STAY SHARP

         From the Nothing New Under the Sun Department…

         This article, found in the January 1946 issue of American Cinematographer, addresses the design and build of an automatic follow focus device for use with motion picture cameras.  As a creation of its time, the story of this Rube Goldberg-like machine is an interesting one.  Though this capability has long been a standard part of the stills world, the idea never caught on with Hollywood.  The choice of where and when to place focus in a moving image is too important a creative tool to be left to the roamings of a dispassionate algorithm.

         First AC’s are fond of using a variety of gadgets to keep things honed.  Visit any set and you’ll find them scrutinizing the action on a high-def monitor, carefully working a wireless handset to guide and maintain focus.  But none of that is automatic.  The technology still requires someone to make decisions and physically manipulate controls to affect the shot.  This’s also true for such aids as Howard Preston’s Light Ranger, which is remarkable in the way it helps attain tack-sharp results under the most challenging of conditions.

         There have been a few clever attempts to reinvent that wheel over the years, but none really came to fruition.  Best-known is the Lytro light field camera, which allowed the focus point to be set after photography was completed.  By recording the direction and position of the light rays reflecting from an object (the ‘light field’), it combined and overlapped those images to create a new one with the desired object in focus.  I attended a private Lytro demo a few years ago at the NAB convention in Las Vegas and was seriously underwhelmed by it.  Apart from the dodgy aspects of how it translated focus, the massive size of the camera made its use impractical.  Also, the tech was non-transferrable, i.e., you couldn’t use it on an Arri or a Red.  This was an instant deal-killer, no matter how good the focus was.

         Recently, DJI introduced the Focus Pro.  Their Youtube video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L6u-qLfRiZA) seems promising, but I’ll hold comment since I’m yet to have any experience with it.  The on-screen presence of the human touch as focus rolls in and out is as important as the efficacy of the technology used to do it.  I’d be curious to see if they’ve conquered this sticky problem.

         Until then, I’ll be recalling my early days in the camera department, when all a focus puller had to work with was their eyes, a measuring tape and a knob beneath the lens.  Somehow, we got the job done quickly and efficiently.  And sharply.  If anyone suggested our job should be automated, we would’ve taken it as an insult!  Now, I think most AC’s would opt for the automation.

         Once again, I can’t resist saying it: Times sure do change, don’t they?