Sony Pixel Power calrec Sony

Jeff Cronenweth, ASC: The cinematography of Tales From the Loop

30/09/2024

Tales From the Loop, a new eight-episode series now streaming on Amazon Prime Video, explores the goings-on in a small Ohio town situated atop a mysterious machine that has made the stuff of imagination into an everyday reality for the local residents. Based on the paintings of Swedish artist Simon St lenhag, the series was written by showrunner Nathaniel Halpern, and the pilot episode reteamed director Mark Romanek with longtime collaborator Jeff Cronenweth, ASC.

Mark's not one to be shy of using references that he's fond of, says Cronenweth, who was still working as a camera operator when he first partnered with the director in the mid-1990s. After stepping up to cinematographer, Cronenweth would continue to shoot music videos and commercials for Romanek, as well as the feature One Hour Photo. As they began to prep the pilot for Tales From the Loop, the cinematographer notes, Directors like Ingmar Bergman, Andrei Tarkovsky and Krzysztof Kieslowski were all inspirational to us. We reeducated ourselves in their films, their choices of light, and in particular their pacing and camera movement. Tales From the Loop very much has a kind of Scandinavian, methodical storytelling technique.

The production also reunited Cronenweth with Light Iron supervising colorist Ian Vertovec, with whom he had previously collaborated on a range of projects, including features such as The Social Network, Hitchcock and A Million Little Pieces. I spoke with Ian right when I got the gig, as soon as the choice was made to go with Light Iron, the cinematographer says. I started talking about our approach, how we were going to film, what I thought it would look like, and I gave him some of the same references that Mark and Nathaniel and I had looked at. We talked about the pace and tone and color.

We also talked a lot about skin tone, and time of day, and trying to get a sense of period, adds Vertovec, one of Light Iron's co-founders. We didn't want to hit you over the head with this old-fashioned look, but we really wanted to emphasize nostalgia and timelessness; we wanted the audience to be thinking about their childhood. We were trying to trigger on that emotion, a kind of melancholy nostalgia, and to find the colors that would support that.

One of the things I noticed in Simon's paintings was the natural color palette, Vertovec continues. It definitely was not a traditional science-fiction color palette; it was much more natural light, end of day, almost a perpetual magic hour. Nothing was too colorful, nothing was too poppy, nothing was too contrasty. It was all very beautiful, and it tied in with what Jeff and Mark were saying. They didn't really want a look' applied so much as they wanted the natural vibes to come through, the natural palette.

The filmmakers also decided early on that they would employ a large-format sensor for Tales From the Loop. We went with large-format with the idea of giving the show a scale and a scope that's larger than traditional approaches to television, and also for the lack of depth of field, Cronenweth explains. I'm adamant about depth-of-field being one of our storytelling tools, so the audience will be present where we want them to be. Also, there's a little girl in the show who's lost in this world, and a shallow depth of field was a great way of keeping her isolated and making the world more confusing and abstract.

Partnering with Panavision, Cronenweth chose to employ the Millennium DXL2 camera with large-format Panaspeed and Primo 70 primes. I had used the DXL2 on different jobs in the past, and I was a fan of it already it's my go-to camera when I want to utilize Panavision's world-renowned lens inventory, the cinematographer explains. Referencing the camera's 8K imager and native 1600 ISO, he adds, I liked the idea of the extra resolution and the speed, especially in the case of day exteriors turning into night and some of the sets we were working in. We shot 16:9, which was required by the studio, and for certain visual-effects shots we might have gone to 8K, but for all intents and purposes it was a 6K show.

When we went through our lens testing and discovered the Panaspeeds, their optical properties just fit our palette perfectly, he continues. They're very sophisticated pieces of glass, but they lend themselves to not being perfect.' They're more natural in a way because of their aberrations. It wasn't a complete set at the time, so we supplemented with the Primo 70s, which fit beautifully. They're a little cleaner than the Panaspeeds, so we used a little bit of diffusion when we needed it. I felt like if we could shoot our masters and two-shots with the Panaspeeds, it would be easier to match that to a close-up with the Primo 70s.

For his show LUT, Cronenweth opted to employ the DXL2's built-in Light Iron Color 2 Film look-up table. Vertovec had been instrumental in developing the DXL system's original Light Iron Color and subsequent Light Iron Color 2 LUTs. Jeff took a look at this [Light Iron Color 2 Film] LUT, Vertovec relates, and I think he didn't know that I had been building it off of a lot of the work that he and I had done.

Once Cronenweth learned of the LUT's inspiration, the cinematographer says, It made perfect sense why I would be attracted to it it's my own aesthetics wrapped up in a LUT. I like the way the colors roll off, the black levels, the shadow details I just love the color science in general. The way it interprets color is in line with everything I used to shoot on film.

Among the LUT's characteristics, Vertovec explains, it pulls blues toward more of a cyan, and it pulls greens a little toward yellow, which can make front-lit grass and trees feel more natural, a bit more like film, and not so el
LINK: https://www.panavision.com/highlights/highlights-detail/golden-hour-sc...
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...

07/05/2026

Meet Graduates from Berklees Class of 2026

Meet Graduates from Berklees Class of 2026 Members of this years graduating class reflect on their proudest moments at Berklee and look ahead to whats next. ...

07/05/2026

Convergence is Now Established Reality,' Says NAB 2026 Report

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

07/05/2026

Interra Systems to Showcase Best in Class QC Monitoring a...

At BroadcastAsia 2026, Interra Systems will demonstrate its latest innovations in automated quality control (QC), real-time monitoring, and captioning. The comp...

07/05/2026

PlayBox Neo shines a spotlight on delivering Secure Scala...

At this year's Broadcast Asia, PlayBox Neo is set to unveil recent innovations across its PlayBox Neo Suite and integrated range of broadcast media solution...

07/05/2026

BFBS selects Synamedia to deliver New Digital Platform fo...

Strategic three-year partnership marks delivery phase of BFBS' next-generation media vision Media organisation and military charity BFBS (British Forces Br...

07/05/2026

Amagi Unlocks New Opportunities for CTV Performance with...

Amagi, the agentic industry cloud platform for unified broadcast, streaming, and monetization, today announced the availability of its In-Content Ads offering v...

07/05/2026

Lightware Introduces Rack Taurus For Clean Centralized AV...

Lightware Visual Engineering has developed Rack Taurus for rack-based environments such as education and corporate training spaces. It enables clean and simple ...

07/05/2026

Jigsaw24 Showcases End-to-End Media Workflows at MPTS 202...

Jigsaw24, the UK's leading media equipment supplier and systems integrator, will showcase its expanded end-to-end workflow capabilities at MPTS 2026, signal...

07/05/2026

Ease Live Granted US Patent for Technology Powering Perfe...

Ease Live, an Evertz company, today announced that it has been granted a US Patent for its proprietary graphical overlay technology, the foundation for interact...

07/05/2026

Leader prepares advanced Test and Measurement showcase fo...

Test & measurement innovator Leader Electronics of Europe will present an extensive range of Leader, PHABRIX and LeaderPhabrix test and measurement solutions at...

07/05/2026

LiveU Signals a New Era of Live Broadcasting at Broadcast...

At Broadcast Asia 2026 (Stand 5H3 8), LiveU is redefining live production with its most powerful IP-video EcoSystem to date built to help broadcasters and con...

07/05/2026

Colorfront Streaming Server Awarded Trusted Partner Network Gold Logo Certification

January 8, 2024 Colorfront (colorfront.com), a leader in high-performance, on-s...

07/05/2026

Colorfront Unleashes New Opportunities for Content Owners Plus Other Ground-Breaking Visual Experiences at Nab 2024

March 20, 2024 NAB 2024, Las Vegas - Colorfront (colorfront.com), the multi-awa...

07/05/2026

Colorfront Delivers Innovations for HDR Cinema at Cinemacon 2025

April 1, 2025 CINEMACON, APRIL 1, 2025 - Colorfront (colorfront.com), the multi-award-winning developer of high-performance dailies/transcoding/streaming syste...

07/05/2026

Colorfront to Showcase Advanced HDR Cinema Mastering Solutions at CineEurope 2025

June 15, 2025 Colorfront (colorfront.com), an Academy and Emmy Award-winning de...

07/05/2026

Colorfront at ICTA Barcelona Cinema Technology Summit

June 15, 2025 Colorfront participated in the ICTA Barcelona Cinema Technology Summit on Sunday, June 15, 2025. Held at The Phenomena Experience, the event feat...

07/05/2026

Colorfront Does IBC 2024 Live From Stockholm!

July 1, 2025 Colorfront (colorfront.com), the multi-award-winning developer of high-performance dailies/transcoding/streaming systems for motion pictures, OTT,...

07/05/2026

Colorfront Transkoder Delivers a Masterful Performance at Annapurna Studios

July 1, 2025 Passion and dedication will take you places. Come with us on a short trip to the heart of India, where Annapurna Studios is living-up to the inspi...

07/05/2026

Colorfront Opens a New Chapter in Color Tools For Cinema & Television

July 3, 2025 Colorfront (colorfront.com), the multi-award-winning developer of high-performance dailies/transcoding/streaming systems for motion pictures, OTT,...

07/05/2026

Colorfront at IBC 2025: Advanced Tools Make Easy Work of Critical Mastering Tasks and More!

September 1, 2025 IBC 2025, Amsterdam - Colorfront (colorfront.com) - the Acade...

07/05/2026

Colorfront Introduces Colorfront Immersive Utility, a New Mac App for Creating Apple Immersive Video

April 17, 2026 LOS ANGELES - April 17, 2026 - Colorfront today announced Colorf...

07/05/2026

Colorfront Delivers Even More AI Automation Power and Extends Technology Partnerships with Dolby Apple

April 23, 2026 NAB 2026, Las Vegas - the Academy and Emmy Award-winning develop...

07/05/2026

CNN Founder Ted Turner Dies at 87

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

07/05/2026

FCC Urges Appeals Court to Toss Challenges to Nexstar-Tegna Deal

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

07/05/2026

Carr Announces FCC Staff Promotions

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

07/05/2026

Recreating the 1974 Doctor Who Time Tunnel in After Effects

Recreating the 1974 Doctor Who Time Tunnel in After Effects Graham Quince May 6, 2026 0 Comments The Time Tunnel from Doctor Who titles is one of th...

07/05/2026

Well known Irish faces pushed to the edge in new series of Uncharted with Ray Goggins

Well known Irish faces pushed to the edge in new series of Uncharted with Ray G...

07/05/2026

Powerful four generation story A Traveller Family airs on RT One and RT Player this Monday night

RT will premiere A Traveller Family, a compelling new documentary exploring the...

07/05/2026

Linked and Loaded: Gaijin Single Sign-On Now Available on GeForce NOW

Less typing, more tanking. Faster logins mean more time in the gaming action - and this week provides GeForce NOW members with a smoother path straight into th...

06/05/2026

Wisycom RF Solutions Support Gravity Medias Live Cycling and Marathon Broadcasts

Gravity Media Chief RF Communications Engineer Glenn Willems uses Wisycom RF over Fiber and wireless solutions across major cycling events and international mar...

06/05/2026

Sennheiser Spectera Module Now Available in Bitfocus Companion and Buttons

A Sennheiser Spectera module is now available in Bitfocus Companion and Buttons, enabling direct integration of Spectera with the two software platforms. The mo...

06/05/2026

Ted Turner, Cable Television Pioneer, Sports Broadcasting Hall of Famer, Dead at 87

Ted Turner, the visionary media entrepreneur whose appetite for disruption helpe...

06/05/2026

FIFA World Cup 2026: Peacock Launches Visin de Campo (aka Pitchside Live), Will Stream All 104 Matches in Spanish

Peacock is going all-in on the beautiful game - streaming all 104 FIFA World Cup...

06/05/2026

NoiseWorks Audio launch VoiceAssist Basic, Standard & Advanced

New pricing tiers for vocal/dialogue restoration tool NoiseWorks Audio's AI-powered vocal and dialogue processing plug-in is now available in three diff...

06/05/2026

RME TotalMix FX 2 now available

Popular mixing & routing software overhauled Following a recent public beta test, RME have launched the final release version of the powerful mixing and rou...

06/05/2026

Focusrite: Designing The ISA C8X Audio Interface

New SOS Video Feature Focusrites ISA C8X is a milestone product that brings together the companys analogue heritage and their expertise in digital audio. Yo...

06/05/2026

L3Harris to Boost Polish Navy Combat Power with Advanced Ship System

Polands Miecznik-class frigates are part of the largest contract in Polish shipbuilding history. (Image Credit: PGZ Stocznia Wojenna)...

06/05/2026

FCC's Anna Gomez Urges Rigorous Review of Paramount-WBD Merger

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

06/05/2026

Riedel Ups Marc Engroff to CFO, Shifts Frank Eischet to Group COO

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

06/05/2026

Amagi Launches In-Content Ads' to Attract More CTV Advertisers

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

06/05/2026

Riedel Expands Leadership Structure Appoints Marc Engroff...

Riedel Communications today announced the expansion of its leadership structure as part of a strategic initiative to strengthen both its operational management ...

06/05/2026

Production Sound Mixer Dirk Sciarrotta Delivers Camera Re...

For nearly three decades, Veteran Production Sound Mixer and Five-time Emmy Award Winner Dirk Sciarrotta has helped define the sonic identity of the long-runnin...

06/05/2026

ZEISS CinCraft LensCore: Cinema Lens Looks for Compositing

ZEISS CinCraft LensCore: Cinema Lens Looks for Compositing Brie Clayton May 6, 2026 0 Comments ZEISS announces the launch of CinCraft LensCore, a nove...

06/05/2026

Wisycom Solves Extreme RF Challenges Across Miles of Live Action for Gravity Media

Wisycom Solves Extreme RF Challenges Across Miles of Live Action for Gravity Med...

06/05/2026

NAB Launches Weekly Podcast on Local Broadcast Policy

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...