Sony Pixel Power calrec Sony

Steve Yedlin, ASC, lenses Glass Onion: A Knives Out Story with ZEISS Supreme Primes

03/02/2023

Steve Yedlin, ASC, lenses Glass Onion: A Knives Out Story with ZEISS Supreme Primes

Brie Clayton February 2, 2023

0 Comments

Long-time collaborators, cinematographer Steve Yedlin, ASC, and director Rian Johnson, have been pushing each other creatively since their late teens. Yedlin would go on to lens all of Johnson's feature films, notably Looper and Star Wars: Episode VIII The Last Jedi. Their latest film, Glass Onion, is the follow-up to the 2019 blockbuster Knives Out. Featuring the return of Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig), the fun, fast-paced whodunnit follows the sleuth to a fictional Greek Island, where Blanc peels back the layers of intrigue surrounding narcissistic tech billionaire Miles Bron (Edward Norton).

By now Yedlin and Johnson have their own creative shorthand. In prep, we don't spend much time talking about references because we already know we agree on tastes, Yedlin shares. We use the prep time to really dive in and design the shots and scenes that we are doing. To help plan moves and select focal lengths, they were outfitted with two director's finders equipped with Cinema Zooms.

Yedlin pairs Directors Finder with Compact Zooms

The team chose ARRI ALEXA Mini LF with ZEISS Supreme Primes and Cinema Zooms for the clean technical procession they needed. Glass Onion marked Yedlin's first experience with these optics. For me, it's not the lens itself making a visual statement, it's a tool for me to make my own visual style. I love the ZEISS lenses, but not because they imbue the movie with a specific character that another lens wouldn't have, he explains. Their technical performance allows us to be creative in other ways. They free me to do whatever we want because they sort of have everything that I wish a lens would have. Now we can be much more daring.

Shooting through Glass on Glass Onion

He points to lighting. The Supreme's flares are very contained. When you overload the lens with light, you still get the flare, but it's confined to a local area around it, while other lenses would literally obliterate the image. Now we can do things like have an upstage light that's in the shot actually lighting the scene, instead of using an upstage light that's in shot that's supposed to be lighting it, while another one, out of shot is really lighting it.

Dynamic movement and controlled, deliberate cinematography shape the film. The idea is always to tell the story in the best visual way possible, not distracting from it with show-offy camera movement, he explains. We love designed dolly moves as opposed to rambling with handheld or Steadicam, where you don't know what's going to happen. Like in the climactic atrium scene: Blanc dramatically reveals what he's deduced, as the camera dollies through the set's precariously positioned glass sculptures, adding to the visual intrigue.

Related COW News

February 6, 2023Digital Domain's Wakanda Forever VFX reel: Behind the Final Battle and 4 New MCU HeroesDigital Domain was tasked with most of the major effects for the

February 6, 2023Camp Lucky Welcomes Producer Alex BronnerCamp Lucky gives a warm welcome to producer Alex Bronner, a longtime friend

Although Yedlin and Johnson favor the dolly, other key shots necessitated dramatic changes in height. Yedlin's trusted crew was meticulous about how they integrated a crane into their approach. We had an absolutely fantastic dolly grip, Jax, who was able to do things that made it feel like a solid, confident dolly, even though the crane actually has a lot of loose axes, he continues. We love intentional, crafted, and exuberant camera movement that's also meant to cut. The idea of how everything will edit together is always completely integral.

Yedlin uses Supreme Prim on Glass Onion

The team made use of the ZEISS eXtended Data technology from viewing the monitor readout on set through post-production. With a keen grasp of technology, Yedlin credits the hard work of the folks at FotoKem who wrote custom code to set up our unique pipeline.

Yedlin likes to have post add custom levels of lens distortion/curvature to his films. Because there is only minor inherent distortion in ZEISS Supreme Primes and Cinema Zooms, adding idealized curvature to the final edit becomes relatively straightforward. FotoKem used the lens metadata to accelerate this process. We don't need to have a human pouring through camera reports to figure it all out. For visual effects, it's better because the ZEISS lens isn't funky and crazy. We can author exactly how much curvature we want you get a clean image, and then you can add funkiness rather than being cornered into it, he concludes.

Yedlin at ZEISS Demo Center

Once again Yedlin and Johnson's compelling cinematography and visual storytelling are a success. Today Glass Onion hits a 93 on the Rotten Tomatoes scale and tops the chart on Netflix's 10 most-watched films.

###

Enjoying the news? Sign up for the Creative COW Newsletter! Sign up for the Creative COW newsletter and get weekly updates on industry news, forum highlights, jobs, inspirational tutorials, tips, burning questions, and more! Receive bulletins from the largest, longest-running community dedicated to supporting professionals working in film, video, and audio.

Enter your email address, a first and last name, and let us know what you'd like to see more of in the message!

-- Sign up: * indicates required

Email Address *

Name

--
LINK: https://creativecow.net/steve-yedlin-asc-lenses-glass-onion-a-knives-o...
See more stories from creativecow

Most recent headlines

05/01/2027

Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be demoed at CES 2026

Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...

04/08/2026

Dalet Announces Commercial Availability of Dalia, Bringing Media-Aware Agentic AI to Enterprise Productions

Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...

04/07/2026

Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in Dolby Cinemas Across Japan, Presented in Dolby Atmos and Dolby ...

April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...

01/06/2026

Dolby Sets the New Standard for Premium Entertainment at CES 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...

02/05/2026

Dalet Flex LTS Delivers Smarter Search, Faster Editing, and an AI-Ready Foundation for Modern Media

Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...

01/05/2026

NBCUniversal's Peacock to Be First Streamer to Integrate Dolby's Full Suite of Premium Picture and Sound Innovations

January 5 2026, 18:30 (PST) NBCUniversal's Peacock to Be First Streamer to ...

29/04/2026

Paramount Will be 49.5% Foreign Owned After WBD Merger

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

29/04/2026

NAB Show 2026: AI, Vertical and BPS Dominate Broadcasters' Discussions

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

29/04/2026

IAB Tech Lab Announces New OpenRTB Attributes

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

29/04/2026

April 28, 2026

Jin-Quan Yu elected to the National Academy of Sciences Yu is recognized for his pioneering work in synthetic organic chemistry. April 28, 2026 LA JOLLA, CA S...

28/04/2026

Sound for the NFL Draft Show Balances Often Conflicting Goals

The audio team for the entertainment event must blend speech intelligibility with full-range music reproduction while considering the broadcast Last week's...

28/04/2026

Pac-12 Releases New Primary Mark Ahead of 2026-27 Season

The Pac-12 Conference has released an updated primary mark and logo as the starting point of the new league's brand identity. The mark was soft-launched acr...

28/04/2026

DP World Tour to Become First Professional Sports Organization to Use Amazon Leo Satellite Connectivity

The DP World Tour and Amazon Leo have signed an agreement making Amazon's lo...

28/04/2026

Pixellot and HELIOS Announce Automated Hockey Shift Video Integration

Pixellot and HELIOS have announced an integration that automatically converts full-game hockey video into individualized shift videos for each athlete, without ...

28/04/2026

Daktronics Installs New LED Video Display at Asheville Tourists Ballpark

Daktronics has partnered with the Asheville Tourists to manufacture and install a new LED video display. The installation was completed in late 2025 and is now ...

28/04/2026

Eutelsat and PCTV Renew Long-Term Video Distribution Partnership in Mexico

Eutelsat has announced the renewal of its partnership with PCTV, a content aggregation and distribution company in Mexico and part of Megacable Holdings, for co...

28/04/2026

Gary SouthShore RailCats Install New Daktronics LED Display at U.S. Steel Yard

Daktronics has partnered with the Gary SouthShore RailCats to install a new LED video display at U.S. Steel Yard, replacing the previous Daktronics display inst...

28/04/2026

Telos Alliance and College Radio Foundation Award Omnia.11 Processor to Wright State Universitys WWSU-FM

Telos Alliance and the College Radio Foundation have announced that WWSU-FM of W...

28/04/2026

Inside the Mix: A1s Florian Brown and James Deason on Golfs Biggest Broadcasts

Golf viewership is growing. The 2025 Ryder Cup drew five million viewers in the UK, a 45% increase over the 2023 event. The US Open was the most streamed golf e...

28/04/2026

The CW Network Acquires Exclusive Broadcast Rights to WWE NXT Premium Live Events

The CW Network and WWE, part of TKO Group Holdings (NYSE: TKO), have announced t...

28/04/2026

NAB 2026: AIMS Wins NAB Show 2026 Product of the Year Award for IPMX

The Alliance for IP Media Solutions (AIMS) has announced that the Internet Protocol Media Experience (IPMX) suite of standards and specifications has been named...

28/04/2026

NAB 2026 SportsTechBuzz in Review: A Look Back at the Big News From 150+ Companies in Vegas

The 2026 NAB Show is in the books and the show once again served up a cavalcade ...

28/04/2026

Gray Media, RAJ Sports Launch New Womens Sports RSN in Portland - Rose City SportsNet

Gray Media and RAJ Sports have announced Rose City SportsNet (RCSN), a new netwo...

28/04/2026

Spotify Reports First Quarter 2026 Earnings

Today, we announced our First Quarter 2026 earnings, starting the Year of Raising Ambition with strong momentum across the business and continued innovation acr...

28/04/2026

Spotify rapporterar resultat fr frsta kvartalet 2026

I dag presenterade vi v rt resultat f r det f rsta kvartalet 2026. Vi inleder ret med starkt momentum i hela verksamheten och fortsatt innovation p plattforme...

28/04/2026

Mojave introduce the MA-C vocal mic

New handheld promises studio performance for the stage Mojave have just introduced a new live-focused handheld vocal mic created by award-winning designer D...

28/04/2026

VSTOPIA announce Dynamic Split Module for Ableton

Max for Live device offers AI-powered stem separation Dynamic Split Module (DSM) is a new Max for Live device created by Ostin Solo, a developer and musican...

28/04/2026

Focusrite unveil the ISA C8X

First interface equipped with ISA preamps Focusrite have just announced the launch of a new high-end audio interface that features a pair of their legendary...

28/04/2026

Nielsen and Triton Digital Collaborate to Bring Greater Visibility to Podcast Audiences in Nielsen's Media Impact Tool

Triton Digital's Podcast Metrics Demos+ Data Integration Enables Comprehensi...

28/04/2026

Paramount Skydance Will be 49.5% Foreign Owned After WBD Merger

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

28/04/2026

KEET PBS Deploys PMVG TechBundle Services To Modernize Operations

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

28/04/2026

TAG Video Systems Lens Wins Industry Awards for Cutting T...

TAG Video Systems, the leading IP-native Realtime Media Platform, today announced that Lens, its visual service health interface for broadcast operations, recei...

28/04/2026

AIMS Wins NAB Show 2026 Product of the Year Award for IPM...

Open AV-over-IP Standard Recognized in IT Networking/Infrastructure and Security Category The Alliance for IP Media Solutions (AIMS) today announced that the ...

28/04/2026

VFX History: Slit Scan

VFX History: Slit Scan Graham Quince April 28, 2026 0 Comments How did 2001: A Space Odyssey, Star Wars, Doctor Who and Star Trek: The Next Generation...

28/04/2026

These DaVinci Resolve Effects Will Make You a More Creative Colorist

These DaVinci Resolve Effects Will Make You a More Creative Colorist Kasia Jarco April 28, 2026 0 Comments Creativity in color grading is not about ha...

28/04/2026

A Simple Introduction to Cavalry: Indexed Circle

A Simple Introduction to Cavalry: Indexed Circle Simon Ubsdell April 28, 2026 0 Comments In this new introductory tutorial for Cavalry we're going...

28/04/2026

Rise Upskill - Applications Now Open for Free Global Trai...

Rise, the award-winning advocacy group for gender diversity in the broadcast and media technology sector, is pleased to announce a new global training programme...

28/04/2026

Clear Com Announces New Roles for Brian Grahn and Ben Tur...

Clear-Com has appointed Brian Grahn as Market Outreach Manager of the Americas and Ben Turnwell as Business Development Manager for EMEA live, expanding their ...

28/04/2026

LiveU Steps into the Future at MPTS 2026 with the Introdu...

LiveU is inviting MPTS visitors to step into the companys new Q Era on Stand D32, at The Grand Hall, Olympia, London (May 13-14). The company will showcase its ...

28/04/2026

IBC launches 2026 Innovation Awards to spotlight real-wor...

IBC today announces the launch of the IBC2026 Innovation Awards, with nominations now open for projects, programmes and initiatives that exemplify breakthrough ...

28/04/2026

WNBA to Stream All Preseason Games for Free

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

28/04/2026

Nexstar Media Charitable Foundation Sets 30 Days of Giving'

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

28/04/2026

Sinclair's Chief Compliance Officer Jeff Lewis to Retire

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

28/04/2026

Nielsen Introduces Predictive Sales Lift' Tool

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

28/04/2026

Sencore's VB440 Monitoring, Analysis Tool Debuts at NAB Show

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

28/04/2026

Pinterest Makes a Major Push into CTV Advertising

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

28/04/2026

Introducing Nx 3-Strip v2 - A Physics-Based Technicolor Reconstruction for DaVinci Resolve

Introducing Nx 3-Strip v2 - A Physics-Based Technicolor Reconstruction for DaVin...

28/04/2026

Tribeca Festival Marks 25 Years With Star-Studded Talks, Reunions & Retrospectives

April 28th, 2026 Press Materials Available Here TRIBECA FESTIVAL MARKS 25 YEAR...

28/04/2026

Sky Documentaries announces Savage Mountain, the controversial true story behind Kristin Harilas record-breaking 14 Peaks climb

In 2023, Norwegian climber Kristin Harila set out to break a mountaineering reco...

28/04/2026

LinkedIn Top Companies 2026: Where Career Growth Is...

LinkedIn Top Companies 2026: Where Career Growth Is Happening Now Published on Apr 28, 2026 Categories: Data and insights LinkedIn Corporate Communication...