On March 15th, 2014, we shot an elaborate test with Cooke Optics’ new anamorphic prime lens set. Cooke chairman Les Zellan accompanied the first production set of these new lenses – he was with us during the entire shoot. The set will eventually be 7 lenses – but currently the only ones in existence are the ones we shot with: 32mm, 40mm, 50mm, 75mm. All lenses have a maximum stop of T2.3. This test film is currently being screened at NAB in Las Vegas at the Cooke booth as well.
Three tests had been shot prior to ours – in Paris, London and New York. We were trying to do something different than what had already been done, this is what motivated our choices for what we shot and how we shot it. My long time friend and fellow DP Adam Marsden co-shot it with me. My partner Francis Luta came up with the concept and directed.
Shot in 3K on the Arri Alex XT 4:3 sensor camera – in 4:3 mode. We shot 444 ProRes except for the slo motion shots, which we shot using Arri XT Codex Cards. Redlab onlined our edit for us in 2K. Cooke Optics has the 2K P3 projection file available for download to those who want it as well as a ProRes HQ 1920×1080 Quicktime.
NDIR’s were used to achieve T2.3 in the daylight exterior scenes. No other filtration was used or diopters, etc. No VFX manipulation was done either – everything you see is in-camera, aside from standard grading techniques such as colour and exposure tweaking. Grading was done on a Lustre system.
Lighting was extremely minimal. For the first interior scenes in the workshop – it was all practical lights and one 1×1 LED Litepanel. In Chinatown at night at the end, it was all available light except for one hand held Rosco 1×1 LitePad (daylight) with 1/2 CTO gel
Take a look at the test here…
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Here is a gallery of behind the scenes stills I shot on the day:
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