Dear John. - Behind the scenes.
 

I saw this movie tonight and consider it to be up there if not superior in dramatic and human terms to the rest of the cohort of features set in and addressing current military deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan.

However to a more narrow topic, the behind the scenes footage is generously provided and comprehensive.

Interestingly, it appears that much, if not all of this was shot using a Letus 35mm adaptor. In certain adverse lighting conditions and lens settings, there was a fixed pattern artifact evident.

The pattern was not stationary but as a whole, moved about slightly with camera handling which suggested to me that the adaptor was mounted to the camera without rails, with the adaptor having found a natural position of balance on the camera by rotating about another 25 degrees or so on the filter thread. It was consistent with a slight amount of flex at the joint with the camera going on.

A zoom lens was used and a fair bit of focus hunting was evident. My comment is not intended as a criticism but a compliment on the courage of the documentary makers in choosing to value add with an adaptor, - if indeed that is what they used, and that they managed as well as they did with it.

My observation could well only be as valid and realistic as a bad wind broken alone in a confined space - an event best appreciated by and kept to myself.


If anyone has any behind-the-scenes info on the behind-the-scenes documentary itself, it would be interesting to know about. There were few crew end-credits on them.