Mike Jordan

Why does a show like “Vicious”  (ITV 2014, 2015) have “Focus pullers” credits?

Surely in this day and age, camera persons are capable of doing focus as well as other camera operations?

Even with HD and moving around cameras on peds, this must be possible.

Or is it just that everything is booms nowadays and so “pointers” “pushers” and “focussers” are all required?

Geoff Fletcher

Once upon a time "Focus Puller" only applied to film crews – a skilled job to say the least, as anyone who has worked on film before the advent of video assist will know.

I remember how astonished a film camera operator I once had a jar with back in the day was when I told him that TV camera ops panned, tilted, craned, tracked and elevated a ped all on their own, as well as changing lenses, framing and focussing!

Pat Heigham

Film cameras were mounted on Moy geared heads, requiring two hands to pan and tilt. No spare hand to operate the focus ring, as they were on film lenses.

Possibly “Vicious” is shot using cameras on geared heads?

David Denness

TV cameras on SteadiCam mounts normally have a focus puller as well, basically for the same reason, they run out of hands and the camera lens is frequently out of arm’s reach.