ZEISS Cinematography

If you have watched “Eric” on Netflix, you might have asked yourself: “How did they achieve that shot of Benedict Cumberbatch inside of the puppet?” Well, we asked ourselves exactly that and discussed it with cinematographer Benedict Spence, BSC in our interview. “It was one of the last things we shot. It took a lot of work because we had to create a custom rig. We had to use the real Eric costume. He had to wear it, and we had to strap a camera to him, whilst making it feel like he was being lit through the costume, and so he could stand around with it. We built and tested it in Budapest with Olly Taylor, the lead puppeteer, and it worked. We flew that rig over to New York and hired it for about two months across the whole New York dates until the very end of the schedule in New York. We tested it again, put it together, and then on the shoot day, it was ready to go with Benedict Cumberbatch. I mean, it's a very personal thing because we were strapping it to him, and it's quite heavy. It was just an Alexa Mini with, I think, a 29mm Supreme Prime. The Eric cushion and head went on top of him. We took the face off, and we put lights through gauze. We shot it in a studio: we had some big ultra bounces and a bit of hard lights to push through to make it feel like the puppet's mouth or eyes were allowing the light through. And then of course with all this stuff on him in a studio, good old Benedict Cumberbatch had to act like he was on a stage talking to his son. As always, when it appears quite simple on the screen, it actually required a lot of prep to make it work and to make it look and feel right. And also, a lot of work from the actor to emotionally be on the stage talking to his son who's gone missing five episodes before. I think it turned out really well, but it took an obscene amount of talking to get to the place where it works. We probably worked on it for about two months.” You can read the whole interview here: https://lnkd.in/eZwE_iAY

If you are in the Los Angeles area on August 1st, then come join us for an exciting evening of all things Nano Prime! Get ready to dive into the making of the "We Regret to Inform You," shot for Sony Cine by Jack Schurman. This in-person event will be held at the ZEISS Cinema Showroom, where you'll indulge in delicious bites and beer while you listen to a live ZEISS Conversations interview conducted by Matthew Duclos of Duclos Lenses. He and Jack will talk about the creative and technical aspects of the new ZEISS Nano Prime lens family. Don't miss out on this unique chance to get up close and personal with the new Nanos during hands-on demos thoughout the evening with the ZEISS team. You can register here: https://lnkd.in/eM9u78MB We can't wait to see you at ZEISS Conversations Live!

After "The End of the F***ing World" in 2019 and "This Is Going to Hurt" in 2022, colorist Toby Tomkins was back hands on the trackballs in the grading suite at Harbor Picture Company with Benedict Spence, BSC and Lucy Forbes for "Eric". Read our interview on LENSPIRE: https://lnkd.in/egx3NWhm Photos: ©Netflix

“The Garden” is a Nano Prime beauty reel shot at Garden 91 in Taipei City by Director/DP Frank Chan. As seasoned commercial director, Frank has been exclusively using Supreme Primes on his projects since 2018. "Supremes accurately capture what we see with our eyes, and this is the No.1 criteria when I choose lenses. So, I was very curious to see how the Nano Primes would perform." "Exposure level and lighting quality absolutely determine grading possibility, so I aim to correct everything I can before camera. For this project I teamed up with Gaffer Chuan Yu Su, lights were kept minimal, always bounced, or diffused to avoid harsh shadows on the actress’ profile and shot without any optical filters to bring out the true nature of the lenses." While working on many commercials, Frank’s personal passion is to shoot documentaries illustrating local history and culture. This film is a nice example of bridging his profession and passion, as he strikes a fine balance of being a lens reel, yet the viewers are led by actress Nong Chou through the tranquil garden, enjoying the décor, art objects, and the Taipei city view. "I wanted to see how they render under real life conditions. I scripted to use all 6 focal lengths, and shot at wider apertures to emphasize the focus and bokeh characteristics. I am pleasantly surprised to see a very clean and faithful-to-subject Supreme look in such a small package. " "We used a Sony FX3 and with the Nanos we could keep the camera package very compact and light. The high ISO sensitivity was a perfect match for the Nano’s fast T1.5 aperture, opening new possibilities of shooting under dark conditions. This experience proved me that Nanos are perfect when shooting fast and light, while making no compromise on image quality. " Director/DP: Frank Chan Gaffer: Chuan Yu Su Best Boy: Hou En Wang 1st AC: Allen Lin 2nd AC: Yu Hsuan Yang, Yi Kai Chiu C-PAN Arm II Operator: Jeff Hsiao Starring: Nong Chou Editing: Funky Joe Grading: Po Hsun Chi Post-Production: Digimax Production Assistant: Ting Chen, Mickey Chen Production Management: Joraku Equipment serviced by HaoHao Film, 9.Solutions, Nextorage Hope Content Marketing, GVM LED, Sony Professional Taiwan

We're thrilled to be participating in CVP's Summer Kit Fest 2024 that will take place across four Fitzrovia locations next week on Wednesday and Thursday (July 24 & 25). This will be the ultimate event with more than 50 brands showcasing their latest broadcast and video solutions. We'll be there not only with our cine lenses including the new Nano Primes but also with our CinCraft Scenario camera tracking system. So keep an eye out for the blue badge and join us for a nice demo! Admission is free. You just have to book your ticket here: https://lnkd.in/eMy7_hqT See you next week in London!

For the five-month shoot between Budapest, New York, and New Jersey for Netflix mini series "Eric", Benedict Spence, BSC, got back to the ZEISS Supreme Primes he’s used for several years and shows. He kindly took us behind the scenes of this colorful period piece, redefining what "vintage" pertains for a high-end and high expectation show. "For a little while I was thinking about vintage lenses, but I'd much rather use modern glass, and if you want a bit more grubbiness to it, filter it up. I think we worked with the 11 lens set of Supreme Primes, but we essentially shot half the series on a 29 mm. Love that lens. We shot 29, 35, 40, and that was the vast majority of the show." Read the whole interview on LENSPIRE: https://lnkd.in/eZwE_iAY Photos: ©Netflix

With his deep insight into the script and characters, and the aid of top-notch filming equipment, cinematographer Liu Yizeng brought writer Li Juan's essay collection "To the Wonder" to life as a poetic canvas. For this production, he opted for ZEISS Supreme Prime lenses and experienced a truly exceptional creative journey. "The Supreme Primes neither overly constrain the highlights, resulting in a too sharp appearance, nor allow the highlights to disperse excessively, leading to an overly retro style. This allowed me to fulfill the visual expression requirements of "To the Wonder" within a rich morphological space encompassing silhouette and half-silhouette." Read his full in-depth visual breakdown on LENSPIRE: https://lnkd.in/eRGJy-Hd

In June, our Cine Service Trainer Simon Sommer hosted ZEISS Supreme Prime and Nano Prime Certification classes at AbelCine Los Angeles and New York. Thanks to everyone who joined to learn the tricks and tools that are used in repair and upkeep as well as the process of evaluating and maintaining these lenses.

Today, ZEISS Japan in cooperation with nac Image Technology and Sony Marketing Japan, hosted an exclusive Nano Prime event at the ZEISS Tokyo office with more than 80 guests from key rental houses, production companies as well as DPs and camera assistants. Starting with opening greetings from Nac's Iwashi-san and our very own Christophe Casenave, we continued with a screening of the Nano Prime reel “Scarlet Sparkles”, followed by an in-depth session with DPs Sho Tamura and Haruyuki Takada from UPSIDE productions, and a great Nano Prime hands-on. Thanks to everyone who joined us! And a big "Thank you!" to UPSIDE, Sony and the Roland Professional A/V team for supporting this great event.

For SXSW premiering feature film “We’re All Gonna Die”, director duo Freddie Wong and Matt Arnold took Zimbabwean-South African cinematographer Bongani Mlambo on board. With only a small crew, Bongani and his directors embraced copious prep to create the visual language for the science-fiction-comedy-road-trip. The cinematographer chose ZEISS CP.3 and LWZ.3 lenses paired with Canon C300 Mark III and C70 to beautifully capture both the grief and humor of the film. Read our interview on LENSPIRE: https://lnkd.in/eNQsbnh4