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Lens/Camera Information
Lens series: Cooke Panchro/i Classic FF
Focus lengths: 18, 25, 32, 50, 75, 135
Camera: ARRI Alexa Mini LF
Format: Digital
Production information
Director of Photography: Billy Abbott
DOP Instagram: @justbillyabbott
Director: Charlotte Meling
DOP website: billyabbottdop.com
Colourist: Nielsan Bohl
Producers: James Haslam, Lucy Percival
Production company: Window Zebra Media
Post production company: The Quarry
Distributer: Nettwerk Music Group
Director Charlotte Meling enjoys the human stories that pass many of us by. In this, she wanted to tell the story of one moment that changes the course for a grief-stricken father and his talented-dancer daughter. We wanted to lend a different look to a ballet-focussed video and as opposed to this being a love letter to dance, we looked to ground this in reality with texture and emotive beats hit by Natascha Mair and her ‘younger-self’ Sienna Suter.
We shot the majority of the promo on an Alexa Mini LF with Cooke Panchro/i Classic FF lenses; which provide an organic, textured, gentle palette with pleasing skin tones that are a sure-fire way to create warm naturalism. The large-format sensor was mandatory for our approach of needing wider angles in tight spaces and delivering in 2.39:1, without which we could not have celebrated some of the amazing locations.
I used the 18mm and 32mm a lot on this video, the celebratory steadicam moment of Natascha dancing in the ballroom for the opening of the crescendo is a fantastic example of the Cooke lenses benefitting from a colour palette of golds, oranges, pinks and whites – it really did make the scene stand out.
No matter the amount of testing you do, there’s always a moment on set where you realise ‘so this is what it’s going to look like’. On music videos you’re often moving quickly with stretched resources and this was no different. We were light on our feet with a leaner crew and an exclusively-LED lighting package, and a set of lenses that I intrinsically trust to provide character and grace.
