THE EXCHANGE
We grill Kevin Greene, technical director EMEA at Panavision, on what filmmakers really want from their lenses, how virtual production is reshaping design priorities and why the future of optics still depends on the human touch
DEFINITION: WHAT WOULD YOU SAY IS THE DRIVING FORCE GENERATING INNOVATION IN THE WORLD OF CINE LENSES RIGHT NOW, AND DO YOU THINK WE’RE LIKELY TO SEE ANY MAJOR SHIFTS IN OPTICAL DESIGN OVER THE NEXT FEW YEARS? KEVIN GREENE: The variety of native aspect ratios represented by modern digital sensors has certainly been a factor, particularly for anamorphic lenses. When 35mm film was the dominant capture format, the 2x
squeeze was standard for anamorphic lenses. Today, though, to give filmmakers greater flexibility both artistically and technically when working with modern imagers – as well as needing to meet the technical requirements of studios or VFX – we offer 1.3x, 1.6x and 1.85x squeezes. For example, our most recent lens series, the Ultra Panatar IIs, offer a 1.3x that harks back to the 1.25x squeeze of Panavision’s very first anamorphic optics from the fifties. These ratios allow filmmakers to maximise the effective pixels within a sensor’s native aspect ratio, while achieving the desired release
TEAMING UP Panavision’s lens designs take notes from DOPs like Wicked’s Alice Brooks
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