Cinematographer Paulo Perez, ADFC, chose Cooke® Anamorphic/i FF SF (Full Frame Special Flair) lenses to capture the wide vistas of Mexico in the new Latin-Western series, La Cabeza de Joaquín Murrieta (The Head of Joaquín Murrieta).
In 1851, the newly established border between Mexico and the USA is the setting for a conflict fueled by the anger and xenophobia caused by the Mexican-American War. A group of immigrants forge the myth of the Latin Robin Hood, Joaquín Murrieta. La Cabeza de Joaquín Murrieta was created by Mauricio Leiva-Cock and Diego Ramírez-Schrempp, directed by David Pablos (episodes 1-4) and Humberto Hinojosa (episodes 5-8). The series was produced by Dynamo Productions and Amazon Studios.
Writing began in 2019 and Perez kept in close contact with the writers while working on other projects, all the while visualizing the concept. In 2021, as principal photography was about to start, cinematographer Ximena Amann joined the team and alongside Perez developed the visual narrative for the series.
“We very much wanted to shoot anamorphically to really capture the space and the beautiful landscape. We had to fight for it because some companies don’t like the anamorphic aspect ratio, but Amazon allowed me to do it in full anamorphic,” Perez said. “I love the compositions you can achieve, not just of vistas but you can have three, four, five people in the frame talking to each other, and framing in different layers… it’s so beautiful and cinematic. And if you need more choices, you only need two or three more shots, no more than that.”
Perez chose to pair the Cooke lenses with two ARRI ALEXA Mini LF full frame cameras.
