The Young Victoria

[mendel_leisk]

<p>We went to see this last night, a good story, well worth seeing.</p>

<p>One thing I noticed, it was a real celebration of bokeh: many dreamy out-of-focus back and fore ground shots, and the occasional focus shift. One shot of a long line of glass goblets where the focus "pans" along. Some shots in a garden, with subjects in foreground and way out-of-focus conical shrubs behind, had me wondering if they were using slight tilt-and-shift.</p>

[JDMvW]

<p>Wasn't this kind of thing recently cited as an example of being a little "over-committed" to photography?</p>

<p>I suspect that looking at the bokeh would be the only way anyone would get me to go see the movie, though, so I am NOT casting stones here.....</p>

[jtk]

<p>Good observation. In fact, bokeh and shifting focus seem to drive the opening sequences. I asked myself, why is this so beautiful?</p>

[colin carron]

<p>I am in two minds about films where the photography forces itself on my attention. Part of me is thinking 'that is a very good effect' while the other part is a bit annoyed my attention has been distracted from the story. I can't particularly remember the sequences you mention from 'Young Victoria' so clearly they didn't obtrude too much for my taste. I seem to remember the general effect was similar to the Merchant/Ivory school of film and generally pleasing.</p>

<p>Other films which I can think of which use interesting photographic techniques are 'Barry Lyndon' by Kubrick where the photography and the soundtrack tend to dwarf the story and the recent 'Star Trek'movie where the use of flare I thought worked well.</p>

[mendel_leisk]

<blockquote>

<p>I can't particularly remember the sequences you mention from 'Young Victoria' so clearly they didn't obtrude too much for my taste.</p>

</blockquote>

<p>That was my feeling, it wasn't overdone or obtrusive.</p>

[jpo3136b]

<p>There was a set of documentaries, history programs really, on PBS which used out of focus techniques to pretty good effect. The show was called The Ascent of Money. It was narrated by Niall Ferguson.<br /> http://www.pbs.org/wnet/ascentofmoney/category/video/</p>

<p>This blogger uses out of focus techniques quite a bit. She will usually put text over the top of the photos (usually a homemade poem). Like the technique in the documentary above, the photos will be out of focus enough to be blurry, but often in focus just enough to communicate what they are a picture of. <br>

http://itsjusthowiseethings.blogspot.com/</p>

[jtk]

<p>Niall Ferguson's piece was excellent, but I thought the focus technique was over-done :-)<br>

Still, it served the purpose beautifully. Matter of taste. Enviable work. Wish it was mine :-)</p>