The Role in Filmmaking No One Talks About 

I remember Empire magazine asked a load of big directors who the most important crew member was. Most answers were diplomatic (everyone). James Cameron was the only one to say "the focus puller" cos if it's not in focus everyone's effort has been wasted.

My dad, before he became an independent cameraman, was a focus puller. I never really understood what he did as he didn't talk much about his work at home, but he was very proud of his work. Now after watching this video I understand why, thank you.

The even more insane part is that for any movie that was shot on film (as in...almost every example you give in this essay), the focus puller wouldn't have even been able to double-check their work on a monitor. Film cameras (at least back then) only had fuzzy, low-resolution monitors on them, making it impossible to judge focus by looking at the image. So not only are they constantly adjusting focus to account for moving subjects and cameras, but they had to do it by literally measuring a few distances with a tape measure and guessing the rest! And they were SHARP, to the DAMN INCH. Legends.

I just realized that the focus puller is sort of like the IT guy of the cinematography world. If he does his job correctly you don't even notice it. If he messed up you notice right away.

I watched your mirror video essay and I'm here seeing what more interesting contents you have. You're so good!

there's gotta be a bug, that sub count is missing a couple zeroes at the end

Focus pullers are indeed one of the most underappreciated film crew members. During my days as an assistant I was in constant awe at some of them who didn't even need a monitor to pull focus. All they'd do is look at the artist in front of the camera and do their job with absolute perfection.

"What is it?" "Leeeenns" ...... "a bicycle" 😂😂

The sport focus puller thing I really haven't ever thought about and it's insane and something to strive for

To all the Focus Pullers out there. You're unsung heroes. Secret legends.. You deserve our love and respect and a special place in those 15 mins credits in the end of every damn movie. ❤

Focus puller here, I can tell you that this can be an extraordinarily difficult job, and one of the most demanding on set as not only are you responsible for prepping the camera, but if you do a mistake while focus pulling and you lose focus, EVERYONE on set will see it and sometimes the only reason a shot is not good is because you were soft on your focus. But it's a great and somehow rewarding job. Good DPs know how to show us appreciation. Thanks for putting light on us!

Excited to see you reach that 100,000 mark in no time if you keep up this quality!

I love your channel

Didn't knew a specific person was in charge of this. Figured it was automatic. Thanks for bringing light (or should i say, focus?) on these people.

Ex focus puller here. “Prince of Sharpness” I LOVED it

This is literally changed how I see film and television. I am 35 years old and I had no idea all of this was done manually. Incredible.

Please RU-vid algorithm! Give this channel more views.

Incredibly well made. Also appreciate the humor 👌🏼

Just glad YT recommended me this video/channel just 6 months later and not 6 years later.

As a part of the Audio Post team, I feel the same way. Your work as a Sound Designer, whether that be in Sound Effects Editing, Foley, ADR, Mixing, mostly goes unnoticed by the regular viewer, unless you get it wrong, which ultimately is a good thing I think! Great video, I have serious admiration for Focus Pullers, they do an incredible job!

This video had my complete focus

Damn you should do a video for more unknown crew roles, tried explaining what a grip was to people and got a lot of “Oh dO tHeY ShOoT tHe fILm??” :///

Addicted to this freakin channel 🔥💪🏾🔥

You’ve been picked by the algorithm and what a special find you are. Subscribed.

It’s important to also note that unlike film/narrative work, live broadcast doesn’t have a dedicated person as the focus puller so the camera operators are not only operating the shot but doing their own focus and zoom too, and in some cases, like live Steadicam and Jib operators, also moving the camera through space. A special skill indeed especially in unpredictable situations like sport. Great video!

Who else came here from the mirror video? who else finds him super good at his job? both me btw

Ohh old times working with a 50m 1.8 handheld, constantly changing focus.. it feels so good!

I am the one always wondered that how the hell do these movies get the pin point focusing even with the manual setup.. being a Nikon user it's had been even bigger question for me than others 😂😂 so from a long time I always appreciate the focus pulling 🙏❤️

*I HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR YEARSSSS!!! finaly someone who knows, who respects, who thinks about it.. Amazing...*

hands down my favourite RU-vid channel. hands down. king. head and shoulders above and beyond

Makes me wanna cry thinking of all the unrecognised focus pullers 😢. Hats off to you guys.

As a one-man film crew, I can't appreciate the work of a focus puller enough. The one thing I get wrong most of the time is focus. It's such an important role that no one appreciates.

There should be an award for the best Focus puller.

Great video. I’m someone just starting his career in camera, and there are few more points I’d add to this - There’s even more finesse than one might think to pulling; the lenses themselves are logarithmic, so that pull of the guard coming closer changes in speed - as he gets closer, the focus puller would have to slow down how fast he turns the wheel as the shorter distances are closer to each other on the ring. Another thing to consider is that focus pullers jobs don’t end with pulling focus. One of the 1st ACs I’m working with was telling me that for him, once he got used to pulling focus, it wasn’t the hardest part of the job. 1st ACs are the primary technicians of the cameras, if something goes wrong, if the camera crashes or looses power, they are the ones everyone looks to. Imagine being on a show, and just before you have a chance to reload, the camera crashes in the middle of a take, and won’t start back up. As well as the lost shot from that take, everyone on set is looking to you to see if everything they’ve done for the last four hours is lost from corruption. That being said, there are interesting things to make pulling itself easier; range finders which help give distance and can be used if needed for basic autofocus, wireless units that vibrate once they hit certain pre set marks on the unit, et cetera, but all that can only help you so much on a wide open 150mm tracking shot. The example animation showed one bird in shot vs the other, but on certain settings it can be the difference of someone’s left eye being out of focus but their right eye is in focus.

i'm a photographer and even focusing on still shots can be a pain (bc i tend to stick to a wider aperture for my photos) but i couldn't even imagine doing it so intently for a MOVING VIDEO omfg like props to them

Having pulled focus myself i really appreciate this video. Its really difficult in the beginning and you automatically make lots of mistakes and then having to tell the whole crew that we need another take. But damn is it rewarding when you pull of like a really long sequence or a dynamic fight scene with constantly shifting focus.

Focus Puller a.k.a. 1st AC. Great video. Really nicely explained. Personally I think that focus pulling is one of the hardest things to do and people don’t get enough credit for it. Thanks for making this video for those people. I’m so grateful for every AC I’ve ever worked with, who helped me in getting the shot I wanted.

2nd video I've watched and I just HAD to subscribe. Amazing content dude. This channel is set to blow!! Can't wait for it to blow up in your face Paul. All in your face. Just everywhere. Up your nose too.

1:37 I am subscribing, mainly for the "bycicle" in the background. Best thing ever

I consider myself to be pretty well versed with the world of filmmaking generally (while not actually being part of it). This video just taught me that I basically know nothing, because I didn’t know this was an individual person’s job or even heard of this title. Presumed it was all done by one camera operator along with movement. Thank you for sorting me out 🤘🏼

You definitely deserve more subs dude. Underrated.

The bicycle shout did it. Subbed.

so basically they're there to be unnoticed, props to them.

My dad was a focus puller in the 90s, worked on loads of Hollywood films.. so this video is amazing for me

*Finally, someone's talking about the bicycle operator!*

How are you not loaded with subs yet?? Your film essays are not only informative but hilarious and edited beautifully! Definitely one of my new favorite channels. I hope more people discover you soon!

Cheers for this, it’s the one role you can’t cover for in the edit nowadays, and the one the cameraman is most appreciative of. Learn this and you’ll become the best cinematographer you can be.

Buddy, this is amazing work. Sooner or later with this quality you will reach millions of subs. The bgm, script, editing, concept are in pure sync.

Okay... what. The quality of these videos are so good. Is the youtube algorithm broken or something?

I didn't even like the subject, yet I sat through the whole vide admiring the absolute magnificent level of production of this video, subscribed mate, keep it up.

I knew focus pulling existed, but never realised how much they worked on shots until this video. This blew my mind well done!!

It's not just that your videos are well informed and interesting, it's also that they are incredibly well made, and suggest that you have a broad and highly capable skill set. You make it all look easy, but I can only imagine how much work you put in. I hope one day you get to make your own project/s.

randomly got recommended this channel and instantly subscribed after only watching your last two videos! im not even into film making but you make it so damn interesting this channel is definitely one of those gems

i love when someone pulls my attention onto these unspoken heroes, thank you for that. just what happened when i learned about the foley artists :)

Professional 1st AC here with credits ranging from high level music videos to commercials and film, loved the video! The art of focus pulling is a ton of fun and one I definitely think is under appreciated on set. Shoot some people don’t know what the hell you do on set. Now a days it has become so much easier with monitors, cinetape, and even new technology’s like light ranger from Preston. I do a ton of gimbal/techno work and people dont even begin to realize what you are doing until you screw it up. When I started I learned the old fashion way with tape and marks. No monitors and all done on camera. Like you see in the wolf of Wall Street shot he was using a cinetape which basically in a nutshell tells you the distance between you and the subject. If you do the proper prep all you have to do is match the distance on your FF and the read out. We used to do it by just judging the distance or on run throughs putting marks on the floor and/or on your follow focus. Shoot I have sharpied distances on my hand telling me what I have to hit in order. It’s so rewarding when you hit that perfect pull or you just don’t screw up when you only have a big artist or talent for 1 take. There is so much pressure but as soon as you did it you feel great. Unless you botch it and then you get everybody looking at you. Like i said great video and thanks for the tiny bit of ego boost haha

Thank you! Everybody just thinks it’s normal to have everything in focus. We are just used to it because there are so many talented focus pullers out there.

Your type of content and overall channel is so refreshing I find it very hard to believe your channel does not have millions of subscribers

The best way to recognize those guys is, we don't think about them, when we watch a movie. Because they were so pretty good, we don't see their hard and amazing work.

I can't believe you make these videos about seemingly mundane and specific things so interesting and hilarious. great work!

Wow, I appreciate all the hard work from every focus puller.

being a focus puller myself, i just wanted to say thanks 🙏💥. most people are surprised that its a job when i telll them. also, deakins is the man!

Your style of making a yt movie is super sick man, congrats 😊

Damn i just got this video in my recommendations. And even tho i couldn't take a lot of new informations out of it i still watched till the end. I love the style of this video! The humor, the build up to a short B-Roll montage, the way you present informations... Just everything. Please keep that good work up!

Love that you chose to talk and highlight this! I'm one of those that actually think about this while watching an intense scene and I always wonder off thinking about how they keep the focus if not for an auto focus feature in their equipment! Now I know that's it's actually a work of art by a professional, make me appreciate those scenes even more now, thanks! 🙏

1:36 something about the accent makes the “a bicycle” much funnier to me.

Mirror 'pulled' me in and I'm here to stay. *Chuckles*

My Friend - I have watched quite a few of your vids since recently finding your channel - this one freakin' blew my mind! You are correct sir, they deserve more recognition - and they are probably not the only ones (behind the scenes).

I was a focus puller( before there was hi resolution screen to pull focus from ...you had to use your eye ball and tape marks) for 7 years before moving up to camera operator. It is one of the mose difficult under appreciated jobs in the film and tv industry. Thank you Paul for this very kind tribute to the art and craft of focus pulling.

7:30 Not exactly. I operated camera in live sports for about 4 years, and we all had broadcast cameras with parfocal lenses. All you do is snap zoom and get focus at max zoom and everything zoomed out from that point is in focus. That trick doesn't work on normal cine lenses, but it saves your ass during sports.

Autofocus has really become advanced recently. I wonder how this has affected the focus puller role. Of course, there are times to use manual focus, but things like subject tracking on full frame cameras is pretty amazing these days.

I'm so happy RU-vid recommended me your channel. And wow my life will never be the same after knowing that there is the focus puller

Another superb video and a great subject, your comic timing and acting cheered me up! Love your editing and visual style.

I'm commenting so the (probably drunk) algorithm gives u the attention u deserve! Great video.

Imagine how fast and accurate turntablist DJs would be at this. Thank me later.

I subbed because of your mirror topic and now this focus puller. Amazing. Your talent sir in presenting is enviable.

TIL about "focus pullers". Thanks! It is unsung skilled labor like that of "focus puller" that has kept me from buying pirated movies and videos even back in the day when it was "legal" and easy to do so.

Yours just became my favorite channel on youtube! Great stuff and beautifully done content, man. ❤ Thanks for the work and for sharing it with us.

I love when a new channel comes out of nowhere and just blows me away. Everything I've seen so far is 10/10, instant sub.

That pull imitating how human eyes would get the background how out focus is absolutely freaking next level tho. Like first you have the pull you see, second the pull you don't see because the focus follow the camera movements perfectly, but to actually pull a static shot like that.... just... God damn

Certainly one of my favorite filmmaker RU-vidrs keep up the good work

Love these mini docs. keep em' coming

This is awesome of you to point out those that work in areas most would not be aware, hope you do more. Thanks for sharing and have a wonderful day

This video was even better than expected. Lots of good info with a personal touch.

I've just discovered your channel this evening, i Immediately subscribed after the first video, and now after finishing my 5th video of yours. You've immediately become a new favourite RU-vidr, honestly never had that happen that quick. You're stuff is such high quality.

I'm only 2 videos into your catalog and I don't think I've laughed this hard in a long time. I'm so glad I found you!

yess i love when the camera pulls a rack focus

So glad I discovered your channel! Amazing work!

Your video ACTUALLY Made me smile today ☺️. This kind of information is what I'm always hungry for, keep it up!

Even I knew who is focus puller for couple of decades I watched you video with a great pleasure. Thanks.

Ok I saw the mirror video and got intrigued. I saw this and it made me slam that subscribe button. This knowledge is definitely something that movie buffs should know for how important it is.

This is like the Holy grail of camera work! Absolutely amazing! You have a new fan!

Immediately subbed on the first video after yearss. This was amazing and well deserved to be talked about and perfectly told

Explaining ‘What i do’ are much harder then pulling focus😅 Paul thank you for making my life easier bro….

It is freaking good! Mind blown Paul. You pulled my focus. Nailed it.

Holy hell your videos are so good. So informational, thank you for doing these.

You did an amazing job finding relevant clips! Especially the Oscar clip at the end... I'm impressed by your planning and research for this video!

Bro I’m love with this channel ❤️

Stellar content right here! I have gained so much appreciation and interest in the effort that goes into filmmaking through your videos. I can’t wait to learn more!

Your videos make my days worth living

Thank you for helping us understand a massively underrated role in filmmaking. I'll be looking out for those magical subtle moments now.