Camera Work - Pull Focus

In cinematography, a 'Pull Focus' is where you shift the focus from one object/subject in the scene to another, to draw attention to that object. To achieve this, you need to be able to manually focus the lens smoothly and have a shallow depth of field (therefore, long focal length or wide aperture). Usually, on full scale productions, there is a special member of the film crew (a 'puller', or first assistant camera) that adjusts focus specifically according to the directors requisition during the on-set rehearsal. Obviously, as a small group, such a setup is not possible, therefore focusing is done by the cameraman (who is in turn the director). An example of focus pulling (Produced by a Canon 500D with 50mm f/1.8 lens attached) is below.