Focus Pulling Basics 

Q: Hi Felicia! Great work!!! Probably a dumb question, but, how do you export Export/transcode Dailies for editorial, when you have so many different resolutions and aspect ratios with Red and ARRI? What resolution should be used for the ProRes Dailies? Is it always the same one? And, do you have to leave black bars or letterbox in some cases? I´m a little confuse about that. Thank you! This could be a nice video too, is hard to find precise information about this, I think.

Hi Agustin! This is something I've never really done before actually! I am planning on doing a video series sometime interviewing people in film about their jobs. Ive popped your question aside to maybe include in one of those videos. Just don't want to give any wrong information considering it's something I don't do. :)

@@flickcine Thank you for the reply : )

make a vedio for how to get a prefect focus without flo (mistakes)

Its probably too late but could you slow down a bit when explaining and make it a little more visual like when you talk 3:24 it would have been more clear had you cut to footage that shows what you are saying.

Thanks, Aaron! Appreciate it!

😂😂😂

I've heard "Cinnamontoastology" before lol.

You are very welcome, Jacob! Glad you're finding the videos helpful!

Thanks for taking the time to comment, Geoff! I totally agree with you. Things move so quickly now that it's rare to be able to get proper marks and not have to pull from a monitor. Personally I think pulling from marks and judging distances are still good skills to learn early on. Hopefully those skills don't disappear anytime soon. It's an absolute art, pulling focus.

@@flickcine For sure. Sometimes you need to advocate to get marks. I can think of a shot within the last year. Talent walking up from about 20 yards away to a close up. We gotta go go go. First couple takes the director says "it's kind of buzz-y". You think?! Then I had to insist we get marks and have someone call them out for me. I think that the unspoken attitude now it that AC's have these nice bright, sharp monitors, so just do your job and pull focus. It seems like so many situations have a dynamic camera (slider, steadicam, hand held), so marks are just kind of a starting point and you've got to be on your toes. Don't get me started with vintage glass, that's never totally sharp - ha! Great tip about peaking. It's super helpful, but can fool you. "Are you sharp"? "Looks sharp to me, but I have the peaking cranked"! Oops.

Can’t change 3D space 😮 ask mansions or framers if the build by eye doubtful by time they reach opposite corner or frame it off 6” oops so yes great idea to get a reference mark to base and triangulate the newer generations like video game effect I need to do both to ensure I have idea where action supposed to be - actors not hit marks is another video alone

So glad you enjoyed, Greg!!

Awwww that's so nice! Thanks so much 😊

@@flickcine and now i start on the binge of all your videos. this is already great. so glad there are resources like this available.

@@halsinden 😂 enjoy!!

You're welcome!!

Thanks so much 😊

Sorry for the delay! Thanks for the kind words :) I'd say about 4.0 would be a good stop. Also kind of depends on the focal length. A longer focal length will get you some shallower depth too. I don't have any experience shooting motorcross so wouldn't have much valuable advice on a stop for that sort of motion but if it was very quick I would maybe go to 5.6 or 8. Might take a little bit of testing to get the desired results! 👍

🤣

Oh wow. Best of luck, Nick!

Felicia Smith Thanks! Gonna need it for the rest of the shoot.

@@nicklong7442 I feel the pain. I shot a Series on SLR lenses. My god it's a nightmare. Even if you set marks they're never fixed so it's pointless.

Oh for real?! Thanks! That's quite a compliment. Glad you enjoyed the video. 😊

DSLR lenses aren't really designed for cinema and as such, they don't really have a lot of or very precise witness marks. Your best bet is probably using the Monitor for DSLR lenses

You're very welcome! 😊

Thanks for watching! I will attempt to maybe make more videos on focus but as it's not my job, I prefer to have experts come and explain things. The current plan is to have someone who is a professional focus puller explain the more complicated things and give their point of view :)

@@flickcine okay. I'll be waiting for that.

Hey jo, hope you’re well and have overcome the fear or “imposter syndrome” that you were battling 8 months ago. I’m currently facing the same feeling and your comment really made me feel better. I’ve been pulling focus off & on for the past 3-4 years yet now that I’ve finally landed at commercial where I’ll be 1st with no other of my peers around to help or ask questions to, I’m kind of freaking out but knowing myself, I know that that’s the way I like to learn and actually have the information stick.

Thanks so much for the kind words! You can but using a follow focus allows you to turn your hand less to do a longer pull if that makes sense. It's also much more comfortable! Yeaaaah I am aware, unfortunately RU-vid doesn't make it easy to change links over all videos and I've got.... So many. You can find me at @flickcine on instagram. I rarely use twitter but it's the same as insta handle :)

Agree with you there! That's kind of what I meant by "not the most accurate" because of how you have to measure actors (without blinding them 😂) I used to measure to the cheek. But never really used a laser for focus critical closeups, much preferred a tape and gathered a range of movement. Lasers are a great and very important part of a kit!

No problem at all! Thanks for watching :)

Sounds like the better advice is knowing what techniques to use for the shoot you’re working on.

Ah I think there might be a slight misunderstanding here. I'm not implying incompetence at all. And if that's what came across, my apologies, that was not intended. This video is for complete beginners to get them used to the methods used and I completely agree with what you're saying. What I'm saying is understanding the space is the best method to get used to and practice, because when it comes to pulling from a monitor you have that skill backing you up and can easily adapt. Maybe I didn't explain it as clearly as I could have, in the scheme of things this video is quite old, I'm getting better at presenting and RU-vid isn't my full time job 😅 Thanks for sharing your thoughts. I do agree with you completely. Have a good one!

You can definitely just find the focus and mark the dial if you're short on time. However If you're taking measurements, there is a small line/mark on the lens that indicates the distance the lens is focused to. This mark is very likely to be on the left and right sides of the lens, sometimes that can change though. But cinema lenses have the marks on their sides. So you move the focus wheel until you're at the appropriate measurement on the lens, at this point you can also double check on a monitor to see the focus is correct, and then you mark that on your focus wheel dial. If you notice that you have definitely measured a distance, let's say 3ft. Then you've pulled the focus to the marking on the lens that says 3ft and it is still not in focus then there may be an issue with the lens so it is worth checking the measurements again to be sure then getting the lens checked over by a technician. That's all usually done during gear prep before the job though. :) Hope this answered your question!

@@flickcine That was really helpful Felicia, thank-you ! :)

Lol!! Amazing!!

I've watched the first ep so far and woooow, such wonderful cinematography. Haha, we've all been there!

Hmm I've not used either of those personally so it would take some testing to see. I can't imagine things would be inaccurate though.

Cheers, Nate!

You watch the monitor and the action. And not necessarily guessing distance. You would measure but then you can guess if the actor misses their mark. But if you know the measurements you took instead of turning on peaking and using the monitor only, you shouldn't have much of a hard time finding the mark :) You can definitely pre-mark your focus rings with the lens marks to suit a specific lens. You can even do one per lens. Then just use a different coloured marker to show your action.

@@flickcine thank you :))

At 2mins 30 I'm not meant to be measuring anything, it was more an example of the type of measuring tape, not a way to measure if that makes sense. No math, there shouldn't be very much if any difference between marks from the centre of a frame and the edge of a frame however a lot of lenses are not sharp edge to edge so sometimes things may be different at the edge of frame. :) Hope this helps!