Lenses

Capturing the Freedom of Dance

Thu, 11/05/2020 - 10:23 -- Nick Dager

Following the lift of the first lockdown in London caused by the COVID-19 outbreak in early July, cinematographer Matteo Bangrazi and filmmaker Alfred George Bailey immediately jumped on set with the rest of their team to film the dance documentary I Still Breathe. The film is about a group of socially aware young adults who give extraordinary and deeply emotional testimonies of being black, mixed race, and white in London, England.

Zellan, Howard Leaving Cooke Optics; Pugh, Van Oostrum Stepping In

Thu, 10/29/2020 - 10:20 -- Nick Dager

Cooke Optics has announced that its chairman, Les Zellan, will be stepping down from the company, and its CEO, Robert Howard, will be retiring, both effective October 31. Tim Pugh will become CEO, while Kees van Oostrum, currently a Cooke Optics board member, will become the company’s non-executive chairman.

Creating Utopia’s Distinctive Style

Wed, 10/07/2020 - 12:02 -- Nick Dager

The comic book Dystopia tells the story of Jessica Hyde, a young girl on the run from the evil Mr. Rabbit, who holds Jessica’s scientist father captive and forces him to create unthinkable biological horrors. Written and illustrated by an anonymous artist, Dystopia has earned legions of fans, some of whom have found far deeper meaning in its pages and believe clues to real-world viruses and pandemics are layered into its artwork. One such group of obsessives, who have only known each other through their online interactions, come together and finally meet in person for Fringe Con, where an unwitting couple has plans to auction the recently discovered original artwork for Utopia, Dystopia’s unpublished and never-before-seen sequel.

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.

Arri Introduces Four New Signature Zoom Lenses

Wed, 09/23/2020 - 11:08 -- Nick Dager

Responding to market requests for high-quality zoom lenses to match and accompany the Signature Primes, Arri announces four new Signature Zooms designed for universal usage with any large-format or Super 35 camera. They offer a fast stop of T2.8 across all four lenses, unrivalled focal length range, absolute image consistency, high dynamic range compatibility, and 8K resolving power.

Keeping Focus Shooting Full Frame

Tue, 09/15/2020 - 09:16 -- Nick Dager

One of the challenges for Cooke Optics for the remaining months of 2020, according to the company, will be demonstrating to current and potential customers how it believes its /i technology provides new technical solutions to age old problems. And few problems have been given as much of a twist in recent years as keeping focus while shooting full frame.

Shooting Film for a Period Look

Mon, 09/14/2020 - 09:52 -- Nick Dager

Set from 1913 to the early 1990s, HBO’s six-episode limited series I Know This Much is True required director Derek Cianfrance and cinematographer Jody Lee Lipes to make a choice: What would the show look like? They agreed that a cohesive, period look for the project would be the correct choice — as opposed to a contemporary look.

Truly a Coming of Age Film

Mon, 08/10/2020 - 09:39 -- Nick Dager

In the early aughts, in a small Iowa town, Alice — a student at the local Catholic high school — enjoys watching Titanic and testing her knowledge of movie titles with word scrambles played in online chat rooms. When one of her internet encounters takes an unexpected turn, she suddenly discovers there’s pleasure to be had in pleasuring oneself. Not long after, she attends a four-day Catholic retreat, where she struggles to reconcile her nascent urges with the prospect of eternal judgment

Shooting Halifax: Retribution Full Frame

Tue, 06/30/2020 - 10:15 -- Nick Dager

When cinematographer Geoffrey Hall, ACS (Chopper, Red Dog: Escape from Pretoria) was asked to shoot Halifax: Retribution, a reboot of the popular Australian TV crime drama series, Halifax f.p. that ran from 1994-2001 on Channel Nine, he saw it as a challenge. “The original series always had exceptionally high production values – it was a quality show that enjoyed a good budget and featured the best actors,” said Hall. “For the new show, I wanted to carry on that feeling of quality and give it a big, glossy look. I was after a look that would put the series in a class of its own.”

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