Kneecap

Lens information:
Lens series: Cooke Anamorphic/i 2x
Focal Lengths: 25mm/32mm/40mm/50mm/65mm/75mm/100mm/135mm
Non-Cooke lens: Fujinon 18-85mm Premier
Camera: Sony Venice 2
Format: Digital
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1

Production information:
Director of Photography: Ryan Kernaghan
DOP website: https://www.ryankernaghan.co.uk/
DOP instagram: ryan_kernaghan
Producer: Trevor Birney
Director: Rich Peppiatt
Colourist: Ciara Gallogly
Production company: Fine Point Films, Naughty Step
Rental company: Sunbelt Rentals
Distributer: Curzon (UK)
IMDB: Kneecap
Agent websites: United Talent , Wizzo&Co.
Awards: Sundance Film Festival Next Audience Award 2024, Galway Film Festival, [Audience award, Best Irish Film, Best Irish Language film]

The correct partnership of camera and lenses was incredibly important to us on Kneecap. The visual language of the film is highly stylised and playful so our choice of lenses had to support that. We chose to go with anamorphic lenses as the out of focus textures and falloff lent themselves to the subtle separation from reality that we were trying to create. The Cooke Anamorphic/i lenses have a painterly falloff around the edge of the image, which we loved, but they also flare in a controlled way which was important to us as we had so many hard lighting sources in the frame throughout the film. The Sony Venice 2 was a great partner to the Cookes – the camera creates a gorgeous image but its dual-iso function allowed us a great deal of control in the many low-light situations we were faced with. We had the freedom to shoot at 3200asa and stop the lens down to achieve a deeper plane of focus or choose to use the falloff and flare characteristics of the lens as a creative tool by going wide open. We were delighted by what the lenses did for us in bringing the world of Kneecap to life.