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Pull Focus

 What is Pull Focus?

The pull focus is a camera technique in which you change the focus of the shot whilst shooting. Usually you use this technique to adjust the focus from one subject to another. The pull focus is a good technique to help you direct the viewers attention at something of interest. It can also create a disorienting affect as the focus changes (The Media College). In order to achieve this effect you will need to create a shallow depth of field by using a low aperture of around f/2.8-4. It can be hard to capture a correctly exposed shot with a low aperture taking into consideration that the shutter speed should be at 1/50, the image will appear very bright, by making the ISO very low (around 100). Your focus must be set on manual in order to use the focus ring on the lens to change the focus. Place something in the foreground of your shot and something in background. Have the subject in the foreground in focus and twist the focus ring in order to change the point of focus (Jennings). There are many reasons to use the pull focus technique, they are used to transition between scenes, add drama to a shot, draw the audiences eye to a specific detail, to connect elements and characters, to combine multiple shots into one, to follow a character's train of thought, to reveal something hidden in the frame (Studio Binder). 
In the movie "Young Victoria", the use of a pull focus allows the director to establish the relationship between the characters. The focus is set on the glass closest to Victoria showing a connection and then the focus shifts across all the glasses towards the last glass at the end of the table placed next to the man at the end. This shows that there is a connection between the two characters, it is a subtle way to infer meaning to the audience. 

My Example of a Pull Focus Shot

This is my example of a pull focus shot, as you can see in the video, I have my character in the foreground in focus, and I have slowly pulled my focus ring in order to make the foreground out of focus and the background in focus. I believe the video could be improved by using a tripod to shoot as the shutter speed is set to 1/50 therefore, the shot is very shaky which can create motion blur. In post-production I could use a warp stabiliser in order to stabilise the footage.

References

The Media College, The Pull Focus (Online)
Available at : https://www.mediacollege.com/video/camera/focus/pull.html
Jennings, A., 2018, How and When to Use Pull Focus When Filming Video (Online)
Available at : https://camerajabber.com/how-and-when-to-use-pull-focus-when-filming-video/
Studio Binder, n.d., 2020. The Rack Focus: Creative Examples of Camera Movement and Angles (Online)
Available at : https://www.studiobinder.com/blog/rack-focus-shot-camera-movement-angles/

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