Why do so many Star Wars series do this weird spiraling smudge shit effect to their backgrounds?
How does the director of photography allow this crap when it looks so insanely bad?
So many potentially good shots ruined by this almost "warped reality" blur.
>is a zoomer discovers anamorphic lenses episode
I'm not saying I discovered it for the first time, I'm saying that it looks bad. It's an ugly effect that ruins potentially great photography and draws the attention away from the actors because it looks unnatural.
The human eye already adds natural depth of field and similar effects should be used insanely sparingly.
Overusing it, like they do, comes across as amateurish and leads one to believe they had little faith in the shot.
>draws the attention away from the actors
What always gets me is that it often blurs background actors too, WHILE they're delivering their lines so their facial expressions and their potential talent is lost. It's such a flimsy attempt to keep the audience focused on what you want and I agree it's juvenile at best and incompetent at worst.
I know what you mean. In this scene the senior officer is getting a report from the guy in the background and he's almost completely blurred out while talking so we can focus on the superior officer not really reacting much at all. And I wonder to what purpose?
probably covering up the cheap CGI backgrounds
Anamorphic lenses are one of the tell-tale signs that you're watching actual kino. Much like old film grain, it takes the cinematic image to the next level of beauty, and many think it's because it unconsciously simulates how human brains perceive reality.
The dirtiness of the OT's lenses is one of the things that make their cinematography so iconic and mythical and when a Star Wars project doesn't try to replicate it, it just comes off as dull TV sci-fi.
The human eye adds depth of field and distortion to help the brain better filter "vital" information. It does this automatically. The eye doesn't need "help" with this, which is why it stands out so badly when media tries to emulate it.
Except you're looking a flat 2 dimensional screen moron, so your eyes can't add depth without the help of the lenses with which the movie is shot
They absolutely can and do. Mankind has been viewing cave-painting since the dawn of our existence and we've never had any problem at ALL focusing on the important parts and filtering out the background wall. This myth that your eye can't properly focus without aid is lunacy.
Focusing attention and physical depth are 2 different things. Are you 14?
I'm starting to think you don't know how the eye works at all. I'm talking about effects in relation to perception. Can you grasp that or are those words too big for you?
You think anamorphic lenses are "spiraling smudge shit effect". What cogent argument can I expect to have my friend?
>You think anamorphic lenses are "spiraling smudge shit effect".
Yes. You cannot have an argument because there is nothing to say beyond "but I like it and people are paid billions to apply it so it must be good".
What was Lucas thinking?!?
>paid billions to apply it
APPLY WHAT YOU FRICKING MORON. That's what it looks like in camera
Did I imply applying in post-production?
>people are paid billions to apply it
Yes. You did
Then you have misunderstood.
Where else would they "apply" it
During the process of filming? During the planing? The consideration of the shot?
Next time just say you don't like the look of whatever it is you don't like and leave it at that if you can't articulate yourself properly
How so? Do you think these pictures are somehow proving me wrong?
Yes. The OT was also shot on anamorphics. Take it up with Lucas and his decision to "apply" the same look to his movies
Return of the Jedi wasn't but yeah rest of the films in the entire franchise are anamorphic
>Mankind has been viewing cave-painting since the dawn of our existence and we've never had any problem at ALL focusing on the important parts and filtering out the background wall.
Seems like it was ruined by the two Black folk.
might be the visual language of last jedi
i remember wanting to throw up when some fast focus pulls happened in that and the previously focused object area would reel into a distorted shape
what you should be complaining about is the muted colors filter, I liked Andor but I really hate how most modern movies and shows are all dull gray shit
It's just an attempt to ground it. The prequels got a lot of flack (unrightfully so, I might add) for oversaturation, so in an attempt to keep Andor more "grounded" they wash out the colors. It's a shame to me personally, because I really like colors and I'd almost always rather have something look "too cartoony" by being saturated than having it look dull to feign "realism". But I'm sure that's not kino in Cinemaphile's eyes.
you're consuming disneyslop and wondering why it looks shit?
No but this is basic. A multi-million dollar project should be able to tell that this doesn't look good.
Writing, directing, acting, lining up good shots, these are all hard elements to master to make a show compelling, but basic use of visual effects is easy. This isn't the hard part so I'm surprised they're fricking it up so badly.
Andor is mostly shot on Panavision's C-series anamorphics which have been around since the late 60's. They also used G series, also by Panavision and those were launched in the early 2000s'.
Wanna know what lenses New Hope and Empire Strikes Back used? C-series by Panavision.
Return of the Jedi was 2.35 spherical crop, not anamorphic and they used Cooke's Xtal and Varotal lenses mostly on that film.
Anamorphic lenses are fundamentally optically less perfect than spherical lenses from the get go and big part of the "anamorphic look" comes from certain imperfections built into the whole format. The breathing is usually more noticeable as is the flaring. The bokeh/focus fall off is different compared to spherical as well. Especially older anamorphic glass tends to "struggle" quite a bit when shot wide open and for some people that is a bit too much. Star Wars and Empire were shot on deeper T-stops because it was film back then and they couldn't demand focus pullers to hold focus on like T2.6 constantly, especially on more complicated shots. And most classic DP's didn't like shooting with anamorphic lenses wide open because of what I described earlier. Also because of matte paintings and other VFX related work, they had to light for much bigger T-stops on the original first two films. Andor most likely is shot on average with smaller T-stops and because of modern different tools that help with focus. But it is shot with the same lenses the first two films were shot with.
thank you for the informative post sincerely