The film We Are Lady Parts is Nida Manzoor’s anarchic and irreverent music comedy about a Muslim female punk band – called Lady Parts – who are on a mission to find a lead guitarist and maybe, just maybe, get a proper gig. It was the first time she and cinematographer Diana Olifirova had worked together, but Olifirova described all the people on board for the series as a dream team.
A cinematographer, executive producer, and whiskey aficionado, Johnny Derango was corresponding with the owner of The Bottle Haus, an online liquor retailer, who it turned out was looking for someone to create a series of commercials to promote their business on social media. “The directive given to me was to do a commercial that gives the bottles personality, as well as be funny,” said Derango. “It was very open ended, so I had to conceptualize that.”
Arri Rental has introduced two new large-format lens series—Alfa anamorphic lenses and Moviecam spherical lenses. Both series were conceived and constructed by Arri Rental’s global lens development team, which was also responsible for the company’s DNA lenses for full-frame and 65 mm cinematography.
“When you’re preparing a film you can indulge in dreamy conversations –– it’s an essential part of the process that gets infused into the work,” says cinematographer Sam Levy. “But once you’re on set, and the clock is ticking, you find yourself a passenger on a moving train. Sometimes it’s a slow-moving train, but that train is moving. This was very much the case when we shot Karen Cinorre’s new film Mayday.”
Cooke Optics has announced the appointment of media industry veteran Roger Flynn as a new non-executive director to its board of directors. Flynn is an investor and non-executive director in media, technology, and travel businesses following a successful executive career in several international organizations, including CEO of BBC Ventures, commercial director of Virgin’s Media division, and president international of SDI Media Group.
Purpose built for cinematography and made in Germany, the Leitz Elsie lenses are designed for full frame performance at a size, speed, and price point to serve a broad range of productions. The set features a consistent aperture of T2.1 across all 13 lenses from 15 mm to 150 mm.
Produced for Amazon Studios, the feature film Birds of Paradise tells the story of two girls at an elite Parisian ballet academy that have their bond and bodies tested as they compete for a contract to join the company of the Opéra National de Paris. The film was directed by Sarah Adina Smith, who not only adapted the A.K. Small novel for the screenplay, but also happens to be director of photography Shaheen Seth’s wife.
In the 1990s, almost every cinematographer in New York was using Cooke Optics S4/i lenses for commercials, music videos, and independent features, this according to Aaron Medick, one of the cinematographers on Power Book III: Raising Kanan. He became lead DP in the second season for Power Book II: Ghost after starting as B camera/Steadicam operator and moving up to DP for Power, which launched the franchise for cable and streaming service Starz. And it should come as no surprise that many of the DPs on the franchise come from New York, including Power lead DP Tim Ives, ASC who also shot the pilot.
Writer-director John Michael McDonagh and cinematographer Larry Smith, ASC, BSC faced a race against time in the face of a threatening global pandemic to capture the vibrant colors and contrasting scenes of the Moroccan landscape for the feature film The Forgiven, starring Jessica Chastain, Ralph Fiennes, and Matt Smith.
The caper film The Sixth Reel tells the story of Jimmy, a New Yorker obsessed with old Hollywood, who is one of an extended community of discerning – and extremely catty – movie memorabilia collectors. When the death of a close friend unearths the long-lost final reel of a classic horror film, Jimmy and his cohorts each concoct underhanded schemes to cash in on a big sale of the film. The Sixth Reel was written and directed by Charles Busch and Carl Andress, and stars Charles Busch, Julie Halston, Margaret Cho, Tim Daly, and an ensemble cast of beloved Broadway veterans.
