Search for lenses, articles and help
‘The Crown’ was first released on Netflix in November 2016. Created by Peter Morgan the series chronicles the reign of Queen Elizabeth II from 1947 to 2005. After six seasons and three rounds of casting the epic drew to a close at the end of 2023.
Throughout its run the show has been widely acclaimed for its exceptional quality and attention to detail. High production value, deliberate and often restrained camerawork along with nuanced and sensitive performances have proven to be a winning combination.
Paramount to the show’s success is cinematographer Adriano Goldman ASC, BSC, ABC who, across eight years, has shot twenty-eight of the shows sixty episodes. Goldman has garnered many awards and nominations for his work, twice winning the Primetime Emmy Award for ‘Outstanding Cinematography for a Single Camera Series (One-Hour)’ for “Beryl” (Season 2, Episode 4) and “Fairytale” (Season 4, Episode 3).
Goldman was invited to join the show in 2015 by Peter Morgan and Stephen Daldry with whom he begun to research and set the tone. With the first season beginning shortly after the Second World War, London was to be depicted as being in rough shape and slightly run down – the opposite approach usually employed for period dramas. Goldman’s principals were to keep the show grounded and to make the Royal Family look like real people with their own issues and dilemmas. The lighting style was to be realistic and framing to remain objective with a muted colour pallet.
“We really want to be able to feel the dust and feel the characters and the fabric. So I’d always rely on sources that I’d believe. There’s always a little bit of haze because we don’t want the Cinderella look – we don’t want the super glossy period look.”
With Emmy Consideration season fast approaching Netflix recently shared an inside look of Goldman’s work and approach across the six seasons. (video at the bottom of this article)
Goldman’s stylistic choices lend the show a sense of consistency, an impressive feat over so many years of production. Knowing that creator Morgan was going to recast every two seasons to reflect the changing eras that are depicted Goldman allowed himself the opportunity to explore different lens options throughout the shows six season run but in a way that was delicate and never invasive.
In general he opted for lenses that roughly came from the time period depicted. This included the Cooke S2/S3 Speed Panchro for the first two seasons and Cooke S4 lenses for the final two. The Cooke Cinetal MarkIII 25-250mm T3.7 Zoom was also utilised on multiple occasions. The same imager format size and presentation aspect ratio (2.0:1) were used throughout the entire run.
The show delves into the stories behind historical events and along with his collaborators Goldman saw value in bringing a new angle and perspective to the history rather than getting overwhelmed with accuracy – the work on the series was never documentary esque.
When it came to lighting Goldman aimed to “deliver a free set for actors and my director. So it looks like it should look. It’s the opposite of having a lot of flags and stands and heads and, you know, this crammed kind of set.”
Goldman concludes that “The Crown changed my life. Really, I mean, it changed everything for me. I now see many other shows that try to deliver the same sort of lighting quality. We’ve been very influential as well in terms of how you frame period dramas. So I’m really proud of what we did.”
