#split diopter shot

[amazingmrcinema007]

There comes a point in Judgment Night where Stephen Hopkins decides to lock in and whip out the split diopter shots and I love him for it.

[champaggin]

Actually totally and completely obsessed with Isabel's episode

The Afterparty 02X09 - Isabel

[loveridden1999]

severance is like what if a show was made by people who love directing & storytelling. a very rare sighting these days

[daughter-horror]

I’m a sucker for split diopter shots

[fervi-g]

Blow Out (1981), dir. Brian De Palma

[melymigo]

This is so cool.

[akascow]

wish i could go to college for things im totally interested in but like not smth i want to pursue

like i love film and cinema and symbolism and foreshadowing and what certain colors and angles represent in movies and shows its so goddamn interesting

but going to school for film means going to school For Film

if that makes sense

i dont wann be a film student i just think film is interesting to learn about

i dont wanna pursue film i just want to know every little thing about it

[notagamersdey]

finally! A name to the one shot style I abhor 😭😭

Anyone else notice Arcane used a “Split-Diopter” for this one scene?

To put it simply, a Split-Diopter is a type of camera lens designed so multiple people/objects on screen might occupy the same level of focus when in reality they are much further apart. You tend to see them used most often in movies when a situation is especially tense and/or unnerving. You can usually spot it though if you pay attention to where certain parts of the frame are blurred or distorted.

In this scene from S2 E4, the use of a Split-Diopter (albeit a nonexistent one because this is animated of course) helps convey the unspoken wedge keeping both Caitlyn and Ambessa at odds with each other as they discuss how to handle the unrest in the Undercity. Even though they both occupy the same space here, in reality they couldn’t be further apart. A perfect visual metaphor.

The fact that the crew went out of their way to include this in the show not only helps visually drive the story/characters but is also a fantastic send-up to classic filmmaking on their part. Yet another reason to love this phenomenal show. 🤩🥰

[macbethheadband]

Alright guys you can have ONE (1) split diopter shot so really make it count okay. Okay.

[communistkenobi]

ok my brother and I rewatched all the mission impossible movies and our new ranking is

1 > 4 > 7 > 2 > 5 > 6 > 3

2 is a lot more fun and good than I remember it being on first watch, and 5 was way more mid. Honestly 4 could take the top spot despite Jeremy Renner being in that one. There are a lot of fun physical props and gadgets and doohickeys in 4, and there’s a specific type of whimsy to the direction style that’s not in any of the other ones. You can tell the director had only worked on animated movies prior to MI4, there’s a specific type of fixation on small props and their specific trajectories and positions throughout each scene that is hard to describe but reminds me of how animated movies tend to be shot. Like there is a physical awareness of objects in space that makes sense for an animated director to have a preoccupation towards, and I think he pretty effectively translates those preoccupations to live action.

the first one has the Hollywood 90s charm, which is just firmly lodged in history now, like we are not getting that type of movie back probably because of 9/11. I kind of don’t really have anything to say about it other than it’s straightforwardly good and has some very funny horror-movie-style dutch angle shots in them. De Palma also uses split diopter shots a lot in that film, which I didn’t know much about but is basically when you split the lens of a camera to get two distinct focal lengths in a shot, but at the cost of essentially having a blurry line down the middle of the shot. It makes me wonder if that’s part of why they made the room Tom Cruise wires into all white, because they use a lot of split diopter shots in that scene and the white would conceal the middle blur well. Anywayyyy

MI2 is an undeniably John Woo movie, complete with motorcycle jousting and insane combat stunts, and also captures a bit of that same 90s charm. Also kinda don’t have a lot to say about this one. Nyah is definitely one of the best female leads in the series though, her actor is soooo good in this movie. Shame she never came back MI7 is also a pretty fun movie, you have now-geriatric Tom Cruise driving a motorbike off a cliff and fun car chase scenes. He is really hot in this movie also. And “evil AI that takes over the world” is such an awesome stupid action movie plot, especially because it’s not tied to the more rancid tendencies some of the other films have (eg with 6 explicitly being about an anarchist who wants to nuke the world after defecting from his country’s government, etc). Like it’s goofy enough to easily shut your brain off to and accept.

6 and 3 are arguably the worst, with 3 edging out the bottom spot because of the amount of heterosexuality in that one. It’s not at the level of the spn blurrywife, but it’s close enough that Julia (Ethan’s wife) can easily be categorised as a blurrywife, just a smear on the camera meant to move the hero along and then scream and cry when she gets captured (although Tom Cruise is very good at screaming and crying on camera). This is also the beginning of where they tank Luther’s character, he used to be this Gucci-wearing hacking wizard guy and by the end of the series he’s just like a guy who’s on the computer. Like after the third movie we don’t get a line from Luther anywhere as fun or charming as “that punk put a hole in my Versace!” Simon Pegg is fine. I have no thoughts about him at all, he’s the comic relief and that’s as deep as it goes.

6’s plot is hard to stomach, it has fairly poor pacing, and they basically waste the HALO dive too early in the film, so there’s not really any big tension/plot stakes associated with it. The final act is extremely good though, and upon rewatch I like Henry Cavill’s acting a lot more, which is why I think it should be ranked above 3. Also 3 has like no stunts basically ! It’s so generic.

what is funny is that MI tends to become more “interconnected” as time goes on wrt returning cast members, but it’s mostly only dudes with like one or two exceptions, so there’s the funny undercurrent of like misogynistic disposability of women leading to intense homosocial bonds between men because they’re the only constant in the story. Like it’s Ethan Benji and Luther and that’s mostly it, just three dudes having fun. Unfortunately the dialogue/banter writing between them tends to be quite mid-to-bad in these movies, so they essentially are just really long time coworkers who constantly almost die in front of one another.

I don’t think there’s a bad performance from Tom Cruise in these though. He says a lot of dumb lines and does stupid plot bullshit but he manages to make it work basically every time. He seems to have pretty good chemistry with most of the female leads as well, which is the only time where there’s interesting verbal sparring/flirting/characterological tension in scenes. And then obviously he does all those insane stunts, which is a significant part of how much we enjoyed these films. I quite like the way he portrays Ethan during them too, as like this dude who is perpetually pushed to the brink to do insane impossible shit and is basically always having a bad day because of it. it gives the character a really nice human grounding and makes the stunts feel more believable because the character doing them is having the worst day of his life the entire time. He also frequently fucks up, falls, misses ledges, gets hit and almost dies, smacked around, etc. very fun to watch, great balance of cool action hero and guy who gets the shit kicked out of him for a living

anyway these are really fun movies. I feel like if you needed to fill a weeks worth of movie nights with friends these would be really fun to watch. I had a great time yelling at the screen with my brother. A very fun drinking game also is taking a shot whenever Tom Cruise starts running in a scene. That dude is just fucking zipping around everywhere, it made me realise how rare it is to see actors run in films because he does it fucking constantly. And like not short shots either, there are takes where he’s running continually at full speed for like 45 unbroken seconds. I know also from watching some behind the scenes videos about how they did some of the stunts that he always does like 10 takes for action sequences so he’s running an absolute shitload. Anyway these movies are good

[onlydylanobrien]

James Sweeney on Friends With Low Self-Esteem in Twinless

James Sweeney’s Twinless poses the question: What happens when you lose the person who made you whole?

The film, now screening at Sundance, follows Dennis (Sweeney) and Roman (Dylan O’Brien), two young men who meet in a twin-bereavement support group and form a complex friendship while searching for solace. The film also stars Gilmore Girls veteran Lauren Graham.

We talked with Sweeney about his best friend and cinematographer Greg Cotten, Brian De Palma’s influence on Twinless, and lying.

Joshua Encinias: Does Lauren Graham know you referenced Gilmore Girls in your first movie Straight Up?

James Sweeney: I’ve mentioned it. I don’t know if she’s seen the film, which may be for the best. [Laughs.]

Joshua Encinias: Dylan is an executive producer of Twinless. What was his role?

James Sweeney: Executive producer can be an amorphous title, but Dylan’s been attached to this since 2020. I let him in as much as he wanted to be involved. He was really looking out for me on set, gave notes during post-production — he’s never watched a movie he’s in this much — and even helped us secure a HAIM song, “Leaning on You,” for the soundtrack. Whenever we could lean on him we did.

Joshua Encinias: Tell me about your long working relationship with Greg Cotten, who also shot your films Straight Up and Brooklyn Love Stories.

James Sweeney: Greg is my best friend — we met in freshman year of film school, and he’s shot everything I’ve ever done. It’s sometimes hard to imagine shooting without him because we’ve developed a shorthand over the years, and there’s a lot of innate trust between us. He knows the way I like to shoot. One thing about Greg is how adaptable he is, and he’s great with crew and talent, which is invaluable in a cinematographer.

Joshua Encinias: You film a kiss between Dylan’s character and his love interest in a spit diopter, and it’s not the only old-school cinematic technique you use in the movie. Why are you drawn to older methods?

James Sweeney: Brian De Palma was an influence on our visual style. We also used a split diopter in my first film Straight Up. I think it lends itself to the visual grammar of this film as we’re dealing with duality and balance in both composition and narrative.

James Sweeney on Images and Duality in Twinless

Joshua Encinias: Why did you shoot parts of Twinless on 35mm film?

James Sweeney: We shot on 35mm and digitally. When we switch perspectives, the image switches from 35mm to digital as the story deals with authenticity versus artifice. But I want to leave it to the audience to decide if the shift in visuals is decipherable or not.

Joshua Encinias: There’s a scene where your character Dennis records his voicemail while the camera zooms out and repeatedly lands on a surprising image.

James Sweeney: That was a tricky shot because we didn’t have a VFX supervisor, which in retrospect we should have, but we were trying to save money. Spatially what we did wasn’t physically possible, so we had to come up with some visual compromises for the composite. Still, we achieved the intended effect of using mirror images as a visual montage.

Joshua Encinias: Lying is central to the movie and there are some very big lies told.

James Sweeney: An audience member actually came up to me [after a Sundance screening] and related to the experience of how we use lying in the movie. I hope that’s why people empathize with him because people aren’t good or evil in a binary way.

Joshua Encinias: The idea that forgiveness is not earned or deserved is another idea the movie explores.

James Sweeney: I think forgiveness is something so uniquely human. It’s one of the most complex but also profound acts that we can give to each other, but also to ourselves. It’s something I deeply believe. You never want a line that goes, “And that’s the theme of the movie!” I’m not a filmmaker who’s trying to proselytize, but it touches on something I believe. I think the reason Roman and Dennis are drawn to each other as friends is that they both have low self-esteem. They build each other up and I think they both try to bring out the best in each other. That’s why their friendship is so beautiful before conflict comes in.

Joshua Encinias: What was the most difficult part of making Twinless?

James Sweeney: Producing and directing can very much be at war with each other. As a director, you just want to achieve your vision, but a producer deals with the constraints of the budget. Coming from directing my first film Straight Up, I didn’t know I could ask for things that would make the process better. As a producer, Dylan helped advocate for taking time for the things necessary to help make the best version of the movie.

Joshua Encinias: Are you comfortable watching your movies with an audience?

James Sweeney: I don’t love watching myself, I don’t think anyone does. I did watch it at our premiere at the Eccles Theatre. It was interesting to watch it through their eyes, but even that was uncomfortable because there are some very vulnerable scenes.

Joshua Encinias: I read there were audio glitches during the premiere screening. How did that go over?

James Sweeney: You never know how long glitches will last but it only happened for a second each time. It was nice to see how engaged the audience was — and to see their visceral reaction of disappointment — it showed me how tuned in they were to the story. If anything, it was nice.

Source: moviemaker.com

[gokesterthejokester]

Split Diopter Shots in Dick Tracy

[cerebraljopper]

split diopter shot helena stalking mark do you see the vision

[bizarrocloudy]

I took notes while I watched Arcane today:

-They did a split diopter shot?? In an animated cartoon??? -slideshow beast POV was pretty cool and evocative (some of the different art style animation sequences have been cool… Some have fallen kinda flat, like the paint the town blue part in the beginning)

oh no they made vi even hotter

[ogradyfilm]

Recently Viewed: Trap

[The following review contains MINOR SPOILERS; YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!]

Never let the two lives touch.

Trap is a film about identity. Its narrative revolves around the masks that we wear in public, the “true” faces that we reveal in our most private moments, and the reconciliation between these conflicting personae—finding one’s “authentic” self somewhere in the synthesis.

Protagonist Cooper—alias The Butcher, a.k.a. “that freakin’ nutjob that goes around chopping people up”—is both a doting father and a sadistic serial killer. While it’s tempting to dismiss his awkward pantomime of domestic bliss as a mere charade, however, his love for his family is just as genuine as his obsession with his macabre “hobby.” Thus, when he finds himself in the middle of an elaborate sting operation (“This whole concert is a trap!”), he must choose which half of his fractured psyche he values more: would he rather embrace his violent compulsions… or enjoy some quality time with his daughter?

Josh Hartnett excels in the lead role, effortlessly conveying the complex, contradictory facets of his character’s personality—from his cold, calculating cruelty as he seizes control of the chaotic situation to his increasing desperation and irrationality as the metaphorical noose tightens around his neck to his repressed guilt and self-loathing when his sins are finally exposed. M. Night Shyamalan’s direction is equally superb, utilizing split diopter lenses, disorienting Dutch angles, and unnervingly intimate P.O.V. shots (even during basic scene coverage) to craft an atmosphere that is simultaneously spectacularly maximalist and suffocatingly claustrophobic. The early sequence in which Cooper slowly realizes that he’s inadvertently blundered straight into a veritable spider’s web of police officers and federal agents is a particularly impressive marriage of performance and visual storytelling.

Trap is far from perfect: the tone is goofy as hell (which is at least partially intentional), the plot is built on a tenuous foundation of contrivance and coincidence, and the dialogue is often unwieldy and unnatural. When the movie is firing on all cylinders, though, it’s difficult to care about such superficial flaws. Lean, efficiently crafted, and immaculately structured, it evokes the trashy thrillers of the mid-2000s—and honestly, the scariest thing about it is that it makes me nostalgic for that caliber of cinematic quality.

[catsfellfrosh]

P.R.Brown and Rammstein

The fruitful collaboration of the famous photographer, designer and director from the USA P.R. Brown was not limited to creating covers for singles and video clips for Rammstein. They invited Brown to shoot their performance at three concerts of their North American stadium tour in 2022.

PR Brown's calling card is his experiments with various techniques. He used the so-called tilt-shift method, when parts of the photo look blurred, this effect is especially interesting in portraits.One of his favorite tools is the 150 mm manual split-diopter from Prism Lens FX, a glass tool that creates the effect of blurred refraction in photographs.Brown is sure that seeing him holding this object in front of the camera seems strange to viewers, especially now when the photographer has a huge number of different computer filters at his disposal.

Taking with him a Fujifilm GFX 100, several lenses, a diopter and went to Chicago, East Rutherford and Foxborough. The show in the recognizable style of Rammstein hid its "dark stones" for the photographer.

- Olli saved me a couple of times on stage. I didn't know the production very well, I had a very detailed briefing, but I forgot, - admits Brown.

Jens Koch was nearby and helped with the work, which was deservedly mentioned by Brown: "Rammstein have great tour photographers."

Brown was delighted with these three concerts and regretted that his participation in the shooting came to an end.

- If they are not having fun, then they are the best actors on the planet, because it seems like they are having fun on stage. And I have been with many bands, especially with such a long history, who hate each other. It’s rare to find a band that’s been together for so long and still talk to each other and genuinely enjoy each other’s company. Most of them are like failed marriages that have fallen apart.

-I only did it because it was them. I love the band, the music, and the show. Out of the hundreds and hundreds of bands I’ve shot, I think they were the only band that ever completely bought my photo shoots. ...And then they come back and call me a decade later and say, ‘Hey, do you want to shoot a live show?’ There are very few bands that are so dedicated to the creative people they work with, and that’s amazing.

Brown says.source PR Brown – Naked with RammsteinExclusive , Interview / Author KidArctica / September 24, 2023

P.R. BROWNDirector and Photographer@baudarmuttConnection to Rammstein:– Designed multiple single covers– Did two major photoshoots for the band– Directed two Emigrate music videos– Photographed three of the 2022 NA shows

Handheld split diopter from Prism Lens FX

Paul on stage in Boston, by P.R. Brown

Explosive Schneider in New Jersey, by P.R. Brown

Till in New Jersey, by P.R. Brown