
The world was watching when, on April 15, 2019, the Notre-Dame cathedral in Paris caught fire. A notable UNESCO World Heritage site, Notre-Dame is considered to be one of the finest examples of Gothic architecture anywhere. Netflix's recent drama series Notre-Dame seeks to retell this dramatic event, based on the accounts of French firefighters. It portrays the impact of the Notre-Dame fire on different people in Paris. ARRI spoke with cinematographer Jean-Max Bernard about his choices and experiences in bringing this emotional event back to life.
The new Netflix event series tackles the terrible fire of Notre-Dame de Paris. How did you approach this complex project?
I have been working with director Herv Hadmar for fifteen years. I know his way of working very well. He has the particularity of only directing series that he has written, this time with co-writer Olivier Bocquet. We worked together very early on, right from the first versions of the script. This gave us time to think, to advance step by step towards the image choices. On this series, Herv was very interested in the colors of stained glass. He wanted us to find these tones in the settings and in the light. He also gave me several references to films and series with very strong colors: Only God Forgives and Too Old to Die Young by Nicolas Winding Refn. We also looked at the series The Mosquito Coast which interested us a lot. It was an ongoing dialogue with the director. The goal was to bring an idea of color and tone close to stained glass to the series, without being too ostentatious.
Director Herv Hadmar (center, white shirt), cinematographer Jean-Max Bernard (center, left of blue mask) and some members of the film crew
Why did you choose ARRI Signature Prime lenses for Notre-Dame ?
The choice of lenses was very important to me on such a complex series, where I was dealing with fire and juggling different layers of smoke. I knew I would have to filter as little as possible to avoid double images. When we did comparative tests on faces with smoke, the Signature Primes stood out immediately. They were exactly the right lenses for the job. They had the roundness and finesse that would allow us to work virtually filter-free all the time. With these lenses, I used a lot of wide focal lengths at apertures of 2 or 2.8, with the idea of losing depth of field. This gives a real density to the image. The bokehs are also very nice, elegant, round, and fine. In addition, I find that Signature Primes give a very nice velvety look to the faces without being too soft or mushy. It's an excellent combination having both the sharpness and the velvetiness. I had a great time on the shoot with these lenses. The Signatures Primes are a big achievement from ARRI.
Using ARRI Signature Prime lenses was very important to deal with fire and different layers of smoke in Notre-Dame
When we did comparative tests on faces with smoke, the Signature Primes were an immediate choice, states DP Bernard
And what about the camera, how did the ALEXA Mini LF perform?
We shot with two ALEXA Mini LFs: one handheld and the other one on Steadicam or crane. I've always worked with ALEXA cameras, and I didn't want to experiment with anything else on such an important project. For this series, the ALEXA Mini LF was the safe choice, something very pragmatic. It is a camera that I know well. Its sensor offers a very wide latitude. It goes very deep into the blacks without going into a spin in the highlights. This was even more important as I was working with an open aperture. The story takes place almost entirely at night since the fire started in the early evening. As a result, the shoot was always a juggling act between the highlights of the flames, the shadows in the sets, and the firemen dressed in black. I needed a camera that could handle great contrasts, hence the choice of the ALEXA Mini LF. I also knew that in the sequences shot in the cathedral of Bourges for example, I was going to have to work in low light by relying on the existing atmosphere. The sensor gave me the latitude to shoot with very few sources. Not to mention the compactness of the Mini LF, which was essential for me to be able to work handheld in the very narrow stairs of real cathedrals.
Scene on the stairs of the Bourges cathedral
A safe choice for DP Bernard: The ALEXA Mini LF on Steadicam
At what exposure did you use the camera?
In general, I play very little on exposure. This time I was always at 800 ASA, maybe once or twice at 1600 ASA, but thats it. On Notre-Dame, the big job was to play on tones and colors. With my colorist, Gilles Granier, we worked very early on to develop a LUT that would work for the entire film. In this series, the rendering is not very naturalistic, especially of the skins. It wouldn't have made sense with the firemen covered in soot and exposed to the flames. So I had a lot of freedom to develop a LUT that would significantly change the color rendering and meet the director's desired direction. With the colorist, we studied the different atmospheres of the series in detail, prepared several LUTs, to finally arrive at the one that we were fully satisfied with. After that, we just had to install it on the ALEXA Mini LF.
Scene with firewomen in front of the cathedral Notre-Dame de Paris
Many scenes in Notre-Dame show firemen covered in soot and exposed to the flames
How did you work with color on set?
On each film or series, I always do some preparatory work beforehand, where I test different gelatins according to each sequence. I go through a Lee sampler by tints that I spread on windows and, progressively, I select the colorimetric ambiances that interest me, set by set. Then, I transfer them to the ARRI SkyPanels by selecting colors which are close to my gelatins. Afterwards, I make a lot of adjustments
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...
07/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
07/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
07/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
07/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
07/07/2026
Riedel Communications and ARRI played a key role in one of the most technically ambitious Eurovision Song Contest productions to date. For the first time in the...
07/07/2026
Berklee Valencia Honors Eric Whitacre at the 2026 Commencement Ceremony The Grammy-winning composer was celebrated alongside this years cohort of masters degr...
07/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
07/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
07/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
07/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
07/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
07/07/2026
The appointment will drive growth and innovation across the Media Business Unit
Fincons Group, a leading IT business consultancy and systems integrator company...
07/07/2026
International broadcast and streaming expert Big Blue Marble has announced a multi-month Proof of Concept (PoC) for Media over QUIC (MoQ) during a major interna...
07/07/2026
Test & measurement innovator, Leader Electronics of Europe, is proud to announce that two of its leading products, the PHABRIX Qx rasterizer and LeaderPhabrix L...
07/07/2026
Clear-Com announced that Ross Production Services (RPS), a leading provider of mobile production solutions for live events and broadcasts, has standardized on ...
07/07/2026
LiveU redefined live newsgathering with the invention of cellular bonding. At IBC2026, Stand 7.C24, the company will show how that foundation is evolving into t...
07/07/2026
LucidLink, a leader in cloud-based file services for content creators, today announced an enhanced workflow integration between LucidLink and Adobe Frame.io tha...
07/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
07/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
07/07/2026
New appointments to Screen Australia board 7 July 2026
The Albanese Labor Government has made new appointments to the Screen Australia board.
Dr Tania Chamber...
07/07/2026
The right team. The right time.' How The Killings at Parrish Station stuck t...
07/07/2026
Berklee College of Music Alum and Faculty Perform at Boston Public Library's...
07/07/2026
To Whom It Concerns RT today confirmed that Patrick Kielty is to extend his contract as host of The Late Late Show.
Last season, the world's longest-runn...
07/07/2026
Max single-threaded CPUs at scale are a new category of CPUs built for the agentic AI era.
Across the creation and deployment of an agentic system, the CPU is...
07/07/2026
Scripps Research scientists train the immune system to make antibodies against numerous HIV strains Preclinical findings mark progress toward a long-sought vacc...
06/07/2026
Long-developed relationships and informal access, three production models, and c...
06/07/2026
The deal follows Lumine's recent acquisition of Synamedia's video-networ...
06/07/2026
This former SportsCenter producer is shaping local-team studio coverage to surro...
06/07/2026
IMS Productions and FOX Sports deployed more than 100 cameras, 32 onboard feeds,...
06/07/2026
Lumine Group Inc. has announced the completion of its acquisition of the Video Network Business from Synamedia. The business will operate as a standalone compan...
06/07/2026
NASCAR has announced a content and commercial partnership with Motorsport Network, a motorsports and automotive media platform, to distribute NASCAR original co...
06/07/2026
Versant Media Group has announced a definitive agreement to acquire Full Swing, a sports technology company, from Bruin Capital and a group of minority investor...
06/07/2026
DAZN has announced global broadcast rights to 3ICE, a professional hockey format featuring three skaters and a goalkeeper per side, with no power plays or offsi...
06/07/2026
Bundle gains 100 new synths & more
Synth Anthology 5 the largest and most feature-packed edition of UVI's hardware synth emulation bundle, bringing toge...
06/07/2026
Available now via free firmware update
MOTU have just announced that three of their popular audio interfaces now boast official Milan Certification. The 16A...
06/07/2026
Rohde & Schwarz completes Hunter Preliminary Design Review for the Integrated Co...
06/07/2026
The R&S IMAGER from Rohde & Schwarz uses millimeter wave imaging to inspect the ...
06/07/2026
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), an agency of the Department of Sp...
06/07/2026
Digital Domain Appoints Industry Veteran Patrick Davenport as Executive Vice Pre...
06/07/2026
Gravity Media USA appoints Brittney Boston as Head of Business Development
Brie Clayton July 6, 2026
0 Comments
The strategic new appointment supports...
06/07/2026
Remote Editing Without Cloud Storage in Resolve
Michael Cioni July 6, 2026
0 Comments
This is a step-by-step guide that demonstrates how to setup your...
06/07/2026
Automatic Caption Translation in Adobe Premiere Pro
Colin Smith July 6, 2026
0 Comments
Here I showcase the innovative automatic caption translation f...
06/07/2026
Flavor's First Ever Managing Director Neal Cohen Retires; Longstanding Execu...
06/07/2026
How Adam Rosenwach Pivoted from Music to Medtech Without Missing a Beat What do the rehearsal room and the boardroom have in common? More than you might think...
06/07/2026
Zhongyi Optics unveils the Dreamy Zone T1 FF Cine Lens Series on Indiegogo with ...
06/07/2026
Open source AI has shown how quickly developers can innovate when models, data a...
06/07/2026
Techtel debuts insyght: making ST 2110 media discovery easy
intellisphereinsyght2026
6 July Written By Suzanne Costello
Sydney, Australia - 06 July 2026 T...