmmakers do not like this style, which is why I am practicing shooting with shallower DOF, more cuts to different shots, and faster editing techniques.
However, I showed a group of friend's one of my most favorite movies, High and Low (1963). This movie relies a lot on mastershots, deep focus, and a overall pretty static camera, for a lot of it. However, my friends, all in their 20s, so part of the MTV generation, were never really bored by it at all. They were in for the whole ride, and when I asked, they said they never had a problem loosing concentration or being distracted by those techniques.
I also got see some movies which are going to be screened at the local film festivals where I live. I noticed that a good portion of the movies were shot with very deep focus, and whole backgrounds seem to be in focus, along with the foreground actors. Plus there were other things that you think would distracted but do not. Such as one movie where the DP seemed to leave the ISO on auto the whole time, and you can see the ISO exposure change as the camera tracks moving actors. One movie also showed shutter speed change as the actors went from outdoors to in.
Not that I am condoning that filmmakers do that, it's good to choose an ISO and shutter speed for a whole scene. However, these movie made into the festival, so I have to wonder, how important is shallow DOF or lots of camera movement, when things like auto ISO and changing shutter speed, are okay and made it into festivals, without distracting the judges, who probably pay closer to attention than the audiences who will watch them. I have also seen some deep DOF movies that made it to Netflix as well.
So after a lot of average people not being distracted by such things, I am starting to wonder if whether or not the 'MTV generation', is a myth. A myth caused by fear in filmmakers and distributors, trying to spend money in pleasing their audiences, and lack faith in the audience out of too much worry? Perhaps audiences do not demand lots of cuts, camera movement, or shallow DOF to hide things in the background, which could be supposedly "distracting"
Perhaps people care most about story and are okay with other styles of filmmaking as long as you tell a good story well. Or is the MTV generation perhaps a small minority, that filmmakers are trying to please, as well as a general audience, because it's better to please as many minorities as well?
