Sony Pixel Power calrec Sony

Todd A. Dos Reis, ASC chooses two Cooke lens systems to depict two worlds for OWNs David Makes Man

31/05/2019

--

David Makes Man is the first TV series written by Tarell Alvin McCraney, who won an Academy Award for co-writing the 2017 Best Picture winner Moonlight based on his play, In Moonlight Black Boys Look Blue. McCraney, serving as the series executive producer along with Michael B. Jordan (Creed) and Oprah Winfrey, tells a semi-autobiographical story of his own life, as did Moonlight,delving into childhood trauma and using the power of imagination to survive.

To shoot this story of a 14-year old prodigy looking for a way out of his poor neighborhood in Miami, Florida, cinematographer Todd A. Dos Reis, ASC relied heavily on a set of refurbished Cooke Speed Panchro prime lenses and Cooke Anamorphic/i primes.

We didn't shoot a typical pilot and wait for the series to be picked up, but shot ten episodes back-to back, said Dos Reis. I was able to get almost a complete set of refurbished original Speed Panchros from Otto Nemenz - 18mm-100mm, except for the 65mm - and because of late changes in production, I never got a chance to test them. I knew from my experience with the Cooke S4 lenses that I would get what I wanted. I started shooting with the Speed Panchros on day one - almost always starting a scene with the 32mm and with the 40mm being my favourite - and I got exactly what I expected.

Todd A. Dos Reis, ASC on the set of David Makes Man, photo by Rod Millington

However, during the prep for the pilot, director Michael Francis Williams decided he wanted to shoot anamorphically for the Ville housing project scenes, while using the Speed Panchro sphericals for scenes set outside the Ville. (This lens choice would be reversed for episodes six to ten to show a drastic change in the main character's life.) But this late change to anamorphic meant that Dos Reis had to get a set of anamorphic lenses from another manufacturer.

Those anamorphic lenses we used on the pilot...they just weren't right, explained Dos Reis. They had quick falloff but it was the softness that I wasn't happy with. I'm very familiar with Cooke's spherical lenses from working with S4 primes on HBO's Entourage,so I reached out to Dana Gonzales, ASC, as I knew he shot with the Cooke Anamorphic/i primes for Amazon Prime's Legion. He said, Get them, they're great, they'll give you exactly what you want,' and that's what made me switch to the Cookes, with a set of 25mm-180mm Anamorphic/i primes.

As well as switching between spherical and anamorphic lenses, Dos Reis used different colour temperatures, styles of camera work and styles of lighting to further highlight the separation between the Ville housing project and everything outside of that.

While most folks think of Miami as being lush, the Ville is a housing project, he said. Our colours are desaturated, with a coolness in the shadows and skin tones with the interior lit for daylight with ARRI LED SkyPanels and the night exterior lit with tungsten, HMI Fresnels, sodium vapour and mercury vapour for soft moonlight - like the Ville was alive, a place where you have to have your head on a swivel to be aware of all your surroundings. That meant a handheld look.

Dos Reis used three Alexa Minis for all ten episodes, with two being handheld and one on a crane, dolly or Steadicam rig. In addition, he had a Blackmagic Micro Cinema Camera to use as a bodycam or on a swinging door.

Like most cinematographers using the Speed Panchros, Dos Reis likes what many find odd to describe: I really like those lenses mainly for their imperfections. We couldn't quite focus in parts of the frame, so we knew exactly how to frame each shot. That's what I loved. It gave the image the similar quality of the Lensbaby-type lenses that I love. And the Cooke Anamorphic/i lenses...just like Dana said, I got exactly what I wanted.

About Cooke Optics, LTD

Cooke is a storied name in both cinematographic and ultra-high-end professional photography markets. Known worldwide for their precision, exacting tolerances and superior quality, Cooke lenses are specified by many of the world's most respected cinematographers. Cooke is also the developer behind /i Technology, the protocol enabling vital lens and camera information to be captured and passed digitally to post-production teams. Cooke was honoured with a 2013 Academy Award of Merit (an Oscar statuette) for its continuing innovation in the design, development and manufacture of motion picture camera lenses.

Features in production or recently shot with Cooke lenses include Bohemian Rhapsody, A Star Is Born, Vice, Venom, Call Me By Your Name, Motherless Brooklyn, Darkest Hour, Stan and Ollie, Seven In Heaven, Mark Felt: The Man Who Brought Down the White House. Television shows in production or recently shot with Cooke lenses include Game of Thrones, Gameface, Doctor Who,Kevin (Probably) Saves the World, The Crossing, The Crown, Westworld, Poldark, Midsomer Murders, Orange is the New Black, Fargo and Ozark.

###
LINK: https://news.creativecow.net/story/897091...
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 ...

07/10/2026

Dalet Flex LTS Delivers Smarter Media Operations from Ingest to Distribution

Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, today announced the latest Long-Term Supported (LTS) release of Dalet Flex. Build...

06/09/2026

Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA World Cup 2026 in Germany with Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos

June 9 2026, 23:00 (PDT) Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA Worl...

05/08/2026

Thomson toolkit added to virtual hub built to strengthen climate storytelling

Thomson's Climate Crisis Toolkit for Media in Tanzania is being included in a new virtual library designed to ensure accurate and engaging storytelling arou...

05/08/2026

SVG Regional Sports Production Summit 2026: All Sessions Now Available to Watch on SVG PLAY

RSNs, teams, leagues, and streamers explore the present and future of local spor...

05/08/2026

SVG New Sponsor Spotlight: Hitachi Vantara's Lenny Khaitov on Building Resilient Data Infrastructure for Sports Production

As sports-production workflows generate larger volumes of unstructured data and ...

05/08/2026

NESN's Women's Celebration Night Returns With Expanded Focus on the Next Generation

Three aspiring broadcasters will contribute on-camera and inside the production ...

05/08/2026

Union County Paints an Authentic Picture of Recovery and Community

Adam Meeks attends the premiere of his film Union County, an official selection of the 2026 Sundance Film Festival. (Photo by Jemal Countess/Sundance Institut...

05/08/2026

Steinberg celebrate VST & HALion anniversaries

Major discounts, updates & remakes of early VST plug-ins Steinberg are currently celebrating two significant anniversaries, with this week marking the 30th ...

05/08/2026

KRK introduce the V Series Five

Flagship monitor range gains wireless remote control KRK's flagship studio monitor range has just been upgraded, with three new fifth-generation models ...

05/08/2026

Rohde & Schwarz launches next phase of Airways New Zealand Air Traffic Control system upgrade

Rohde & Schwarz launches next phase of Airways New Zealand Air Traffic Control s...

05/08/2026

Rohde & Schwarz presents the R&SMP007, a man-portable tactical direction finding system for seamless signal detection from 9 MHz to 8 GHz

Rohde & Schwarz presents the R&S MP007, a man-portable tactical direction findin...

05/08/2026

Australia's retirement sector advertising rises more than 10% as millions plan for life after work according to Nielsen

Advertisers invested $53.6 million in the retirement sector in the last 12 month...

05/08/2026

New Nielsen data shows IKEA's New Zealand launch attracted more than 243,000 shoppers in the last month

Nielsen CMI and Ad Intel data reveals who's visiting IKEA, where else they s...

05/08/2026

Nielsen expands Four-Screen Ad Deduplication across CTV in Japan

Media buyers and sellers can now compare deduplicated campaign reach across computer, mobile, connected TV and linear TV across all measurable CTV publishers in...

05/08/2026

Stranger Things,' Bluey,' The Pitt' Top Nielsen's Streaming Charts Through First Half of 2026

Stranger Things' Leads All Streaming Titles with 23.3 Billion Minutes in Fir...

05/08/2026

Live Media Group, Gravity Media Strike Deal on U.S. OB Fleets

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

05/08/2026

Beyond VVC: Call for Proposals for Next-Gen Video Coding

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

05/08/2026

QuickLink Expands North American Team With Appointment of...

QuickLink, the leading provider of award-winning video production and remote guest integration solutions, announces the appointment of Kane Peterson to its Nort...

05/08/2026

Seven in 10 UK advertisers exceed production budgets desp...

XR research reveals marketers believe they have control over production costs, yet budget overruns, campaign delays and creative cutbacks remain commonplace Se...

05/08/2026

Game On Live Studio Uses Blackmagic Design to Stream Tropical 7s

Game On Live Studio Uses Blackmagic Design to Stream Tropical 7s Brie Clayton August 4, 2026 0 Comments Every match of world's largest youth rugby...

05/08/2026

Chris Fitzgerald to Head TDC's Experiential Growth

Chris Fitzgerald to Head TDC's Experiential Growth Brie Clayton August 4, 2026 0 Comments Technical Direction Company promotes Chris Fitzgerald to...

05/08/2026

Gravity Media, Live Media Group Form Strategic Partnership

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

05/08/2026

Samsung Launches World's First HDR10+ Streaming on Prime Video

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

05/08/2026

Profuz Digital unveils new advanced search capabilities a...

Profuz Digital is set to launch a powerful upgrade to its Profuz LAPIS digital media management platform at IBC this year at Stand 8.A88. France Galop, Canal+ F...

05/08/2026

KRK Brings Advanced Wireless Control to Professional Moni...

KRK, a Gibson brand and leader in professional studio monitoring for nearly four decades, launches its new V Series Five Studio Monitors, the latest evolution o...

05/08/2026

Stable performance in line with plan - Magyar Telekoms H1 and Q2 2026 results

Network expansion, continued customer growth and stable financial performance characterized Magyar Telekoms business results for the first half and second quart...

05/08/2026

The Sky Foundation launches new bursary programme to support the future of UK dance

Wednesday 5 August 2026 The Sky Foundation launches new bursary programme to su...

05/08/2026

Charlie Sheen Launches Mostly Sheenius in Partnership with Red Seat Ventures

Charlie Sheen Launches Mostly Sheenius in Partnership with Red Seat Ventures After Decades as One of the World's Most Recognizable and Interviewed Celebr...

04/08/2026

MLB's Jason Hedgcock on Using the Cloud To Produce World Baseball Classic Games for Netflix Japan

Live production in the cloud is a growing trend across the industry, and Major L...

04/08/2026

Major League Soccer Names Larry Berg as Next Commissioner; Will Take Helm in 2027

LAFC co-managing owner will succeed Don Garber on Jan. 1, 2027, as league prepar...

04/08/2026

Foresight: Driving Growth Through Broadcast Flexibility - A Calrec + PGA TOUR Case Study

In 2022, when the PGA TOUR was breaking ground on its new, state-of-the-art broa...

04/08/2026

Dealer Cam Debuts as Omaha Productions Takes World Series of Poker Main Event Final Table Live on ESPN

Provided by POVORA, the new camera angle offers a dealer's-eye view of the c...

04/08/2026

USL To Trial FIFA's Football Video Support System During 2026 USL Cup

Spiideo will provide the camera setup, with NEP handling broadcast integration and off-site video operations...

04/08/2026

Game On Live Studio Deploys Blackmagic Design Workflow Across 15 Fields at Tropical 7s

Production team streamed more than 750 youth rugby matches using ATEM switchers,...

04/08/2026

NDI, KTC Partner To Develop Network-Native Commercial Displays

Agreement gives KTC early access to NDI's Advanced SDK for integration across commercial displays, digital signage, and interactive panels...

04/08/2026

IBC2026: IBC Innovation Awards Finalists Highlight Advances in AI, Cloud, Open Standards, and Accessibility

Twelve projects across four categories recognize collaborative work in productio...

04/08/2026

Ekstraklasa, Live Park Select Hawk-Eye for Tracking, Offside, and Broadcast Technology

Multi-year agreement will introduce SkeleTRACK, semi-automated offside, automate...

04/08/2026

Radio France Deploys Redundant Lawo AoIP Workflow for 2026 Concert de Paris

Three mc 56 consoles, dual A__UHD Core engines, RAVENNA networking, and HOME management supported live sound, monitoring, and international broadcast production...

04/08/2026

IBC2026: Haivision to Debut Makito ONE, Falkon X4 in Europe

New contribution products support ultra-low-latency video transport across fixed, remote, and mobile production environments...

04/08/2026

IBC2026: Chyron to Highlight AI, Cloud, HTML Graphics, and Sports-Analysis Tools

Company will showcase updates across PRIME, Chyron LIVE, Paint, virtual production, newsroom workflows, and venue control...

04/08/2026

TAB Show 2026: MultiDyne to Showcase Fiber-Transport and IP Infrastructure Tools

Exhibit will feature SilverBack, VersaBrix, VersaFrame, VF-9100, and FiberSaver-10G platforms...

04/08/2026

IBC2026: TAG Video Systems Adds MXL Support, Containerized Deployment, Expanded QC Tools

Platform updates target cloud-based production, high-density ST 2110 monitoring,...

04/08/2026

Gravity Media, Live Media Group Partner To Expand U.S. Mobile Production Facility Operations

Live Media Group will take control of Gravity Media's U.S. mobile-unit fleet...

04/08/2026

HeadRush update Prime, Core & Flex Core firmware

Amp-modelling rigs get major upgrade HeadRush have recently released a major firmware update that brings some powerful new features to their Prime, Core and...

04/08/2026

Am I Audio launch I Am Choir

Generate a choir from a single voice track Following years of development, Am I Audio have just officially launched their debut plug-in. Created in collabor...

04/08/2026

Universal Audio's EMT 140 & 250 plug-ins go native

Official EMT-endorsed reverbs now available to all Two more of Universal Audio's renowned UAD plug-ins have just gained new native versions that can be ...

04/08/2026

SBS helps Australians understand why every Census counts

SBS helps Australians understand why every Census counts Media releases As Australia prepares for the 2026 Census on Tuesday 11 August, SBS is helping ensur...

04/08/2026

Canada invests in the future of HF communications with Rohde & Schwarz solutions

Canada invests in the future of HF communications with Rohde & Schwarz solutions After selection by the Canadian Department of National Defence (DND) as the p...

04/08/2026

Blendkit Expands Beyond Blender

Blendkit Expands Beyond Blender Brie Clayton August 4, 2026 0 Comments Popular 3D Asset Library Launches Alpha Plugins for Maya, Godot, and Rhino Blend...