From the course: Creating a Short Film: 07 Cinematography

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Adding depth and changing lenses

Adding depth and changing lenses

- So, our set got a little bit better, but now we need to change a few other things before this starts to feel right. First, let's create some separation. For me, separating subjects from their backgrounds almost always makes things look better. And, speaking of separation, let's also separate the camera from the subject and put on a longer lens. I went with an 85 millimeter lens here. This makes the subject about the same size in the frame as we had with the wide angle lens, but the longer lens is just more flattering on the face. This also takes the tiny, out-of-focus Christmas lights and makes them bigger, and now they're like a genuinely interesting background. These little blossoming highlights that are out of focus are referred to as bokeh. I also decided to change the framing here. I had Lucy scoot over to the left third of the frame instead of the center. It just feels a lot more artistic and well-designed to me. Now, we're not done yet, but let's just take a step back and…

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