Set from 1913 to the early 1990s, HBO’s six-episode limited series I Know This Much is True required director Derek Cianfrance and cinematographer Jody Lee Lipes to make a choice: What would the show look like? They agreed that a cohesive, period look for the project would be the way to go as opposed to a contemporary feel–and decided that the marriage of Cooke Optics S4/i T2 prime lenses and Kodak Vision3 500T 5219 35mm film would be an ideal combination.
Mark Ruffalo, whose work on the show won him the Primetime Emmy® for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series or Movie, plays the roles of twins: middle-aged Dominick Birdsey who recounts his troubled relationship with Thomas, his paranoid schizophrenic twin brother.
“Deciding on a period look led us to 2-perf film framed for a 2:1 aspect ratio, using a small piece of the negative to give us film texture with present grain,” said Lipes. “I purposely underexposed the 1.7 million feet of film to accentuate the grain and muddiness.” That just happens to be the perfect environment for Kodak’s 5219, as it delivers high image-quality in low-light scenes, with higher signal-to-noise ratios. Teamed with the Cooke S4/i primes and Kodak 5219 were a number of ARRI Arricam LT cameras, optimized for smaller, lightweight usage in handheld mode. The kit was rented from ARRI Rental.
“The Cooke S4/i lenses give me the perfect place to land,” explained Lipes. “They don’t draw attention to themselves. They’re not distractingly soft and not super sharp, but add so much aesthetic into the filmmaking technique. I didn’t need, or want to use a lens series that added an unrealistic quality to the images – and with Derek having used the S4/i lenses in the past, he knew exactly what we would get. Having a director already know that is a really big plus.”
Using four full sets of Cooke S4/i prime lenses (each set consisting of 15 primes: 16mm, 18mm, 21mm, 25mm, 27mm, 32mm, 25mm, 40mm, 50mm, 65mm, 75mm, 100mm, 135mm, 150mm, and 180mm) is not what one would typically expect to be used on a limited series, but circumstances warranted it. “We started with two full sets of the Cooke S4/i prime lenses and four Arricam LT bodies–two 2-perf and two 3-perf (for some visual effects work)–that were all lost in a fire. It was a $4 million loss, on camera equipment alone” said Lipes. “ARRI Rental was great; we got everything replaced and we were back up and running. The transition from the first two sets of Cooke S4/i prime lenses to the second set was totally seamless. They matched perfectly.”
While zoom lenses played an important role, Lipes’ prime lenses of choice were the Cooke S4/i 35mm, 40mm and 50mm on the wider side, with the 65mm, 75mm, 100mm and 135mm lenses for long shots.
First-Time Feature Directors Make Major Splash At AFI Fest, Generate Oscar Buzz
Two first-time feature directors who are generating Oscar buzz this awards season were front and center this past weekend at AFI Fest in Hollywood. Rachel Morrison, who made history as the first woman nominated for a Best Cinematography Oscar---on the strength of Mudbound in 2018--brought her feature directorial debut, The Fire Inside (Amazon MGM Studios), to the festival on Sunday (10/27), and shared insights into the film during a conversation session immediately following the screening. This came a day after William Goldenberg, an Oscar-winning editor for Argo in 2013, had his initial foray into feature directing, Unstoppable (Amazon MGM Studios), showcased at the AFI proceedings. He too spoke after the screening during a panel discussion. The Fire Inside--which made its world premiere at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival--tells the story of Claressa “T-Rex” Shields (portrayed by Ryan Destiny), a Black boxer from Flint, Mich., who trained to become the first woman in U.S. history to win an Olympic Gold Medal in the sport. She achieved this feat--with the help of coach Jason Crutchfield (Brian Tyree Henry)--only to find that her victory at the Summer Games came with relatively little fanfare and no endorsement deals. So much for the hope that the historic accomplishment would be a ticket out of socioeconomic purgatory for Shields and her family. It seemed like yet another setback in a cycle of adversity throughout Shields’ life but she persevered, going on to win her second Gold Medal at the next Olympics and becoming a champion for gender equality and equitable pay for women in sports. Shields has served as a source of inspiration for woman athletes worldwide--as well as to the community of... Read More