Cooke Anamorphic/i lenses

Overcoming the Low-Budget Comedy Look

Tue, 12/13/2022 - 09:48 -- Nick Dager

Am I Being Unreasonable?, the much-anticipated comedy-thriller series co-written by and starring BAFTA award-winner Daisy May Cooper and Selin Hizli, belies its low budget with a cinematic look. Shot by Slater Slater Ling, BSC, and directed by Johnny Campbell, the series is set in a small country village where Nic (Cooper) is lonely, bored in her marriage and haunted by a huge secret. One of the biggest challenges was to move away from a standard low-budget comedy look.

Creating the Gilded Age’s Look

Wed, 02/23/2022 - 12:44 -- Nick Dager

Set in in New York City in the 1880s, a period marked by the clash between old traditions and new paradigms, Julian Fellowes’ HBO original series The Gilded Age tells the story of two families from different socioeconomic backgrounds and the relationship between them as they are trying to navigate those times of immense change. The Gilded Age chronicles the wide-eyed young scion of a conservative family who moves to New York City in 1882 and finds herself in the middle of a social war between old money and new money battling to preserve, or ascend, the social hierarchy. The first episode became available for streaming in the U.S. on HBO Max last month. Vanja Cernjul, ASC, HFS was the cinematographer for the series.

Creating a Majestic Look for The Water Man

Wed, 12/08/2021 - 12:08 -- Nick Dager

In some of their earliest discussions about the new film The Water Man, both director, producer, and actor David Oyelowo, and cinematographer Matt Lloyd, ASC, CSC, knew that the look of the film would need to be more majestic than a spherical lens could provide. Then, Lloyd met up with Michael Koerner of Koerner Camera of Portland, Oregon, who would provide the lenses and cameras for the project.

Creating a Blockbuster Look

Tue, 09/29/2020 - 10:14 -- Nick Dager

Writer/director Adrian Bol’s Legacy of Lies, starring Scott Adkins, is a spy action/thriller/drama about an ex-MI6 agent who is thrown back into the world of espionage and high stakes uncovering the shocking truth about operations conducted by unknown secret services. With a budget of $4.5 million, the goal was for Legacy of Lies to have a big blockbuster look and feel.

The Luminaries Comes to the Screen

Wed, 06/24/2020 - 09:38 -- Nick Dager

When it came time start work on the long-anticipated TV adaptation of Eleanor Catton's Man Booker prize-winning novel, The Luminaries, the filmmakers knew that one of their biggest challenges was to recreate the universe portrayed in the book. Produced by the BBC, Working Title Television and Southern Light Films and adapted for the screen by Catton herself, the six-part mini-series tells an epic story of love, murder and revenge, as men and women travelled across the world to make their fortunes on New Zealand’s South Island in the boom years of the 1860s gold rush.

Making it GLOW

Mon, 02/17/2020 - 10:42 -- Nick Dager

The Netflix series GLOW, which launched its 10-episode third season in August 2019, brings the Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling to Las Vegas and the fictitious Fan-Tan Hotel and Casino. The production captures the personal and professional lives of a group of women who perform for a wrestling organization that started in Los Angeles but now find themselves in glitzy Las Vegas during the 1980s. Cinematographer Chris Teague met with show creators, executive producers and episode writers Liz Flahive and Carly Mensch to pitch his ideas for the new look of GLOW for its new Las Vegas setting, which is where they realized that everyone was on the same page.

The Pefection Demanded Different Looks

Thu, 06/13/2019 - 14:14 -- Nick Dager

The Netflix Film The Perfection, which was shot by cinematographer Vanja Černjul, ASC (The Deuce, Crazy Rich Asians), directed by Richard Shepard (The Matador, Dom Hemingway, Girls), and written by Eric C. Charmelo, Nicole Snyder, and Richard Shepard, follows the story of a troubled musical prodigy who seeks out the new star pupil of her former school with shocking consequences.

Recreating the Original Star Wars Look

Tue, 03/26/2019 - 13:07 -- Nick Dager

Two visual effects-heavy commercial spots for Disney highlighting the latest Star Wars toys and merchandise benefited from play to the firing of children’s imagination: Choose Your Path focuses on The Last Jedi merchandise, featuring three children playing in an attic bedroom; a boy puts down a Kylo Ren toy, which then comes to life to fight Lego starships, while two of the children duck as a ship speeds past them on the red salt flats of Crait – which then seamlessly turn back into the bedroom with a classic Star Wars wipe. Galaxy Of Adventures features the original Star Wars trilogy and Solo: A Star Wars Story, with more children playing in an attic room, interacting with the toys and merchandise in a series of tableaux reminiscent of scenes from the films.

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