My friend noticed something on a couple of ‘making of’ DVD extras. I haven’t seen them myself, so I’ll describe this as well as I can.
Someone is holding a black silk over the camera. He first described that the silk was being held behind the camera, though he later said that the silk would also be held over the front. I can see why the silk would be over the front. If the French flag would get in the frame, then holding a silk higher and farther out would shade the sun from hitting the glass. But what about holding it behind the camera? What does this do? I imagine that it would keep direct light out of the eyepiece, but the operator is closing that off with his eye and there should be a shutter in it to close off the opening when he removes his eye from it and pressure is released. My friend suggested that it would break up the camera’s shadow, but I would not frame the shot such that the shadow would be a factor.
So what’s up with the silk?