ARIGATO
MUSIC VIDEO
CAMERA OPERATOR
Pursuing Shallow Depth-of-Field Before the DSLR Revolution
Gandhi is one of Costa Rica’s top-rated Rock bands. I had previously worked with Director Miguel Gomez and he wanted me to be the camera operator for this gig under DOP Willy Fuentes.
This was a pre-DSLR-revolution video. However, in pursuit of a shallow depth of field and some bokeh, we used a Redrock adapter. A very cumbersome contraption which allowed you to use Canon-FD lenses which projected an inverted image on to a small projection screen which your camera, a Panasonic P2, then filmed the projection screen and viola! The illusion of shallow depth is achieved.
Your viewfinder would show an inverted image buy we circumnavigated that by using a small portable LCD TV I had around the house. The CRT Sony monitors we used at the time were not fit for purpose, they were just too heavy to carry around.
Drummer Massimo Holds the fliped LCD TV as a monitor
As the day went by, we got tired of the Redrock adapter and given the time constraints we used the P2’s uncovered lens for many of the shots.
It was a fun shooting day. It was a tough day for most. But I had an early flight to go on assignment to Uruguay the next day, we had a severe 6-hour delay due to an issue with the set. Needless to say, I was unable to get a good night sleep.
The post-production was handled by SpaceDog, led by two very talented Animators Mario Espinoza and Ricardo Trujillo.
Sadly, at the time YouTube did not support HD video and only a 480p version survives on the interwebs.
