Re: Notions of the "Cinematic"

In my opinion shallow DOF might make a single shot look more cinematic, but for a whole film or a scene it's all about the staging, positioning of the camera and the framing.
Shoot a scene with ultra shallow DOF and only use angle/reverse-angle-close-ups and it would not look cinematic to me. Stage the same scene in one master and still have CU's, wide-shots, etc then it is getting there. So what I'm trying to say is that the director takes a big role in creating a cimematic feel. Having a DOF that comes close to the DOF we are used from film will add to that feel then.