Based on the series of novels by Eoin Colfer, the feature Artemis Fowl finds its namesake a precocious, hyperintelligent 12-year-old boy (played by Ferdia Shaw) just after his father (Colin Farrell) has gone missing from their estate in Ireland. Young Artemis soon finds the first in a trail of clues that, in leading him back to his father, will also unlock a magical world populated by fairies, trolls and other creatures the young boy had thought to be merely the stuff of legend and myth.
Artemis Fowl was cinematographer Haris Zambarloukos, BSC, GSC's sixth feature collaboration with director Kenneth Branagh; their seventh, Death on the Nile, is slated for release later this year. Over the course of their collaboration, Zambarloukos notes, There's a trust that's built up, an understanding, a similar love of storytelling, certain social views that you want to share in filmmaking and that then enrich a professional friendship. That's what it's become: a very rewarding professional friendship. We push each other and encourage each other very well.
As prep got underway on Artemis Fowl, Branagh and Zambarloukos looked at a wide range of visual references, including a certain type of entertaining storytelling in the vein of Spielberg and Indiana Jones, where things have a breadth and happen quickly, the cinematographer says. Inspired by the same Irish mythology from which Artemis Fowl draws, the filmmakers also looked to nature itself. The documentary series Blue Planet II became a really big influence and provided our references for [the subterranean] Haven City. We were going to the natural world to get something extremely fictional and that was always the case with Irish mythology, which had its roots in a love of the Earth, in a natural beauty that blends into a more magical beauty.
The filmmakers considered shooting on 65mm film but ultimately opted for anamorphic 35mm, working primarily with Primo anamorphic primes. Ken was talking about a fast-paced camera, and [the Millennium XL2 35mm camera system allowed for] a few more tricks up our sleeve, Zambarloukos shares. But we still wanted the extreme high fidelity and immersion that you have from 65mm, and we found a middle ground between traditional 35mm and 65mm by using Primo anamorphics and, as much as we could, lower ASA film, Kodak's 200T [Vision3 5213, for day interiors] and 50D [5203, for day exteriors], and we only went to 500T [5219] when we needed it.
Zambarloukos sourced his camera and lens package with the help of Panavision's Hugh Whittaker and Charlie Todman. Supplementing the Primo anamorphics, the production carried G Series primes primarily for Steadicam shots, operated by Stamos Triantafyllos and select other optics. In picking his lens package, the cinematographer followed what he calls his standard procedure. He explains, Charlie Todman, 1st AC Dean Thompson and I will sit in the lens-projection room at [Panavision's facility in] Greenford and project as many lenses as we can to pick our sets. Despite going Primo, I still look for a teeny bit of falloff on the edges, and the extreme sharpness in the middle.
On set, the cinematographer predominantly used focal lengths in the 35mm to 75mm range, he says. We definitely went wider, but that midrange is where you spend most of your time, especially with kids. That's where the human eye sits, really.
Principal photography on Artemis Fowl took place in 2018, with the majority of the shooting done at Longcross Studios in Chertsey, England. There, the production built Fowl Manor the mansion home to the film's eponymous hero as a self-contained location, with a fully realized interior and exterior that allowed the camera to roam from inside to outside and back in continuous shots, Zambarloukos explains.
It took a lot of planning to give Haris and Ken full rein to shoot where they wanted to at any time, says gaffer Julian White, whose collaboration with Zambarloukos traces back to the 2004 feature Spivs. HMIs were positioned on cranes outside to push hard daylight into the house interior, while bi-color LED banks were rigged to provide an aggressive soft light through the huge windows, White notes. Inside, he adds, Rigging gaffer Dan Lowe and his team installed a steel rig in the ceiling very much like you would have on a traditional stage, which meant that electric hoists could be added and repositioned quickly. The whole set was installed with a full electrical three-phase system and Wi-Fi control.
On top of all that, Zambarloukos says, practical lighting was done hand in hand with Jim Clay, our production designer. So Julian White, Dan Lowe and practical electrician Joe McGee made a plan and fitted out the house [with bi-color LEDs] so everything was DMX-able, everything had temperature control, and everything went back to the same [lighting console]. The overall approach to Fowl Manor allowed Zambarloukos to shoot inside with the 200 ASA stock at his preferred stop of T4.
The production's lighting package was sourced through Panalux. With Ken, we do these really intricate, difficult sets and studio pictures that require you to rethink everything every time, the cinematographer says. It's so bespoke; there's no set way of doing this. No one's built a house like that for a set, three stories high, inside and out, all functioning, all lit. So when we go to Panalux and we say, Can we do this?' we all start together. And there's a fantastic sense that, Of course we can,' and please come and test.' It's a team effort.
We spent a lot of time testing and sourcing the right materials, White adds. Rob Garvie, Paul Dooley and the Panalux team were fantastic in their support from prep through to finish. The movie was never straightforward in its
Europe Stories
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
01/06/2026
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...
01/05/2026
January 5 2026, 18:30 (PST) NBCUniversal's Peacock to Be First Streamer to ...
01/04/2026
January 4 2026, 18:00 (PST) DOLBY AND DOUYIN EMPOWER THE NEXT GENERATON OF CREATORS WITH DOLBY VISION
Douyin Users Can Now Create And Share Videos With Stun...
23/01/2026
Staines-upon-Thames, UK, 29 July, 2025 - Yospace, the global leader in Dynamic A...
23/01/2026
Spotify's annual Best New Artist celebration honors the rising stars whose talent, creativity, and dedication have propelled them to the music industry'...
23/01/2026
Paramount is transforming its operations by unifying the media supply chains of their top brands into a scalable global pipeline.
This transformation enhances ...
23/01/2026
Every delay costs. When a subtitle fails QC, even the smallest issue can mean missed deadlines, extra vendor costs, or frustrated teams. The new Accurate.Video ...
23/01/2026
Friday 23 January 2026
Sky appoints Lisa Clark as Commissioning Executive for SNL UK
Lisa Clark headshot
PNG (468KB)
Lisa Clark joins Sky as Commissioning E...
23/01/2026
RT is delighted to announce that the RT and F s ireann / Screen Ireland supported short film Retirement Plan has been nominated for Best Animated Short at th...
22/01/2026
Last November, Ed Sheeran returned to his musical roots for an intimate, one-nig...
22/01/2026
Every delay costs. When a subtitle fails QC, even the smallest issue can mean missed deadlines, extra vendor costs, or frustrated teams. The new Accurate.Video ...
22/01/2026
Rohde & Schwarz, Qualcomm, and Motorola demonstrate successful 5G Broadcast comp...
22/01/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
21/01/2026
Wednesday 21 January 2026
Backing Britain on the global stage: Sky becomes an o...
21/01/2026
Fox Corporation Executives to Discuss Second Quarter Fiscal 2026 Financial Resul...
21/01/2026
Baselight v7 brings colourists and post-houses smarter mattes, faster workflows and deeper control
FilmLight, known for its detailed colour toolset and longsta...
21/01/2026
RT News is pleased to announce the appointment of Jackie Fox as its new Washington Correspondent. Jackie is a multimedia journalist with RT News and has repor...
19/01/2026
Monday 19 January 2026
Sky News reinvents News at Ten for the modern audience with The Wrap
Sky News today announces The Wrap, a bold evolution of its 10pm ou...
19/01/2026
DPA Microphones is striking a new chord in piano miking with the debut of its DPK2015 Piano Stereo Kit, an out-of-the-box, plug-and-play miking solution that ta...
19/01/2026
DPA Microphones will present its 4099 CORE Instrument Microphone and redesigned...
19/01/2026
Trianel relies on Arvato Systems for future-proof data center operations
Moving to the cloud: Arvato Systems implements extensive IT migration project
Migrat...
19/01/2026
Celebrating 21 Years of the RT Choice Music Prize
RT Choice Music Prize
In association with IMRO and IRMA
Irish Album of the Year 2025 - Shortlist Announce...
18/01/2026
January 18 2026, 21:30 (PST) Dolby Cinema Arrives in Bengaluru: Dolby Laborator...
16/01/2026
The start of a new year brings fresh possibilities. Whether you're diving in with big goals or simply setting new intentions, audiobooks can bring inspirati...
16/01/2026
In 2025 we launched the Spotify Partner Program to give creators more ways to tu...
15/01/2026
The SGL Carbon site in Bonn has a long tradition of training. For many years, young talent has been successfully trained here, regularly achieving excellent exa...
15/01/2026
The JEC Composites Innovation Awards annually honor the most innovative and ambi...
15/01/2026
X-energy Reactor Company, LLC ( X-energy ) and SGL Carbon LLC ( SGL ) have signed a 10-year framework agreement to provide graphite for the deployment of X-ener...
15/01/2026
RT is tonight announcing that Mari Hurley has decided to leave her role as RT 's Chief Financial Officer to take up a new position outside RT . Mari will r...
15/01/2026
15 Jan 2026
VEON's Kyivstar Reaches 3.0 million Customers with Starlink Dir...
15/01/2026
Views to free streaming service U grew by 15%, average monthly active users by 23% and registrations by 18%
UKTV's channels achieved record viewing share, ...
15/01/2026
Thursday 15 January 2026
Sky Sports to show Final Stage of inaugural FIFA Women's Champions Cup
Sky and FIFA have agreed an exclusive new partnership whi...
15/01/2026
Thursday 15 January 2026
The official trailer for the second season of Seth Mac...
15/01/2026
Wuppertal January 15, 2026
Riedel RefCam Takes Center Court in German Basketba...
15/01/2026
Arvato Systems Named Launch Partner for AWS European Sovereign Cloud
As a launch partner for the AWS European Sovereign Cloud, Arvato Systems enables customer...
14/01/2026
Staines-upon-Thames, UK, 13th January, 2026 - ITV, one of the UK's leading broadcasters, has selected Yospace, the global leader in Dynamic Ad Insertion (DA...
14/01/2026
Steiger Media's adoption of Calrec's compact Argo M console not only makes its innovative new hybrid truck faster, more efficient, and agile, but also e...
14/01/2026
Press Release: The Boston Globe Names Cartesian a Top Place to Work in 2025
January 14, 2026
News
Cartesian - January 14, 2026 - EINPresswire.com - Sp...
14/01/2026
Comscore and Marcus Theatres Announce Five-Year Extension for Cinema ACE and Ent...
14/01/2026
Comscore and Santikos Entertainment Announce Five-Year Circuit Wide Commitment t...
14/01/2026
Wednesday 14 January 2026
Sky News announces Cathy Newman to lead flagship new political programme
Sky News today announces that award-winning journalist and ...
14/01/2026
The first stamp of An Post's 2026 Stamp Programme, marking 100 Years of Broadcasting, was unveiled at the GPO by Patrick O'Donovan TD, Minister for Cult...
14/01/2026
It's official! Beverley Callard has landed in Carrigstown. The beloved actor, known for her unforgettable roles and iconic screen presence, is joining the c...
13/01/2026
Independent media in Brazil and Colombia is facing an urgent crisis of traditional business models alongside a deteriorating security environment, according to ...
13/01/2026
Some days you want your music to reflect a specific feeling, memory, or vibe that goes beyond a single artist or genre. You want to do more than listen. You wan...
13/01/2026
Luxembourg, December 17, 2025 - SES S.A. ( SES or the Company ), a leading spa...
13/01/2026
Written and executive produced by Steve Lightfoot and Angela LaManna, produced b...
13/01/2026
New updates to Hitmaker Expansion from Celemony and Softube Edit pitch-perfect vocals with Melodyne Essential and get radio-ready guitar tones from Softube...
Based on the series of novels by Eoin Colfer, the feature Artemis Fowl finds its namesake a precocious, hyperintelligent 12-year-old boy (played by Ferdia Shaw) just after his father (Colin Farrell) has gone missing from their estate in Ireland. Young Artemis soon finds the first in a trail of clues that, in leading him back to his father, will also unlock a magical world populated by fairies, trolls and other creatures the young boy had thought to be merely the stuff of legend and myth.
