Talk:Focus puller/Archives/2012

But why?

It would be great to see additions from someone who knows the reasons, historical and practical, why there are focus pullers, when the job would seemingly be much easier for the camera operator to do, given that they can see the results. Do focus pullers exist in the realms of digital photography? --GetThePapersGetThePapers 05:58, 26 August 2007 (UTC)

The reason is actually very simple: the operator can't see the lens, particularly the markings. The typical on-set responsibilities of the operator are to watch the shot to ensure proper framing, prevent stray objects like the mike and light stands from entering the frame, and get a rough gauge on the focus accuracy. The focus puller's job is to measure the distances during rehearsals, determine where he needs marks for reference, and then pull the focus during the shot in order to keep the right subjects in focus, while checking and adjusting should the actors miss their marks. Because oftentimes the depth of field is very shallow, it's a very intensive job that requires high accuracy on the lens and skill in distance estimation - sometimes when the camera is moving too!

While in theory the operator can do the focus as well, this tends to only happen in "tight" situations like news coverage or "stolen" shots. However, on a film set, the most important factor is time, so having the operator do the focus "blind" will make for a high number of takes with bad focus. On some shots it's difficult enough for a dedicated focus puller, much less the operator. And the operator's attention really needs to be on so many other things during the shot that it's not really worth adding it to the workload unless 100% necessary.

Also keep in mind that the focus puller, as the head camera assistant, is additionally responsible for the maintenance and organization of all of the equipment. He or she will usually act as the equivalent of the staff sergeant for the entire AC team, which can range from one or two people to as many as twenty, depending on the number of cameras in play. As far as digital photography goes, the job is fundamentally the same - depth of field is fairly similar to either 35mm or 16mm film, depending on which chip size is used, and the HD image often is so sharp that the apparent depth will be even less. Plus backfocus maintenance is sometimes needed. And of course the equipment still needs to be managed. Hope this answers your questions well enough! Girolamo Savonarola 09:09, 26 August 2007 (UTC)

Alec Baldwin SAG Award 2007 acceptance speech -- thanked his camera focus puller!

"Our writers ... our cast ... our crew, especially Jonathan the focus puller who -- at my age -- misses the mark every now and then, and shaves 6 or 8 years off of my closeups. Thank you Jonathan, very much." :) Just thought that was very unique and funny, since most people don't realize how important and difficult this job is (if they've even heard of it) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EBLDf7-dNp8 ( Jonathan Beck: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0065189/ ) 199.214.24.246 (talk) 22:13, 3 January 2008 (UTC)

More sources

The article was already lacking sources and an editor removed two nicely formatted citations during his edits batch of edits, which failed to follow the WP:SIMPLE rules and even bother to provide an edit summary.
I'll leave it to editors more familiar with film making to find an appropriate place to reintroduce these sources. -- Horkana (talk) 19:19, 19 June 2010 (UTC)