Roger Deakins on How to Choose a Camera Lens — Cinematography Techniques Ep. 8

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DP Roger Deakins explains how to choose a camera lens and storytelling with cinematography.

Understanding Camera Lenses ►►
Download FREE "Camera Lenses" eBook ►►

Special Thanks to:
The Team Deakins podcast ►►
Kaity and Kally ►►

Chapters:
Intro - 00:00
Chapter 1: Primes and Zooms - 00:39
Chapter 2: Lensing With Intention - 03:41
Chapter 3: Experimenting With Light - 06:39
Designing the Deakinizer - 07:36
Wrap Up - 09:23

Lens choice is something all filmmakers should take seriously. Each focal length brings a different texture and feeling to a shot, so choosing a lens should be anything but arbitrary. With camera lens choice, the distance between cold and detached vs. warm and intimate is literally millimeters. In this episode of our series on Cinematography Techniques, we give the floor once again to the inimitable cinematographer Roger Deakins. Deakins expounds on how to choose a camera lens, storytelling with cinematography, and what to look for in a camera lens.

In the first segment, Roger Deakins expresses his love for prime lenses as opposed to zoom lenses. For one, he appreciates the specificity required when using primes — forcing the decision-making behind choosing a lens to be deliberate and intentional. With a zoom lens, the options remain open and the chance of choosing a lens for pure convenience supersedes choosing a lens for storytelling value.

Then the conversation moves onto shooting excessive coverage vs. the more classical approach where shots were more economical and meaningful. He refers to John Ford as a director who never shot coverage. Each shot feels designed to capture the human emotions at work with “creating” the emotions with coverage and editing.

In the final section, Deakins chats about his disinterest in “destroying” the image with techniques like flares, artifacts, lens breathing, and vignetting. Exceptions being when the storytelling really calls for such effects, like he did on The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. In the end, the art of how to choose a camera lens will inform everything else about the images you’re creating. The lighting, framing, production design, performances — the make or break point often starts with lens choice.

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VIDEO EDITOR: BRANDON SCULLION
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Songs Used:
I Am A Man Of Constant Sorrow - Soggy Bottom Boys
Faded - Red Licorice
And That Right Soon - Shawshank Redemption OST
20-30 - Red Licorice
1917 Title Song - 1917 OST
If I Could - Chris Mazuera
Blood Trails - Carter Burwell - No Country For Old Men End Credits
The Hula Hoop - Carter Burwell - The Hudsucker Proxy
Fargo, North Dakota - Carter Burwell - Fargo
Moondance (Instrumental) - Originally by Warren Zevon
3 - Red Licorice
Swingset - Red Licorice
A Glowing Light, A Promise - Makeup and Vanity Set

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Music by Soundstripe ►
Music by MusicBed ►

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