There are so many beautiful lenses these days, with amazing clarity, contrast, and focus, but when you’re looking to recreate an older look, nothing quite beats an old vintage lens. In his Visual Storytelling 2 course on MZed, Alex Buono makes the case for using vintage lenses during a live demonstration of a music performance. Still from “Documentary Now!” – Image source: Alex Buono “When I’m shooting an episode of Documentary Now! and I’m trying to create the look of a 1973 Cinema Verite film, or a 1920s Eskimo film, I’m definitely not going to use a modern, sharp, beautiful contrast, high-clarity lens. And that’s when I look to older lenses, used lenses, things that have been around for a long time, things that are gonna give you some of those aberrations, some of those crazy flares, and those soft spots, and all of those mistakes that have been engineered out of all these beautiful, new lenses.” “Most of the time, I want a beautiful lens without all of those mistakes, but sometimes I want those mistakes. That’s what makes it feel real. That’s what feels really good.” Still from “Documentary Now!” – Image source: Alex Buono When to choose vintage lenses Choosing to use vintage lenses doesn’t just apply for when you’re shooting a scene that takes place in the past. Sometimes you want a unique look, even when you’re shooting a present-day narrative film, or a documentary, or a music video. Alex describes the current landscape of network...
Published By: CineD - Friday, 27 May, 2022