Cinematographer Aaron McLisky, ACS, Goes All In to bring the Cooke Look to Russell Crowe's Poker Face
Brie Clayton November 30, 2022
0 Comments
McLisky lenses the intimacy of relationships and the tension of truth with an ensemble cast in this upcoming film
For award-winning cinematographer Aaron McLisky, ACS, and for Academy Award winning director, co-writer and leading actor Russell Crowe, shooting the psychological thriller Poker Face came down to two things: achieving a modern look that maintained a painterly quality as well as choosing the right aspect ratio that captured the ensemble cast in a single frame, so they went with Cooke Optics Anamorphic FF, according to McLisky.
Aaron had come to the project late in its development as director Russell had also just come on board and was in the process of amending the screenplay. The original director had family health issues, so had to leave the project. From the moment of agreeing to lead the project, Russell himself was only given five short weeks before cameras would roll. Originally set in Miami, Russell was working to reimagine the story in his home town Sydney, Australia. After a brief chat with Russell, Mclisky began working on a look book to reimagine the film with Russell's vision in mind. Russell referenced a lot of historical Australian painters such as the atmosphere of Clarice Beckett to the modern abstraction of Ben Quilty.
I wanted an image that wouldn't look too clean but softer and atmospheric, said McLisky. I looked at a lot of different anamorphics, and at the time the Cooke anamorphic full frame was relatively new in Australia, but becoming more readily available.
As someone who started on the Cooke S4s early in his career, I really appreciated the Cooke Look plus its pleasant skin tone and build quality. It just so happened that Warren Day and Video Australia (VA Hire) in Sydney had a set of the anamorphic full frame lenses that I could test. I took them to our main Poker Room set at Fox Studios Australia for some in-depth testing. When Mclisky projected the tests in a theatre with Russell, they both could see the qualities they desired. The way the sharpness, contrast and falloff made it feel very painterly instantly connected with Russell and myself. We had to go with Cooke.
In Poker Face, Crowe plays a billionaire gambler who offers his best friends the chance to win more money than they have ever dreamed of. However, in return, they will have to give up the secrets they have spent their lives protecting and will learn the true nature of what is at stake.
Video Australia (VA Hire) would provide McLisky with three ARRI Alexa Mini LF cameras (shooting 2.39 at 4.5K open gate for 4K DCI distribution) and three sets of Cooke lenses, including every Cooke Anamorphic/i FF available from VA: An A camera set consisting of the Cooke Anamorphic/i FF 40mm, 50mm, 75mm, 85mm MACRO, 100mm and 135mm. The B camera set with the 40mm, 50mm, 75mm and 100mm. Plus a C camera set with a Cooke 35-140mm Anamorphic/i Zoom and Cooke S7/i FF sphericals for pick-ups, shot by Jules O'Loughlin, ACS, ASC.
That 85 macro is just fantastic and became the lens of the shoot, said McLisky, who utilised the lens as a macro and straight 85mm prime. As we came in for a close up, Russell would say big head, bigger head,' he wanted the camera close. Being able to move from 5 feet to an eyeball Russell loved that. Being able to use the lens in that way meant we could get a lot of those intimate shots very quickly. The 85mm as well as the 135mm were the primary lenses, and I also loved the 50mm and 75mm for the wider dialog sequences.
With all of these anamorphic lenses, it begs the question Why the Cooke S7/i FF spherical lenses for the C camera? As McLisky explains: The C camera was mainly on the 35-140mm Cooke anamorphic zoom for principal photography, but for pickups, Jules used the S7s. That, of course, brings up the issue of matching the sphericals to the anamorphics.
You can't tell, said McLisky. That's why everything was Cooke and it made me incredibly happy, although I was a bit nervous when putting the lens package together. But instinct told me that the Cookes would all match with the Cooke Look and how each lens would react to the production design. When it came to the grading, it was very easy to create a consistency between the cameras. They married together perfectly.
The production design, as well as the LUTs created with colourist Jamie Hediger, were all based on conversations with Crowe, according to McLisky. Russell wanted a deep red and black theme throughout the film referencing the playing cards and his private art collection - a lot of the art in the film is Russell's personal art. Jamie looked at Russell's art to inspire the LUTs.
One challenge on the set was having a director who was also the leading actor. Russell is an intelligent and seasoned filmmaker who's worked with the best of the best, said McLisky. But for anyone this would be a difficult challenge, with script amendments, location changes and design changes it's a lot, not to mention COVID. Russell drew on his wealth of knowledge and experience to steer the course. He constantly challenged the cast to find a truth in the film, to make the performance personal. We spent a lot of time talking about his relationships with his friends and what his level of success meant to him. That served as an emotional entry point to understanding Russell's connection to the characters. Working with Russell was inspiring, as he is very articulate and clear about what he wants. For example, Russell was adamant about us using three cameras. His experience with multicam films gave him a sense of comfort - to be capturing the scene as a stage play and to allow for flexibility of performance and safety i
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
06/09/2026
June 9 2026, 23:00 (PDT) Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA Worl...
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...
13/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
13/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
YES Network and The Gotham Sports App will air seven Athletes Unlimited Softball...
12/06/2026
The United Football League will host its FAST Innovation Suite at the 2026 United Bowl presented by Credit One Bank on Saturday, June 13 at 3:00 p.m. ET at Audi...
12/06/2026
PTZOptics and LayerJot will present live demonstrations at InfoComm 2026 showing how natural-language AI prompting, robotic camera control, and on-device comput...
12/06/2026
MultiDyne Video and Fiber Optic Systems will exhibit at InfoComm 2026, featuring...
12/06/2026
Ateme has announced that Eurovision Services is using Ateme's software-based frame-rate conversion technology for international live event workflows. The de...
12/06/2026
Bitmovin and Simplestream have announced a partnership with Xperi to simplify the launch of OTT streaming services on TiVo OS smart TVs and devices. The collabo...
12/06/2026
Net Insight has announced that a multinational technology company is deploying a...
12/06/2026
MLB Players Inc., the business arm of the MLB Players Association, has announced a partnership with Athletes First to develop and sell brand partnerships across...
12/06/2026
Guntermann and Drunck (G&D) and VuWall have announced the CommandKeyboard-Advanc...
12/06/2026
Comcast Smart Solutions announces a new smart technology deployment with Major L...
12/06/2026
Elevation Worship completed the initial leg of its Elevation Nights 2026 tour ...
12/06/2026
AJA Video Systems has announced KONA IP25 support for Colorfront Transkoder and ...
12/06/2026
Audinate Group Limited (ASX: AD8) will exhibit at InfoComm 2026 (Booth C7321, Ce...
12/06/2026
Pac-12 Commissioner Teresa Gould has announced the appointment of Scott Adametz as Chief Technology Officer. The Pac-12 describes the hire as the first CTO appo...
12/06/2026
Grass Valley has announced AMPP Edge Live, a production system combining Grass Valley hardware, NVIDIA Blackwell GPU acceleration, and AMPP OS in a single platf...
12/06/2026
At one time a trailblazer with the launch of the Longhorn Network, the Universit...
12/06/2026
Ratings Roundup is a rundown of recent rating news and is derived from press rel...
12/06/2026
Chyron has announced PAINT 10.4, an update to its illustrated replay and sports ...
12/06/2026
SVP, Production Mark Gross: With the new schedule, with not having every Sunday night, it's given us an opportunity to take a step back and reimagine what ...
12/06/2026
For Televisa Technical Engineering Manager Roberto N nez Ibarra and the small team of 12 technicians and two production personnel at the IBC things are already ...
12/06/2026
Simple Steps to Better Acoustics - Taming The Small Room
Most of us mix in spare rooms and small spaces, where the acoustics fight us at every turn. At Gear...
12/06/2026
Latest addition expands vintage-inspired effects palette
Meris' Ottobit pedal range draws its inspiration from vintage gaming consoles, and the latest a...
12/06/2026
Soundbox-based chamber strings series expanded
Sonora Cinematic have just announced the launch of the second instalment in their Soundbox-based chamber stri...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
AJA Announces KONA IP25 Integration with Colorfront Software
Brie Clayton June 12, 2026
0 Comments
Collaboration enables uncompressed SMPTE ST 2110 I/O ...
12/06/2026
URSA Cine 12K LF Used to Create Visuals for STUTS' K-Arena Concert
Brie Clayton June 12, 2026
0 Comments
Organic visuals projected on a giant scre...
12/06/2026
MTI FILM Acquires Mango New Edit, Expanding its Global Post-Production Services ...
12/06/2026
AI Point Tracking Speeds Up Complex VFX Tracks in Mocha Pro
Jessie Electa Petrov June 12, 2026
0 Comments
The 2026.5 release adds automatic point trac...
12/06/2026
Bitmovin, a provider of video streaming solutions, has partnered with Simplestream, a provider of OTT and broadcast solutions, and technology provider Xperi, to...
12/06/2026
Leostream Corporation, creator of the world-leading Leostream Remote Desktop Access Platform, today announced Jigsaw24, a leading B2B IT solutions provider wit...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
How Aussie indie games and screen are levelling up with IP 11 June 2026
Ari Harrison, Pro Jank Footy
Head of Games Joey Egger and Ari Harrison of Umbrella sha...
12/06/2026
AgentPerf from Artificial Analysis, the industry's first agentic AI benchmark, gives developers, enterprises and infrastructure providers a clear way to com...
12/06/2026
Back to All News
Netflix Unveils First-Look Images from Villaflor, Santiago Mitre's New Film
Entertainment
12 June 2026
GlobalArgentina
Link copied to ...
12/06/2026
Back to All News
Cross the Boundaries of the Real World into the Spirit Realm i...
12/06/2026
With John Daro, DI Colourist at Warner Bros. Water Tower Color Tuesday 23 June, 10am-1pm or 3-6pm
Restar Corporation
Tokyo
Register here
John Daro is the ...
12/06/2026
Meet The Grumpy Onion Ireland's newest online sensation, all he wants is to ...
12/06/2026
RT stays Up All Night with brand new daily 2026 FIFA World Cup Vodcast
Adding to the fun around 2026 FIFA World Cup tournament, RT has launched a brand new d...
Cinematographer Aaron McLisky, ACS, Goes All In to bring the Cooke Look to Russell Crowe's Poker Face 
