The Master Guide / 08 Cinematography · Camera and lens
Distance from the relationship, then the lens
Decide how close the audience should feel, then pick the distance, then the lens.
Decide how close the audience should feel, then pick the distance, then the lens.
Distance from the relationship, then the lens [proven as craft]:
The relationship the shot needs | Distance and lens |
Intimacy or invasion | Close, 0.6–1.2 m, on 47–63° |
Immersion or chaos, the place kept round the face | Close and carried, on 63–84° |
Neutral | 47° at 3–5 m |
Observing, isolation or scale | Far and long, on 18–29° or narrower |
A camera struggling to find a distant subject | Far and long |
The wide-lens guard: 84° or wider within about a metre of a hero or beauty face only where the treatment wants the distortion.
Two wide-lens looks [best available, not yet validated; written for Seedance 2.0]:
a small object right against a low 84° lens grows large over a deep background;
a close face on 63–84° keeps the room readable around it.
Hoyte van Hoytema: "An audience can feel where the camera is in relation to the subject." Bradford Young found 20 mm "way too aggressive" on his lead's face.
Sources
Hoyte van Hoytema on Oppenheimer (Filmmaker Magazine); Emmanuel Lubezki on The Revenant (SHOOT); Linus Sandgren (American Cinematographer); Bradford Young (American Cinematographer); Greig Fraser; Higgsfield Academy, Adilet Abish and David Matamoros (the two wide-lens looks, written for Seedance 2.0).