RM - Fisheye Lens

"In photography, a fisheye lens is a wide-angle lens that takes in an extremely wide, hemispherical image. Originally developed for use in meteorology to study cloud formation and called "whole-sky lenses", fisheye lenses quickly became popular in general photography for their unique, distorted appearance. They are often used by photographers shooting broad landscapes to suggest the curve of the Earth. Hemispherical photography is used for various scientific purposes to study plant canopy geometry and to calculate near-ground solar radiation." Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fisheye_lens

An example of a fisheye lens shot.
Taken from Blur's Parklife

In photography, a fisheye lens is a wide-angle lens that takes in an extremely wide, hemispherical image. Originally developed for use in meteorology to study cloud formation and called "whole-sky lenses", fisheye lenses quickly became popular in general photography for their unique, distorted appearance. They are often used by photographers shooting broad landscapes to suggest the curve of the Earth. Hemispherical photography is used for various scientific purposes to study plant canopy geometry and to calculate near-ground solar radiation.

The fisheye lens is most commonly used by Hype Williams who has produced music videos for such artists as Coldplay, Jay Z, Kanye West.

"In 1996 Williams won the award for best Director of the Year, the Jackson Limo Award for Best Rap Video of the Year.  In 1997 Busta Rhymes' "Woo Hah" won Williams the NAACP Image Award. In 1998 MTV Video Music Award awarded him the Best Rap Video of the year for Will Smith's "Gettin' Jiggy Wit It," A year later the MTV Video Music Award awarded him for Best Group Video for TLC's "No Scrubs". William is still producing music videos with the latest being Kanye West’s song entitled Runaway." Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hype_Williams

The first music video to use the fisheye lens for the entire video was the Beastie Boys song "Shake Your Rump" in 1989.

By using Final Cut it allows us to produce a fisheye effect, if wanted, without having to borrow or even buy one and wait for it to be delivered (if it was ordered over the internet).