Below are some images which demonstrate the distances we were able to achieve between the moving vehicle and the subjects. In the second half of the video above I was aiming to replicate the airfield shot from Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, which was shot on a 2000mm lens (which we obviously don't have access to) however I aimed to achieve the same effect on a lesser scale. The fact that this was a car approaching two unsuspecting subjects was also quite irrelevant to me, because that could infact have been anything. In the case of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy its an aeroplane, in the case of Scream its a murderer, and in the case of many a slapstick comedy its a comedic element. The intention is primarily in the practicality of the effect, and using lenses to compress an image when needed. In the case of my test in the car park, I was not limited at all when it came to space, so I was acting purely on storytelling technique alone. However as I said before, the car could have been anything depending on genre and scenario, this was a very simple demonstration.
This video below is the scene in question from Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, in which a simple case of two characters in conversation is given a sinister and unnerving undercurrent in the form of an approaching aeroplane. As I previously stated, access to a 2000mm lens which would cost tens of thousands of pounds was out of the question, so I replicated the shot on a lesser scale on a lens with a focal length of 300mm. Within this shot the image is so condensed the aeroplane will be very far from the actors in reality. Over a quarter possibly even half a mile away from where they are. As the video states, Hoyte Van Hoytema uses lens to dramatic effect.
In contrast to the compression that a telephoto lens creates, this is the shot that a lens with a very small focal length will create, from my practical test today. This 8mm lens pulls the nearest subject to the lens in and makes them seem bigger than they really are, at the same time it dwarfs the background making everything seem smaller than it really is and also exaggerating the amount of distance between the subject and background. In this shot the approaching car offers no real threat or sense of danger. This is partially down to the fact that the subjects are much bigger than it, and make it seem irrelevant within the situation. As I said earlier, the car is entirely transferable. It could be a flying object, a monster, a character but the technique behind allowing that thing to seem intimidating or weak, or near or far, remains set in stone. Within the shot below, the 8mm lens evidently polarises the foreground and background in size, and also elongates the amount of space within the middle ground.
As the shot below demonstrates, the amount of space within the middle ground between the two characters and the car is exaggerated by the lens, as the shot below clearly shows us the amount of space in reality. The actual distance between the two is around 2ft, whilst the lens would have us believe that it is 1 metre+. I have found so far that the 8mm and 14mm wide angle lenses are extremely manipulative, more so than the telephoto lenses in changing the size of characters and the spacial structure of a scene or environment. It is hard to imagine a scenario in my own head where I could employ the use of a fisheye lens or a lens with such a small focal length within a story and pass it off. I firmly believe that whilst they are critical to my learning process at this moment in time, they bring way too much attention to themselves to be used as authentic storytelling devices. The obvious choice for their use seems to be in making a character seem disorientated, often drunk, to create an effect of nausea to the audience. This is due to the natural effect of the lens, that makes it difficult to use in scenarios outside of this. These lenses are frequently used within music videos too, which are less concerned with the subtle art of storytelling and more concerned with the visuals. The shot below shows the actual distance between the characters and the car in reality, opposed to the reality shown through the wide angle lens.
This next shot shows us what the scenario looks like with a 35mm lens. This lens creates the biggest sense of normality out of all the lenses I tested, as it barely manipulates the space within a frame. This is due to the fact that a 35mm lens is very close to the human eye, in terms of what we see spatially. In the context of my exploration of lens perspective and compression, the 35mm lens was very ineffective. Opposed to the other lenses either prime wide angle or telephoto, I cannot see a way to use it as a storytelling tool when it comes to exploiting a lens to dramatic effect. However the lens provided a good quality image which would be ideal for a filmmaker looking to provide gritty realism.
This image from behind the scene also shows us that the distance between the characters and the car in reality, is the exact same depicted by the lens.
As neither the 8mm or the 35mm lenses were what I was looking for in terms of intense compression, I moved onto the 85mm lens. From my previous tests I felt that the 85mm offered the best image quality and the natural compression it offered as a prime lens made it a very useful tool. Where the 85mm differs is to say the 8mm or the 35mm, is that it compresses the image a lot more without the need to zoom. For example, in the previous shot with the 8mm the car had to be very close physically but the lens made it look far, the 35mm represented reality as it was. The distance in reality and through the camera were more or less the same. The 85mm enables the car to appear closer than it is, so that the car may be nowhere near close to the subjects but it appears so. From this we can understand that, the lower the focal length of a lens = the less compression. The higher the focal length = the higher the compression. Below is the result of the same shot we had as the previous attempts, but with the 85mm Samyang lens.
Significantly more so than the 35mm lens, the 85mm lens does a good job of distorting the space of the middle/background, bringing the car further forward to the subjects in the foreground. In reality the car at this point is the same distance from the subjects as it was in the 35mm, as depicted above in the pictorial evidence. Below a shot shows the distance between the car and the subjects from the above image, which makes the car appear as if it is within touching distance of the subjects. The behind the scenes image shows us the truth however, which is that the compression of the lens is responsible for the manipulative nature of the imagery. So far, this was the closest I had come to achieving the same sort of effect that they achieved in the above shot from 'Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy' in which the lens is used to create an underlying dramatic effect within the scene.
Next up was the 70-300mm Canon telephoto lens. This lens was the largest focal length that I had access to, so I was counting on it to deliver a great deal of compression, and something that would be closely resemblant to the extreme levels of compression achieved by cinematographer Hoyte Van Hoytema in 'Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy'. Like many Hollywood blockbusters and films that employ professional cinematographers, comes the big budgets and the need for cutting edge equipment. In the context of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, the 2000mm lens used within that airfield sequence sells for between $30,000 and $40,000. As students we are required to work on a much smaller scale, which leads to positive learning experiences, and as such I experienced on this project. The use of the 70-300mm Canon lens was only 1/6th of the 2000mm lens effect I was hoping to replicate, and nor did I have access to an airfield. All this meant was downscaling to something which we did readily have access to; a car, and two people. Below the image demonstrates how the 300mm lens performs in compressing an image.
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