Cinematography : Shoot the moon by Abigail Yates

It depends how close you want to get to the moon. Anything above 200mm is good, 400mm and 800mm this will get you real close!

I've done some great time lapse with an Arri Alexa sporting the Angenieux optimo 12-1 and a doubler. You can see the craters and all very well.

Thank you. I don't think we have any of those lenses so I'd have to rent one. I was using a C100 camera.

If you want just the moon, check out the NASA footage archives. I believe they are all royalty free.

From the surface of the earth, the width of the moon is just slightly more than a 0.5˚ viewing angle. This means that if you wish to have the perimeter of the moon just inside the top and bottom edges of the frame, you would need a lens with a 0.5˚ viewing angle for the sensor of the camera you are using. You can easily calculate what the lens would be for a given sensor if you know the height of the active area of the sensor in the camera. There are calculators online to help you if you thought you didn’t need to remember Jr. High mathematics. When shooting the moon, remember that the bright part you see is in full sunlight even though it is night where you are. Simple enough concept but at some point we all come back with a picture of an over-exposed featureless white circle instead of the moon. So exposure is for a normal sunny day. Use a tripod. Watch out for vampires.

Here is a link to one of the time ex. I have done of the Moon. https://vimeo.com/132392181

I was trying to shoot it with the silhouette of trees in the foreground. I'd like it to look large and not just a dot of light. Let me see if I can find some shots like I had in mind.

At 1:03 http://youtu.be/uAERYfeiYBc but I'd like to see more detail of the moon

I have done shots with trees in foreground , they look great as it shows better that it is a time ex. and not a pan. That 12-1 with doubler (making it somewhere about 580mm) is about the biggest lens we have on set usually. you may want to hook up a dslr to a telescope to get more detail, however you would never see a foreground tree. If you capture a supermoon this would give you the largest moon shot available. A friend of mine has got some amazing stills with a 600 mm and doubler on a super moon rise. Seen here. http://www.zazzle.ca/super_moon_print-228145555281810596

That shot in Wonderful Life is looks the way it does because of improper exposure. They needed to expose for near daylight conditions (stop down, or add ND) to get the detail to pop. They most likely didn't have the time to bracket exposure while getting that shot, if their cinematographer even did this shot.

Thank you so much everyone!