Need help with 1 shoot - double focus shoot

[Vigen Vartanov]

Good day . Today Director ask me how to shoot double focus shoot. When front object and background are in Focus.
Problem is that front object is small , about 10 sm , and must be in full frame , in left corner .
Problem is that camera is moving , and we can not use over motion
control system . Sow with http://www.dofmaster.com/ i calculate that
i can do it , but i need to go up to 16 or 22. Problem is that it is night shoot and i do not want to use so many light.
Is it some way to do it . May be with Macro Lens ?
Any ideas or experiences :)

[Bruce Allen]

Sounds hard. My first advice would be previs / storyboard.

Figure out exactly what the problem is, how big objects need to be, cam move, etc. Then test.

Possible solutions:
1. light it heavily and shoot at f16 / 22. Do CG matte painting to add night look.
2. split diopters or tilt shift might work (depends on cam move, exact objects, etc)
3. build a large-scale model of the close object / forced perspective set (that's what they did in Citizen Kane)
4. CG 3D model / greenscreen (if small perspective change) of one of the two objects tracked into the scene
5. choose a shallower DOF camera like Viper / F23. RED is wonderful but can't do everything.
6. hit director over head and get him to allow you to use motion control or change the shot

Bruce Allen
www.boacinema.com

[David Didato]

I agree with Bruce - I like options 1 or 4. (or 6 ;-)

How about 7. Shoot Day for Night so you can more easily stop down to f16 or 22 with an ND filter?

[Vigen Vartanov]

6 is best way :) But problem is that location is on 10 floor , :) and we can not move motion control in this location .
It will be expensive , and this project is low budget project.
about 7 , yes i will try to do like this .

[Benni Diez]

Aren't there special lens extensions with 2 different DOFs? They are rotatable I think. Still the problem would be that you have a moving shot, so the two focal areas can't be adjusted independently.

http://www.techeblog.com/index.php/tech-gadget/feature-special-camera-lenses-let-you-control-image-depth-in-real-time

...or ask Adobe if you can use their prototype of the magic lens. :)

[Vigen Vartanov]

Adobe :) It is funny . Today i will shoot some footage , and will try to do first tests. Also now we want to do DOF for all shoot :) , sow it will be easy .