Experiment - Shallow focus exemplar

As I figured we would be using cameras that would allow shallow focus and various other techniques, I found that it would be a good idea to create a couple of samples for me to talk about. As we're going to be using manual focus a lot inside the scenes to create a drunken effect, I think that using the out of focus feature of cinematography to be interesting.

I initially decided that having a go on my DSLR camera would give me an idea as what to include. So  I got an old toy car and used the outside to show a really good deep zoom shallow focus shot.

This is a still image with the lense fully zoomed into the object. I used manual focus to have the car in the field of vision but the background blurred out. I think this is good because the object is in focus, so for the audience, it will make them focus on this object. However it is not commonly used because scenes with shallow focus only are used in two different ways. These ways are to focus an item into the scene or to add a character. Usually it is used in the thriller genre to mysteriously show an antagonist into a scene. It creates suspense and it also asks the audience the question: 'Who is he?"

In this video, I am showing the change of focus. The target is the car that is close up, however the background which is outside my house is also shown. This is the first example. Having a shallow focus rather than a deep focus creates emphasis on the image. In popular films, they use a shallow focus and then move the camera into the subject. This is used to add effect onto the subject. Focus is widely associated with Pot Luck as we'll be using shallow depth of field for the tickets that are falling.