I Am Sick of Shallow Focus

It's Not Cinematic and I'm Tired of Pretending it is

Aspiring filmmakers often ask themselves, “How do I make my shots cinematic?” Recently, a trend has emerged that seems to answer this question. Apparently, the key to a “cinematic” image is to blur half of it out.

Photographers, videographers, and cinematographers alike are obsessing over the quality of bokeh. Viewers are calling sports footage more cinematic because of blurry backgrounds. My phone constantly asks me if I want to blur the backgrounds of various pictures I’ve taken, and other phones have a shallow focus recording mode literally labelled “cinematic mode.”

Well, I’m here to tell you it’s not cinematic, it’s not creative, and I am sick and tired of seeing it.