I’m afraid of heights so this is pretty much my worst nightmare. Great video though! Also, after trying to get up to speed on video technology I’m pretty proud of myself for recognizing their use of a wide-angle lens. How do we feel about the choice? It distorts the edges of a lot of the shots, but in my opinion that adds to how surreal this experience is. I would also imagine you get tunnel vision when you’re jumping off a cliff, so maybe the distortion is an accurate depiction of what the experience feels like? I don’t really care to find out, myself, but I guess that’s why we get a vicarious thrill out of film.
According to my tutorials, the wide angle lens also emphasizes 1) the distances between objects in your frame, and 2) the speed of objects. For those of you with more film experience than me, do you think this makes an appreciable difference in this video?
Experience Zero Gravity from InfinityList on Vimeo.
I’m mostly drawn into this video by how crisp the slowed down imagery is. I too, am unfamiliar with video techniques, so I’m not sure if it’s the wide angle lens or not, but I find it pretty amazing that both the vast background and the main subjects are both so clear. You can pause this video at any point and it looks like a postcard or something.
It also made me realize how cool glaring sun spots can look. It seems that over the years they’ve changed roles from being an undesirable glitch to being a humanizing view of a video.
First off let me say how much fun this looks like. I have always wanted to go skydiving or base jumping and this makes me want to go even more. But as far as your questions I really like the use of the wide angle lens here I agree it gives a great sense of the area and space that these guys are in. I also loved the use of slow motion to normal time I think that was an interesting touch as well.
Maybe the filmmakers were or weren’t thinking about the technical aspects of using a wide angle lens. My guess is that they just wanted to make sure they got as much of the space in there as possible. Or maybe that’s just the way I work. I often don’t know a lot of the technical things about a lens or a toy, but I know what it looks like when you use it, so I just go for it if I know I want to achieve a certain look.