Arri-news 2014

Cinematographer Bradford Young braves the cold while shooting A Most Violent Year with ALEXA and ARRI/ZEISS Master Anamorphic lenses MASTER ANAMORPHICS IN WINTER A thriller set in New York in the winter of 1981, when crime in the city was rife, A Most Violent Year was directed by J.C. Chandor and shot by three-time Sundance Award-winning cinematographer Bradford Young. ARRI CSC supplied ALEXA XT Studio, XT Plus and XT M cameras, as well as Master Anamorphic lenses, although only three focal lengths were available at the time of filming – the 35 mm, 50 mm and 75 mm. What led you to anamorphic capture? When I read the script I definitely felt it should be shot in 2.35:1. I did consider 2-perf 35 mm with older spherical glass, but when we went with ALEXA I knew I wanted to combine it with anamorphic lenses. I felt it was important to be true to the scope format, so I didn’t want to shoot 1.78:1 and crop to 2.35:1; I thought that would create an artificial tension to the framing and I preferred the idea of being locked into our compositions without a lot of room to adjust. So the fact that ALEXA’s 4:3 sensor was almost completely utilized by the anamorphic lenses felt like a ‘truer’ use of the format? That’s it, exactly. I felt that the tension of not being able to make a mistake and fix it in post would force us to construct really precise frames. Sometimes that meticulousness can get lost when you’re cropping from a 16:9 frame, and a sense of precision was exactly what we were trying to achieve for the story. Was that sense of precision aided by the optical performance of the Master Anamorphics? Yes, absolutely; the 35 mm Master Anamorphic was incredible in the way it held detail right into the corners. There wasn’t any sort of barreling or wrap-around, and there wasn’t a sweet spot like you get with other anamorphic lenses. So many of our compositions were about lines, and I wanted those lines to stay straight wherever they were in the frame. The precision of the Master Anamorphics helped me stay anchored to the aesthetic we had chosen for the film. DP Bradford Young on set Photos: Atsushi Nishijima 22 ARRI NEWS