What is a Matte Box

2:16 pm in Filmmaking Tutorials by Darren Levine

What’s that? Stupid sun giving you lens flares? I think we got a fix for that! It’s called a matte box, and it excels at keeping out those stray hard lights which give you those nasty flares. They are also quite good at holding square lens filters. Though to be honest i never used them, so it’s just light control for me.

The one in the video is from cinecity, it’s the same Chinese hunk of plastic sold around ebay and several other retailers. while it does get the job done, i’d recommend finding something a tad better. A little less plastic perhaps. This one tends to lean a bit backward as well. If you do go for the cheaper model, make sure it at least has a french flag, better yet also side flags.

Two brands you might want to take a look at are VEEDION and TrustMT