[quote author=Rosebud link=topic=56.msg686#msg686 date=1323612316]
The attractiveness of Anamorphic shooting is recognising that it is a first and foremost a distorting lens, this is what makes it stand out creatively, this is what makes it feel cinematic in the way we want to describe and understand cinema, it is the combination of both fantasy and reality that delivers a surreal image that we can't quite make sure of, but know it's alive and larger than life and we like it, it's a sexy and enticing visual quality. You only have to view some of the mediocre examples online of anamorphic shooting and they instantly feel more cinematic, than anything otherwise. This is why? Now have this in the hands of trained and visual masters and it becomes a dream we don't want to wake up from.
Everything is just bland after you see something in anamorphic...
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I agree.
The other day, at the base of a tall, thin Poplar tree in fall color, I pointed a 35mm anamorphic lens straight up and rotated the tripod head. I figured this would accentuate the natural distortion in the lens, but I had no idea that it would look so organically beautiful, as if the tree itself were growing in real-time in ways I could not fully grasp but only marvel at.
I can not read enough about anamorphic cinematography. Thanks Andrew for presenting all but lost insights from the past, and creating a space for insights like Rosebud's here. Keep going.