See the flares/bokeh in John Wick 2

[andrew mcmillan]

I saw bokeh split in half as well as other tell tale signs, it looked to me as if it was shot with fishing line behind or infront of the lens.  but also oval aperture disks? 

[Hans Punk]

Not seen the film...but it'll more likely be a streak filter (also cuts bokeh in middle) on select spherical shots when not using the Zeiss master anamorphics and Optimo lenses (if anamorphic range) that have been credited to the production. Looking at the trailer, many shots are pretty wide with deep DOF that leads me to think that you might have seen some streak filters being used on some spherical shots.

It's very common for spherical lens shots to be mixed into a 'scope' movies...sometimes with streak filters or CG flares added to help blend with neighbouring shots...but often people don't bother to do that. Oval aperture modified lenses less likely for mixing into a big budget production unless DP can afford that lens to be at a fixed aperture value (possible but unlikely). Could be employed for C/D/E-cam etc for certain setups where multiple cameras are rolling and there are not enough anamorphics to go round...for an action scene or stunt - so as to minimise loss if attached to a chase or crash camera and it gets killed in action.

I use oval aperture modified lenses for effects shots where I know I'm going to do 3D tracking for CG...this removes the funky lens distortion and time-consuming problems that tracking software can have with real (older) anamorphic lenses. When intercut with real anamorphic (and a bit of post lens distortion applied) the faux anamorphic looks perfectly acceptable. When a lens needs a flare, I try to avoid CG generated ones whenever I can...but rather shoot a pass of a real anamorphic flare against black and then retime/warp and track that pass into the plate whenever possible. In other situations I've also added oval bokeh in post when forced to shoot using a spherical aperture but needed an anamorphic look. Adding oval bokeh in post can be a time-consuming process but is possible...it can require a lot of roto work.

[Zak Forsman]

yes, likely streak filters. but not just some shots. nearly every shot in JW2 exhibited split oval bokeh.

[Brian Caldwell]

22 hours ago, andrew mcmillan said:

I saw bokeh split in half as well as other tell tale signs, it looked to me as if it was shot with fishing line behind or infront of the lens.  but also oval aperture disks? 

The bokeh that I saw in this movie was definitely Zeiss Master Anamorphic, which is to say it has an aspect ratio of ~1.64:1 rather than 2:1.  The Zeiss anamorphics are famous for requiring add-on junk to create flare - available from Zeiss themselves, but I would be surprised if anyone would knowingly copy the 1.64x bokeh with an aperture disk.