American Cinematographer - April 2021 - 11

AMERICAN CINEMATOGRAPHER ASCMAG.COM

PHOTO THIS PAGE COURTESY OF CHRISTOPHER PROBST, ASC.
ALL OTHER PHOTOS COURTESY OF JAY HOLBEN.

Opposite: Nicole Starrett poses for a lens test. Below: A Carl Zeiss Distagon Ultra Prime f/1.7 / T1.9 28mm lens.

the freeway, or how the brakes will perform in
an emergency. If you really want to test that car,
you've got to spend some time testing it with a
variety of specific tasks.

the usable viewing angle of this monitor? How
accurate is the color fidelity of this light fixture?
Having specific questions enables you to perform specialized tasks to find those answers.

The Generic Approach

Note Everything

When you're performing a generic/agnostic test
- on any piece of equipment - it's critical to
take as scientific an approach as possible. While
the " scientific method " involves the formulation
and testing of hypotheses, a variation of this
strategy is recommended. A cinematographer
should not go into a test with a preconceived
notion of how the tool might perform, but should
instead begin testing with questions: What is the
dynamic range of this camera? How well is this
lens corrected for spherical aberration? What is

This cannot be stressed enough: Take copious
notes, detail everything you do in your testing,
and err on the side of creating more ridiculously
detailed notes than you might ever need.
You might also consider including the notes
in the frame when testing a camera, lighting or a
lens. This can generally be accomplished with a
slate in the shot, or even Post-It notes attached
to elements in the shot. Taking such steps ensures that the information never gets separated.
A slate at the top of a clip is helpful (and in some

cases the only choice), but that doesn't follow
through if you cut the footage or take still frames
later.
Detailed written notes are crucial. They're
tedious and time-consuming, but they should be
done. Never, ever think, " I'll remember this later. "
You won't.

Think Long-Term
While you can learn a great deal just by performing the test and looking at the results in
the moment, it is beyond invaluable to examine
the results after the fact. Even just the following
night or a day later, you can spend more time
scrutinizing the results and comparing them
side-by-side. It can be especially useful to
compare frame grabs of different iterations of
APRIL 2021 / 11

p.10-17 Shot Craft V3 DONE.indd 11

3/9/21 1:01 PM



http://www.ASCMAG.COM

American Cinematographer - April 2021

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Cinematographer - April 2021

Contents
American Cinematographer - April 2021 - Cover1
American Cinematographer - April 2021 - Cover2
American Cinematographer - April 2021 - 1
American Cinematographer - April 2021 - Contents
American Cinematographer - April 2021 - 3
American Cinematographer - April 2021 - 4
American Cinematographer - April 2021 - 5
American Cinematographer - April 2021 - 6
American Cinematographer - April 2021 - 7
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American Cinematographer - April 2021 - 11
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American Cinematographer - April 2021 - 27
American Cinematographer - April 2021 - 28
American Cinematographer - April 2021 - 28a
American Cinematographer - April 2021 - 28b
American Cinematographer - April 2021 - 29
American Cinematographer - April 2021 - 30
American Cinematographer - April 2021 - 30a
American Cinematographer - April 2021 - 30b
American Cinematographer - April 2021 - 31
American Cinematographer - April 2021 - 32
American Cinematographer - April 2021 - 33
American Cinematographer - April 2021 - 34
American Cinematographer - April 2021 - 35
American Cinematographer - April 2021 - 36
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American Cinematographer - April 2021 - Cover3
American Cinematographer - April 2021 - Cover4
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