Sony Pixel Power calrec Sony

Tim Ives, ASC Captures the Story of Bob Fosse and Gwen Verdon

17/05/2022

Cinematographer Tim Ives, ASC was looking forward to some downtime at home in New York City upon wrapping another season in Atlanta of the Netflix hit series Stranger Things. That is, until he heard the FX miniseries Fosse/Verdon would be going into production in his backyard. Fosse/Verdon chronicles the tumultuous and creatively brilliant relationship between legendary director-choreographer Bob Fosse and renowned dancer Gwen Verdon.

Kelli Barrett as Liza Minelli, Michelle Williams as Gwen Verdon, Sam Rockwell as Bob Fosse.

I grew up in Vermont and for my 10th birthday my mom brought me to New York for the first time to see Bob Fosse's Pippin, Ives recalls. I can still sing those songs because of that experience. Fosse is a big deal here in New York. I was very excited to find a way to pursue it.

Ives sent out some feelers for the series that stars Sam Rockwell and Michelle Williams and has as one of its executive producers Lin-Manuel Miranda of Broadways Hamilton fame. Producer-director Thomas Kail gave the cinematographer a call. Maybe it was kismet or something, but Tommy got my name and saw my work and called, says Ives. I was very excited to work with him and Lin.

With four weeks of prep, Ives began what he calls the fun part of the process picking the right camera and service for the job. His experience with Panavision G Series anamorphic lenses on a pilot for the Syfy show Deadly Class stuck in his mind. I just fell in love with the glass, remembers Ives. When I got this show, I wanted to go further. I was like a kid in a candy store when Panavision laid out all the glass options for me.

With assistance from Panavision New York Senior Marketing Rep Sal Giarratano, all the sampling and testing led Ives to the Primo 70 spherical primes on a Panavised version of Sonys Venice full-frame 6K digital cinema camera. The Primo 70s were further customized to meet Ives' desired aesthetic.

They have a softness and a flare to them that was really unique, Ives explains, and the Sony Venice game me the color separation that I was looking for to match with them. I felt like I was getting a really filmic look that I could manipulate in other ways as we went through the decades on this show.

The cinematographer took advantage of the tunable focus feature with the Primo 70 series. I wanted to have the highlights and flares bloom a little, he says. Dan Sasaki, SVP of Optical Engineering at Panavision Woodland Hills, customized the set of lenses to do just that.

These lenses, Ives continues, certainly have a feel that looks less electronic or digital when combined with the Venice than other combinations I tested at the time. We had to represent five decades, and these lenses worked well through all of them. I also changed the lighting up now and then. The 1950s into the early 60s had a more evenly lit look and less contrast on peoples faces. As we got into the late-1960s and 70s, I added more contrast to the lighting. The lenses handled that very well. Im kind of blown away by them, to tell you the truth.

Tim Ives and Thomas Kail.

If a bloom on a light wasnt quite enough to get the halo Ives sought, he added a light Black Pro-Mist filter to the lens. For some dance and rehearsal shots, he needed a 19-90 mm Primo Compact Zoom (PCZ). Panavision New York came through, not only finding one but also customizing it to match the primes.

The shows lighting also followed the trajectory of Fosse and Verdon's relationship. When times were good, Ives bathed them in soft, attractive light. During their heated arguments, the actors would dip in and out of sources. As the show progressed through time, Ives had to pay particular attention to the makeup. Debbie Zoller did wonderful makeup on the show, and one thing I definitely didnt want to do was hide something she wanted the audience to see, he says.

Although the camera is 6K-capable, Ives shot at 4K resolution. The detail at 4K is just about perfect for what I thought the show should look like, he notes. Fosse was a notorious chain smoker. Interiors would be smoky and we emphasized the atmosphere; its almost a character in the show. The smoke sometimes made the image a little dirty and we wanted that, but otherwise, its a clean look. We mastered the show in SDR and HDR, and I got it pretty much the way I wanted it to look like for both.

Looking back on the production, a standout shot for Ives occurred during the Damn Yankees Broadway show re-creation, where Verdon received a standing ovation after only the first half of the show a rarity. Ives explains, We did a oner' a Steadicam shot off the stage, up the stairs to her dressing room, then back down, onto the stage and 360 degrees around her, with light changes and color shifts throughout. Mark Schmidt is my A-camera/Steadicam operator and Adriana Brunetto-Lipman is our first AC on the show. I was very nervous for both because of the steep stairs, but it was no problem. Its one of my favorite shots, especially because of Michelle Williams' remarkable performance in it.

While looking back on his Panavision experience, Ives notes that this show really was a smooth shoot, and I didnt have a worry. Panavision gave me the ability to approach the project from a very creative place. I felt at ease and well supported. Everything worked wonderfully from a technical standpoint.

Unit photography by Craig Blankenhorn and Michael Parmelee, courtesy of FX.
LINK: https://www.panavision.com/highlights/highlights-detail/panavision-new...
See more stories from panavision

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 ...

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...

28/04/2026

Into the Omniverse: Manufacturing's Simulation-First Era Has Arrived

Editor's note: This post is part of Into the Omniverse, a series focused on how developers, 3D practitioners, and enterprises can transform their workflows ...

28/04/2026

NVIDIA Launches Nemotron 3 Nano Omni Model, Unifying Vision, Audio and Language for up to 9x More Efficient AI Agents

AI agent systems today juggle separate models for vision, speech and language - ...

28/04/2026

RT NEWS ANNOUNCES SEAN WHELAN AS NEW LONDON CORRESPONDENT

RT News is pleased to announce the appointment of Sean Whelan as its new London Correspondent. Sean has held the role of Washington Correspondent for the last...

28/04/2026

Six well-known figures delve into the 1926 Census archive

Joseph O'Connor, Eileen Walsh, Louise Duffy, Mick Lynch, Gormfhlaith N Thuairisg and Dermot Bannon take a personal look at life 100yrs ago in new TV docume...