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The Saudi Cup Opening Film

The life of a Race horse called "Al Aliya"

“Shooting anamorphic with the Alexa Mini LF at Open Gate gave us a wider field of view yet we still had a shallow depth of field even at the high focal lengths, I shot wide open because I believe when you do that, you start to see the lens character, and this series is partially beautiful.”Bandar Al Abdi, Director of Photography

Shot on Cooke Anamorphic/i FF – The Saudi Cup

Lens/Camera Information
Lens series: Anamorphic/i FF
Focus lengths: 32, 40, 50, 75, 100
Camera: Arri Alexa Mini LF
Format: Digital
Rental company: Final Cut Equipped

Director of Photography: Bandar Al Abdi
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Production Information
Production: Saudi Cup (Al Alyaa) Opening Film
Directors: Anthony Chamoun
Producers: Diana Maghrabi
Colourist: Gradepunk
Production Company: Made in Saudi Films
Distributor: Made in Saudi Films

DOP Bandar Al Abdi on the lens of his choice:

When the director and I discussed the look of the film, I decided to go with Cooke FF Anamorphics as they had everything we wanted for the project.

Shooting anamorphic with the Alexa Mini LF at Open Gate gave us a wider field of view yet we still had a shallow depth of field even at the high focal lengths, I shot wide open because I believe when you do that, you start to see the lens character, and this series is partially beautiful. The locations are full of mixed texture surfaces, sand, trees, rocks, and mud buildings, and the lenses truly captured it in a sympathetic way especially, wide open these lenses don’t flare with a streaked line, which I and the director are not a fan of, it has a very unique oval rainbow flare which felt natural to us. Additionally, the halation, bokeh, and contrast the lenses delivered, suited the environments that we were trying to capture,

The timeline of the film extends from past to present, and the lenses gave us the best of both worlds.

In terms of lighting, we truly tried to time the scenes as best as we could. For example the scene of the old guy cheering for the warriors coming back from the battle was intentionally shot at noon so we can see him resting under the shadow of a tree from a long journey if you will. The most difficult thing was to work with the horses, to be honest.