Ryan Earl wrote:
I'm more interested to know why it specifically works for "Lakewood" for instance subjectively for the image and if these other productions are simply defaulting to Alexa Mini because of its utility and not doing any testing with the subject material.
Every story has specific requirements.
As a DP, my role is to tell those stories with images and to determine what best services that story with the resources I'm allowed to have or able to get. It's not a simple as Arri = good image, safe choice, what producers feel good about.
And frankly, for any good cinematographer, the camera choice is a TINY small choice amongst many many other more important choices we make to arrive at a visual approach.
Just one example. Crew.
CREW makes a bigger difference. The people you choose to work with makes far greater difference to the end result than the bit of gear you shoot with. People that obsess over equipment for progressing their careers are missing the woods for the trees.
For Lakewood, we have a real time story that involves the central character running for most of the movie. She makes a series of phone calls and has to interact with her phone with maps and FaceTime etc. We never leave her side of this story. We only hear the conversations.
She starts running in urban areas, but eventually she's on dirt roads and then small tracks and then just in the woods off the track. The film plays in real time (almost).
Think about what it means logistically to film an actors performance as they run. Think about how you would do that. How do you keep the camera stable. How do you make sure what you're using to keep it stable doesn't make noise. How does it travel down a single lane winding and bumpy dirt track with branches all over the place? How do you operate that camera so the (genuine A list) actor always is in the frame... How do you make it so that the director (a living legend well into his 60's with knee problems) can watch the image when you're doing 15 min takes and the fact you're running means your "set" is a mile long... What video transmission system can you use that works over that area? How does the focus puller stay close enough to the camera to be able to make sure that everything is not only in focus but actually working and functional.
How do you even read good performance when an actor is running... How do you make is so the actor can tell the story they need to tell while exerting themselves...
How do you light and protect your one and only actor that's always running...
How do you make your visual approach so robust you never ever waste a take for technical reasons because she can only run at most, 8 miles a day. You can't make her run for 10 hours, so how do you make your system flexible enough to be able to run a second unit where you can use picture doubles?
Literally the tip of the iceberg. On one movie. Camera choice is a teeny tiny part of those problems.
JB
*also, a very low budget film. About the same as "Festen" mentioned elsewhere here.