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ARRI TECH TALK Live

The ARRI Academy now offers bi-weekly virtual events which allow you to expand your technical know-how and get useful tips and tricks for ARRI products directly from their team of experts. Short, on point, and with the possibility to interact with their experts via their chat function.

You can find out more about the ARRI Academy virtual events now by clicking here.

Fujifilm Press Conference: Premista Update

At least in terms of Motion picture tradeshows and seminars, it's beginning to look like 2020 will be something of a lost year. A case in point is that Fujifilm/Fujinon had planned to make certain statements regarding their large-format zooms at this year’s Cine Gear in Los Angeles, which was first scheduled for June, then backed up to October, and now appears to be canceled altogether.

Ersan Koyluoglu and Hideyuki Kasai

No slouches in the press conference department however, Fujifilm/Fujinon handled the cancellation of the NAB earlier this year by holding a press conference on their new 8K zooms aimed for the television Industry, and now, updates regarding Fujifilm’s large format Premista zooms, intended to be presented at Cine Gear, are communicated to us through an online press conference instead.

Both Premista zooms are compact and equally balanced.

Fujifilm representatives Hideyuki Kasai, Product Manager FUJIFILM Optical Devices Europe, and Ersan Koyluoglu, Nordic Key Account Manager Optical Devices, have kindly invited us to this press conference, which Mr. Kasai opens by giving a historical overview of the evolution of Fujifilm’s Cinema lens portfolio.

It all began back in 1999 when Fujifilm started making cinema lenses for the first generation digital cinema cameras which had just emerged on the scene. Those lenses were very well-received indeed, and a full twenty years later two large-format Premista zooms were introduced at the 2019 Cine Gear in Los Angeles.

These zooms cover the traditional Vistavision format, which was developed in the 1950s for 35mm film production as an alternative to anamorphic lenses and 65 mm film, and this is actually also how these zooms got their name.

One of Fujifilm’s very successful lines of motion picture lenses were called the Premier series. ”So”, Mr. Kasai explains, "we stole the name ’Premier’ from ourselves and made a Portmanteau word of ’Premier’ plus ’Vistavision’ -and wound up with ’Premista’. When designing the Premista zooms”, he continues, "some of our objectives which we aimed for -and achieved- were 'No breathing', the zooms should also be telecentric, and we wanted them to cut well with the most popular prime lenses on the market”.

The Premistas have been well-received indeed, and many rental houses in Europe now already own Premista zooms. The situation is similar in the US as well, and the Chinese market is growing steadily.

Compared to competing large format zooms, the Premistas are more compact and weigh less –which gives them an edge for work on car commercials and helicopter work, for instance. You want a compact lens if you’re going to mount it in gimbals and ”Shot Over” rigs etc. And the Premistas’ modest weight means the largest drones can handle them also.

Contrast and sharpness like a prime lens, as well as a very cinematic look, were some other targets which Fujifilm aimed for when designing the Premista zooms.

They also aimed at keeping unwanted light bouncing around inside of the lens at a minimum, since this is detrimental to the black level -you lose several stops at the bottom of your dynamic range -which is of course terrible news if you’re aiming for HDR imagery. This potential stray light is ingeniously cut off mechanically by small black ridges inside the lens!

Additionally, the iris inside a Premista zoom is constructed with thirteen blades, resulting in beautiful bokeh and great care has also been taken to avoid "onion rings" in out-of-focus highlights, through the use of aspherical glass surfaces.

One can rest assured the Premistas will cover an awful lot of sensors out there, certainly the majority of popular LF cameras. For instance, a few projects have used Premista zooms with the Alexa 65 in 5K 16:9 mode.

Additionally, you can obviously also shoot 35mm film -up to Vistavision format- with the Premistas!

Flange focus adjustment is traditionally handled on cine zooms by adding or subtracting shims at the lens mount, which is not something you’d want to do in the field. On the Premistas, flange focus adjustment can easily be done by just loosening a hexagonal key and adjusting flange focus with the green ring near the zoom's lens mount.

The Premistas also deliver extended lens data. Not many cameras on the market can handle this, so for instance a Transvideo Starlight can be employed as a separate unit to record the metadata.

Last but not least, luminous paint has been used for the lens markings on these zooms, so you’ll easily see for instance what focal length you’re at in dim lighting conditions.

Additional advantages for a film crew -especially if on a production where time is at a premium- is that the zoom range of a Premista will give you the same option of focal lengths as eight prime lenses. If you don’t need the speed (T 1,8 etc) this could be a valuable asset for the production, being able to shoot seamlessly without having to change lenses, which can be valuable time saver.

Keeping an eye on the horizon, Fujifilm/Fujinon are also making sure their zooms will be compatible with upcoming new camera models in the pipeline, both in terms of sensor coverage and lens mount compatibility. For instance, the RED Komodo 6K is a model which will become available to film crews in the near future, and the MK zooms will be compatible with this camera by using a replacement mount soon to be released by one of Fujifilm's partners.

Lars Pettersson FSF

Sony Asks For Feedback From Cinematographers

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IMAGO sponsor Sony has invited all IMAGO members to participate in their short camera survey in order to provide feedback on current needs and usage of today's cameras. Sony has highlighted the importance of the views & thoughts of cinematographers to help shape their future camera designs.

This survey takes no longer than 7 minutes to complete and is a unique opportunity for you to give feedback to Sony´s development team.

You can complete the survey now by clicking here.

Sony treat data collected from you in accordance with Sony's privacy policy. To review this privacy policy, please visit https://www.sony.co.uk/eu/pages/privacy/en_GB/privacy_policy.html

If you have any technical difficulties in taking this survey, please contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

New Mentoring Scheme For Cinematographers

The British Society of Cinematographers, Association of Camera Operators and ScreenSkills have come together to create a brand new mentoring programme. The new initiative has been exclusively designed to provide support to cinematographers & camera operators from groups who are under-represented in the screen industries.

The programme will become part of the ScreenSkills Mentoring Network supported by the BFI, awarding National Lottery funds, as part of its Future Film Skills strategy.

Award-winning directors of photography and camera operators from the membership of the BSC and ACO in the UK will mentor 20 individuals in the inaugural round of the programme developed by the BSC education committee with ScreenSkills.

Mentees who wish to be considered should apply here by 8 July. BSC and ACO members will have a dedicated process for volunteering and will be involved in the matching process with a mentee. They can request access to this mentor registration form by contacting This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

You can find out more about the mentoring scheme & how to apply by clicking here.

Screenskills 2

IMAGO members elect Kees van Oostrum ASC NSC SBC AIC as new IMAGO President

Current IMAGO President Paul René Roestad FNF intended to step down at the recent IMAGO Annual General Assembly in Brussels in March. Due to the rapidly arriving Covid-19 situation, the election of our new President had to be postponed but has now been realized by electronic voting.

And so, we're absolutely delighted to share the news that Kees van Oostrum ASC NSC SBC AIC is to become IMAGO´s new President.

Kees van Oostrum was born in the Netherlands and lives partly in Los Angeles and in Brussels. Van Oostrum has, in addition to being active both as a cinematographer and educator, been the President of the American Society of Cinematographers (ASC) from 2016 to 2020. In this period the ASC expanded their activities significantly, not only in the field of education, but also focused on working conditions and authorship issues.

During van Oostrum´s presidential leadership, the ASC intensified international collaboration, and joined IMAGO facilitating international initiatives, at Camerimage and other locations. His aim has been to globalize the ASC and his view is; that only through international collaboration and solidarity between cinematographers, can we hope to successfully reach important common goals.

The outcome of Kees van Oostrum´s international work resulted in the ASC becoming a full member of IMAGO.

Kees van Oostrum wishes to intensify communication between the IMAGO leadership and its many members. He intends to further develop IMAGO´s educational activities, both for cinematographers and cinematography students. Kees van Oostrum supports the Board´s view of an expanded IMAGO Board, which we hope will be voted for by the IMAGO members and increase the number of annual Board meetings by more extensive use of digital solutions reducing travel expenses. Van Oostrum is committed to strengthening IMAGO´s various important Committees and envisions full transparency in all areas of IMAGO. He will commit to IMAGO´s strong focus on working conditions and authorship rights for cinematographers.

You can read Kees van Oostrum´s full statement by clicking here.

Paul René Roestad FNF says; "the cultural-political visions of Kees van Oostrum, his long experience from leading a significant Cinematographer´s Society, and not least his vast international contact network will be a great asset for IMAGO´s future development.

Van Oostrum has valuable and important experience with societies´ support and financing matters, experiences I trust will be utilized also for IMAGO. During his presidential period in the ASC the society´s income more than doubled.

Alongside him, van Oostrum will have the experienced team of IMAGO Board members, Luciano Tovoli AIC ASC, Ron Johanson ACS, Elen Lotman ESC, Predrag Bambic SAS and Alex Lindén FSF. Support will also include our legal and author’s rights advisor; Cristina Busch, IMAGO Treasurer Roger Simonsz BSC, Financial controller Viola Laske BVK and social media, website & newsletter editor, Oli Parry.

An excellent team, that in collaboration with strong support from IMAGO members globally, will bring IMAGO giant leaps forward in the years to come."

Paul René Roestad FNF continues...

"My period as IMAGO President has not only been highly interesting, it has been a privilege and an honor. The many fantastic colleagues I have met, friends I have gained and the many good experiences has highly enriched my life and will continue to do so.

My warm thanks goes to my fabulous colleagues in the IMAGO Board and administration, and not least to the central Board and administration members also stepping down, Louis Philippe Capelle SBC, Tony Costa AIP, Nina Kellgren BSC and Rolf Coulanges BVK. Their contribution to IMAGO has been invaluable! I believe it is fair to say that the Board and the administration, in good collaboration and with hard work, have brought IMAGO a good and positive step forward.

I would also like to thank all previous Presidents and Boards who have been in office from the day Luciano Tovoli, together with AIC, BSC, AFC and BVK, founded IMAGO in 1992. They all have unilaterally used their valuable time and energy to build up this fantastic and important Federation to where it is today.

My recognition also goes towards IMAGO´s more than 4.500 members, who loyally support IMAGO, and to all our most valuable industry sponsors and partners.

Together, IMAGO, our staff, members and partners, have been and are a “hell of a team”, and with the challenges that face us, this team is more needed by international cinematographers than ever before.

I thank you all for a fantastic journey. I will, of course, strongly keep supporting IMAGO in every way I can, where the Board and new President finds it valuable, so as long as I can stand on my two feet.

To you all, I thank you warmly!"

kees van oostrum1

Newly-elected IMAGO President, Kees van Oostrum

Report from IMAGO's Technical Committee

COVID-19 has created a huge crisis in our community with terrible consequences for many of us. IMAGO is deeply concerned by the situation which strikes each country with different levels of casualties.

One thing that is for sure is that it will certainly create, in the coming months, different approaches to working on set. We believe that the IMAGO Technical Committee (ITC) could learn from different local experiences and share information and technologies that can help crews in facing this crisis.

With the many future collective challenges facing cinematographers, international collaboration through IMAGO is more important than ever, as is also the highly important work of the IMAGO Technical Committee.

ITC Image 2

IMAGO ITC conference at last Camerimage, attended by ARRI, Blackmagic Design, Canon, Panasonic, Panavision, RED, Sony, FilmLight, Cooke Optics, Fujinon, Servicevision and Zeiss.

ITC would like to present some news about one of its recent activities. In November 2019, at Camerimage, we succeeded in gathering numerous manufacturers to present the analysis of the survey ”Requests to Manufacturers” that we launched two years earlier.

Firstly, we would like to thank each association and their administrators who helped us in carrying out this survey. More than 600 cinematographers and other technicians replied to this survey and gave us valuable input through more than 13000 responses.

Below is a link to the survey results:

https://www.imago.org/index.php/technical/item/986-analysis-of-the-survey-requests-to-manufacturers.html

We would also like to share the IMAGO Technical Committee report which you can read by clicking here. This was meant to be shared at the IAGA meeting in Brussels this March and which has now revised after the pandemic lockdown...

You will find, at the end of this, the list of members and associate members of the ITC.

The ITC is active in self-isolation mode. Weekly team discussions and even more frequent direct contacts between ITC members have become a habit, at a time when the overwhelming majority of projects have been stopped.

Currently, the results of the study ”Requests to Manufacturers” are being actively discussed and new steps are being prepared:

- Publication of research results.

- Communicating the results to manufacturers and publishing conclusions.

- Creating a mechanism for monitoring and analysing the interaction with manufacturers and the accomplishments achieved.

- Preparing a list of topics for ITC’s next research.

One of the requested topics: ”MEANINGS OF WORDS” is currently being worked on. The objective of this project is to unify and streamline the technical terminology in film production.

As a first step, we selected about 20 terms, that we consider being technically fundamental and present in our daily professional work, terms like “pixel, photosite, definition, sensitivity, color space” and so on.

ITC IMAGE 1

The IMAGO Technical Committee has members from all around the World, and those not being able to attend meetings physically, attend by Skype. Here Dave Stump ASC speaking to Juan A. Fernandez AEC and Patrick Lindenmaier SCS. In the background Philippe Ros AFC, Mick van Rossum NSC and Daniele Siragusano (FilmLight).

All these terms used with a certain ambiguity or are commonly misused in technical papers, specifications, manuals, and marketing brochures. This leads to confusion in our communications, especially in the growing world of international co-productions.

Our next step will be to deliver these terms to representatives from the manufacturing community, with a request for help in defining them.

We believe cinematographers must share a common ground with the suppliers of their tools regarding the technical parameters, specifications, and workflows for image acquisition and post-production.

The results of this project will be important in the everyday life of working cinematographers, camera crew members, DITs, postproduction specialists, and in the educational process at film schools.

The final results will be translated into all languages of member guilds and IMAGO associations and published on the IMAGO website.

The ITC has grown, we currently have 25 countries represented in the committee, but we still would like to have even more input from cinematographers from additional countries.

IMAGO Technical Committee:

Active Members

Aleksej Berkovic (RGC)                                 Russia
John Daly (BSC)                                             United Kingdom
Mario Costa (AIP)                                           Portugal
Joe Dunton (BSC) (MBE)                               United Kingdom
Juan Antonio Fernandez (AEC)                     Spain
Stefan Grandrinetti (BVK)                              Germany

Kommer Klejin (SBC)                                     Belgium
Zekeriyat Kurtulus (GYD)                               Turkey
Edward Lachman (ASC)                               USA

Alex Linden (FSF) (co-chairman)                   Sweden
Patrick Lindenmaier (CSC)                            Switzerland
Jannicke Mikkelsen (FNF)                              Norway
Alfonso Parra (ADFC)                                    Colombia

Andres Holcke Petersen (DFF)                      Denmark
Claire Pijman (NSC)                                       Netherlands
Philippe Ros (AFC) (co-chairman)                 France
John Christian Rosenlund (FNF)                   Norway
Mick van Rossum (NSC)                                Netherlands
Roberto Schaefer (ASC) (AIC)                       USA

Alex Sterian (RSC) Romania
Dave Stump (ASC) (co-chairman) USA

Ivar Taim (ESC) Estonia
Piet de Vries (ACS) Australia

Associate Members

Dirk Meier (colourist) (BVK) Germany

Charles Poynton PhD Colour scientist Canada

We are at your disposal to discuss further collaboration and looking forward to hearing from you.

Co-Chairs of the IMAGO Technical Committee

Alex Linden FSF (+46) 70 715 8017 @: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. president FSF/Sweden

Philippe Ros AFC, (+33) 6 61 45 84 72 @: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. France

David Stump ASC +1 (323) 363-6025 @: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. USA