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NEWS INTERVIEW
“Interestingly the first two uses of the camera were extremely cold with dangerous outdoor conditions and extremely hot underwater conditions,” continues Andrew. “It was a real test for the system and bar a couple of minor hiccups, the camera just did the job and that was when we realised we had something we could trust and rely on, but also from seeing Revenant material we suddenly realised that this is an interesting format to shoot narratively on, not just a VFX camera. “Chivo kept that camera; he was going to use it for a week or two and then we just never got it back. What I think he discovered, which a lot of other cinematographers discovered, was that ‘yes it is a wonderful format for 70mm for the big vistas’, which he used it for. There is a famous shot in the movie of Leo DiCaprio walking in this massive area and he is just this small speck. He realised, as others did, that in the ALEXA 65 you have a camera that is not only for the physical landscape of the earth but the facial landscape. Bradford Young, DOP on Solo describes it as ‘exploring the landscape of the face’. “That’s where the large-format side of the system comes in to play; you can use longer lenses to get a much wider angle of view,” says Andrew. “So a 35mm lens on a 35mm
this new LED lighting technology. As a filmmaker, I just think we’re entering into this new world of very interesting technology.”
camera is a medium wide. A 35mm lens on the ALEXA 65 is basically a 17mm. So you are getting a 17mm field of view with the qualities and telephoto perspective of a 35mm lens. Which is the same as medium format stills photography. That’s the interesting part and although we knew that, until we had put the camera in the hands of cinematographers who came to understand that too, we just didn’t know fully what was going on. That’s when it took off. That was when, for example, Greig Fraser started testing it for Rogue One .” Talking about shooting with the ALEXA 65, Greig says: “The format is something that I’m quite passionate about, especially in conjunction with
ABOVE ARRI ALEXA 65 on set with Greig Fraser. BELOW The full set of ARRI Signature prime lenses for the new LF camera.
ROGUE ONE IN MEDIUM FORMAT
DOP Greig Fraser used to shoot medium-format stills and so when he got his hands on the ALEXA 65, he got very excited. To him the 65 was the medium-format equivalent motion picture camera. “What he was seeing, as were other early adopters like Bob Richardson and Stuart Dryburgh with The Great Wall ,” continues Andrew, “were images that were not only much higher resolution, thanks to ALEXA’s pixel quality and low
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