Cinema, the most voyeuristic of mediums, is uniquely placed to convey both the act of surveillance and the psychology of the surveilled. In Seberg, director Benedict Andrews and cinematographer Rachel Morrison, ASC draw upon the great conspiracy thrillers of the 1970s for an unconventional biopic that examines the disturbing, real-life experience of actress and activist Jean Seberg.
This narrative begged to be shot on celluloid, Morrison explains. It is the story of a Hollywood starlet and the dark undercurrent of government, and the invasion of privacy. I think there are lots of parallels between what happened to Jean and what is happening now which made this film both exciting and relevant.
In the late 1960s, having made her name as the star of A Bout De Souffle, Seberg (played by Kristen Stewart) moved to Los Angeles and became involved with the Black Panther movement bringing her to the attention of the FBI. Andrews' film weaves together facts and historical incidents into a kind of speculative fiction that explores her subjective experience.
Andrews drew on references from stills by photographers including Stephen Shore, William Eggleston and George Rodriguez, as well as inspiration from the political thrillers of the era like The Parallax View and Klute.
Choosing 35mm inherently calls back to those films, Morrison says.
The film's relatively low budget worked in their favor. When every other film is digital and pushing resolution, the use of analogue stands out, the DP espouses. The feel of it binds you emotionally to the story, plus its appearance is inherently of a certain time period, so I felt it could be an asset especially when we don't have the budget to populate the picture with cars and others detail that might otherwise be used to sell the period.
Morrison chose the Panavision Millennium XL2, a decision reverse engineered from her first choice of C Series anamorphic lenses.
I fell in love with Panavision's C Series on Mudbound (for which Morrison was Oscar nominated). I love their organic nature, the quality of the fall off, the fact that no two lenses are the same, and that some of the focal lengths flare warm. I have tested every other anamorphic lens and can't find any I like as much, especially for a period film.
Part of the reason I love film in general and anamorphic in particular are the inherent imperfections, Morrison continues. Life is imperfect and unpredictable. So, the lenses came first, and since we were going to shoot a lot of this film handheld, the XL2 was the right choice because it is ergonomic and light.
For Seberg, Morrison explains she liked the erratic nature to the light as captured though the lens, especially the flaring on the corner of the lens which questions the sanity of her perspective.
She adds, The softness around the edges helps to focus the viewer's eye on the subject in moments when she senses she is being spied on. The fact that we were using older glass with tiny nicks on the back or front elements only added to the irregularities and the overall aesthetic.
With the C Series in high demand, she and first AC Simon England worked with Panavision to pull together a set of lenses, including some PVZ and SP Primes, which were customized under the supervision of Panavision's lens guru Dan Sasaki to match the C Series.
We are a C Series film, so the customization of glass was just to blend in, rather than look entirely different, Morrison notes. All the glass performed incredibly well.
Morrison also took a set of spherical lenses, mainly as a safety net for night sequences. For some sequences we were exposing 500 ASA or 320 ASA and lighting by streetlight. It's not the kind of movie that could afford to change out every single LED streetlight and replace with old cobra heads, so I switched to spherical at these points. I'd mixed both spherical and anamorphic on Mudbound and felt comfortable with combining formats seamlessly.
The main Los Angeles action, with production design by Jahmin Assa, is depicted as an idyll of sparkling light. Morrison's camera plays with the glass of Seberg's stylish Coldwater Canyon home, and the aquamarine water of its swimming pool.
The first half of the film is very aspirational, she says. It's the look of old Hollywood beautiful and magical. We leaned into saturated colors and sun-kissed highlights. It's vibrant and warm. As the narrative twists and Jean becomes trapped in her own reality, she starts to question the world around her and the colors start to drain away. We're not making a sharp transition to black and white; the tonal shift is made in subtle ways to more muted palettes. The light, which was once soft and aspirational, becomes harsh and mysterious.
Morrison's look design and lens choice also spoke to the contrast between subjective and objective reality and what it's like to experience the world versus observe someone else's experience.
I chose close and wide shots and opted for longer takes when we were in sync with Jean's perspective as opposed to longer lenses and more fragmented coverage when Jack [an FBI agent played by Jack O'Connell] is watching her. It helps blur the lines between reality and perception.
Both points-of-view can be seen on the screen in Seberg currently in theaters.Cinema, the most voyeuristic of mediums, is uniquely placed to convey both the act of surveillance and the psychology of the surveilled. In Seberg, director Benedict Andrews and cinematographer Rachel Morrison, ASC draw upon the great conspiracy thrillers of the 1970s for an unconventional biopic that examines the disturbing, real-life experience of actress and activist Jean Seberg.
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
04/08/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
04/07/2026
April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...
01/06/2026
January 6 2026, 05:30 (PST) Dolby Sets the New Standard for Premium Entertainment at CES 2026
Throughout the week, Dolby brings to life the latest innovatio...
13/05/2026
New Adobe Premiere Color Grading Mode Accelerated on NVIDIA GPUs
Joel Pennington May 13, 2026
0 Comments
New NVIDIA RTX-accelerated features streamlin...
13/05/2026
Grass Valley announced that dB Broadcast has delivered new IP-based outside broadcast (OB) trucks for Cloudbass, featuring Grass Valley LDX 100 Series cameras a...
13/05/2026
Ikegami will exhibit the latest additions to its wide range of broadcast production cameras, control units, viewfinders and monitors on stand 5D3-1 at Broadcast...
13/05/2026
FISE, working with the founding members of the XR Sports Alliance (XRSA), Accedo, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. and HBS, have collaborated to develop an immersive...
13/05/2026
Canon Unveils New EOS R6 V Full-Frame EOS Camera and RF20-50mm F4 L IS USM PZ Bu...
13/05/2026
Boston Conservatory at Berklee Honors Beth Morrison and Moses Pendleton at Comme...
13/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
13/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
13/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
13/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
13/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
13/05/2026
Creative software developer Foundry today announced the latest developments on Nuke Stage. A purpose-built application for end-to-end virtual production and in-...
13/05/2026
A definitive portrait of one of Ireland's most influential musicians
New TV documentary airs Monday 18 May on RT One and RT Player at 9.35pm
Watch the...
13/05/2026
Agentic AI is changing the way users get work done. Following the success of OpenClaw, the community is embracing new open source agentic frameworks. The latest...
13/05/2026
Reinforcement-learning agents - AI systems that learn by trial and error - can c...
12/05/2026
Beyond the Hype: A Strategic Post-Hoc Analysis of NAB 2026 If NAB Show 2026 had an underlying theme, it was a quiet, industry-wide pivot from the high-energy sp...
12/05/2026
Guntermann and Drunck (G&D), a Panoptec Technologies Group company, and CT Square, led by Chandresh Shah, have announced a joint venture to distribute G&D and V...
12/05/2026
With 30 days until the start of the FIFA World Cup 2026, Telemundo, the exclusive Spanish-language home of the tournament in the United States, has announced th...
12/05/2026
The NHL has announced the return of Stanley Pup for its third consecutive year, a 90-minute special featuring adoptable rescue dogs competing on a miniature rin...
12/05/2026
NBCUniversal presented its 2026 Upfront to advertisers at Radio City Music Hall, detailing upcoming programming across NBC, Peacock, Bravo, and Versant properti...
12/05/2026
FOX Sports has announced funding for the Fandom and Social Connection Initiative at Harvard Kennedy School's Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics, and Publ...
12/05/2026
TNDV and Live Media, both divisions of Live Media Group, supported live broadcast coverage around NCAA Final Four weekend in Indianapolis, including the March M...
12/05/2026
The European Football Alliance (EFA) has announced a content distribution agreement with Fubo Sports Network, the free ad-supported streaming TV (FAST) channel ...
12/05/2026
For the first time, Spanish-speaking fans in the U.S. will have two separate tel...
12/05/2026
CP Communications led a comprehensive spectrum management initiative on behalf of Churchill Downs during Kentucky Derby week, coordinating RF assets across the ...
12/05/2026
LiveU has announced a strategic partnership with DRONERESPONDERS, a 501(c)3 non-...
12/05/2026
Open Broadcast Systems has announced that BMC TV, a specialist in IP transport of broadcast content, has selected the Open Broadcast Systems 5G Flyaway solution...
12/05/2026
NEP Europe, part of NEP Group, has announced it will deliver broadcast solutions...
12/05/2026
Grass Valley has announced continued collaboration with Ravensbourne University ...
12/05/2026
Stats Perform has announced the launch of Opta Pulse, an AI-assisted video creation and distribution platform for leagues, rights holders, and broadcasters. The...
12/05/2026
FOX Sports has announced a collaboration with Sesame Workshop to integrate Sesame Street characters into FOX Sports' FIFA World Cup 2026 programming. Conten...
12/05/2026
To date, NHL Productions has produced 19 broadcasts with commentary in American Sign Language
NHL in ASL (American Sign Language) may be just one show, but the...
12/05/2026
Google's Brian Albert: creators, athletes, highlights, nostalgia, second-scr...
12/05/2026
A still from Past Lives by Celine Song, an official selection of the Premieres program at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival. (Courtesy of Sundance Institute | p...
12/05/2026
Spotify is where fans and artists come together, turning discovery into somethin...
12/05/2026
Features patented Marco-MMC clocking technology
Black Lion Audio's latest release combines the company's expertise in clocking with their renowned p...
12/05/2026
New Track Panel, sequencer upgrades & more
Following their recent public beta release, Reason Studios have announced the full release of Reason 14. With the...
12/05/2026
One month to go! SBS reveals expansive FIFA World Cup 2026 lineup beyond the pi...
12/05/2026
Rohde & Schwarz presents its advanced solutions for power electronics testing at...
12/05/2026
aconnic AG (ISIN: DE000A0LBKW6), Munich, has developed a modified fund raising p...
12/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/05/2026
Tyrell Corporation, specialists in high-end live sports and entertainment broadcasts, was tasked with delivering compelling broadcast coverage of premier equest...
12/05/2026
Registration is now open for IBC2026 as the global media, entertainment and technology community prepares to converge on the RAI Amsterdam from 11 14 September ...
12/05/2026
Ross Video, a global leader in live video production technology, will present its latest innovations and integrated production workflows at BroadcastAsia 2026, ...
12/05/2026
500 selected leaders from around the world across start-ups, corporates, and venture capital. Over 50bn in assets under management among attending investors, a...
Cinema, the most voyeuristic of mediums, is uniquely placed to convey both the act of surveillance and the psychology of the surveilled. In Seberg, director Benedict Andrews and cinematographer Rachel Morrison, ASC draw upon the great conspiracy thrillers of the 1970s for an unconventional biopic that examines the disturbing, real-life experience of actress and activist Jean Seberg.
