QUINN XCII - STACY

Lens/Camera Information
Lens series: Cooke Anamorphic/i SF
Focus length: 40mm, 75mm, 100mm
Original Aspect Ratio: 2:39
Cameras: ARRI ALEXA Mini
Format: Digital
Rental Company: Becine http://becine.com

DOP Information
Director of Photography: Julia Swain http://juliaswain.net
Agent: WPA https://wp-a.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/juliaswain
Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/juliaswain
Twitter: https://twitter.com/juliaswain

Production Information
Production: QUINN XCII – STACY
Producer: Blythe Thomas
Production Company: Dreambear x Teenager

DOP  Julia Swain on her camera and lens choices
“I shot STACY for a dear friend of mine, Blythe Thomas, who is a lens fanatic like myself. We’re always very intentional with our choice of lenses on every project. Each set evokes different feelings and connects with different narrative tones for us. We had discussed a few different options before quickly agreeing that the Cooke SF Anamorphics were right for this. We knew STACY was going to have a nostalgic narrative to it — a lot of Blythe’s references were films from the 90’s and early 2000’s. Therefore, we needed glass that rendered color really beautifully on a camera system that did the same — the ALEXA Mini. The narrative scenes were ultimately a bit desaturated and then Quinn’s performance retained a lot of the natural color captured. The SF lenses also present a really nice texture. They have character to them but not so much quirk that I can’t use them on a more commercial job. At the same time, they aren’t crisp and sterile. The video is a story about two separate worlds and distance so the aspect ratio anamorphic offered was also ideal. The SF’s do this without any noticeable softening at the edges of the frame.

Their flares are truly one of their most wonderful aspects. They go beyond what the other Cooke Anamorphic lenses do. The flares are thicker and more pronounced and it’s not hard to create one in frame. At the same time, they aren’t overpowering to the overall image and their flares don’t overly saturate like I’ve seen on other lenses before. Instead they feel natural and organic while being a bit bolder than average.

I shot with only three focal lengths — 40mm, 75mm and 100mm — and I can’t remember specifically using the 100mm except for maybe our actresses’ closeups at night which were meant to be abstract and dreamy. I love every focal length of the SF’s but usually don’t need very many, especially on something like STACY where we needed to be able to shoot entire rooms and roll a lot of footage without breaking. We did this whole video in a day and when moving this quickly I always just pick a few favorite lengths and stick to them. The SF’s were perfectly versatile for this. We captured wides and could move in, all steadicam, for closer moments.

The Cooke SF Anamorphics truly delivered what we wanted creatively and technically for this project.”