ABSTRACT
Focal length can have an unintended effect on performance, because of the way it determines camera placement once a shot size is selected. Although experienced actors are used to ignoring the presence of crew and equipment, they can sometimes be distracted by them, affecting their concentration and ability to be “in the moment”. Focal length choice could even be part of a directing strategy – using zoom lenses and long camera to subject distances can keep actors unaware of the shot size being taken at any point during a scene, preventing them from modulating their performance depending on whether they are in a tight or a wide shot. Director Jem Cohen’s contemplative film Museum Hours, the story of the friendship that develops between Johann, a Viennese museum guard, and Anne, a Canadian woman visiting Austria to tend to a seriously ill relative, deftly uses telephoto lenses to document slices of everyday life that blur the line between fiction and non-fiction.
