Cooke S4/i lenses capture emotional heart of The Last Of Us
Brie Clayton March 22, 2023
0 Comments
Anticipated HBO adaptation of award-winning video game preserves iconic elements with stunning cinematography
Cooke Optics can proudly share that its globally renowned Cooke S4/i spherical lenses were the tool of choice for cinematographer Ksenia Sereda to shoot The Last Of Us, the new HBO series based on the critically acclaimed video game of the same name developed by Naughty Dog for the PlayStation platforms.
The Last Of Us story takes place twenty years after modern civilization has been destroyed. Joel, a hardened survivor, is hired to smuggle Ellie, a 14-year-old girl, out of an oppressive quarantine zone. What starts as a small job soon becomes a brutal, heartbreaking journey, as they both must traverse the U.S. and depend on each other for survival.
I played the game for the first time almost four years ago, and I was absolutely fascinated by its cinematic look - I wasn't ready for how beautiful it was, the lighting was gorgeous. And the most surprising thing was how deeply I connected to the characters in the game, said Sereda. So of course, it was a lot of pressure to translate the video game language into the TV series because it's already beautiful and everyone, including nearly all of the crew, loved the game.
While three other cinematographers Eben Bolter, Nadim Carlsen and Christine A. Maier -joined the production to work on several episodes, at the start of the process Sereda worked closely with Neil Druckmann, the writer of the original game and co-creator and writer/director for television, and Craig Mazin, co-creator and writer/director for television, to capture the visual language of the series. Starting from an incredible cinematic reference in the game itself, one of the most important things was to recreate the atmosphere of this dystopian world.
Some may say that The Last of Us is a post-apocalyptic fight for survival' story, but for me, the real story is about people building new lives in new circumstances. It's about friendship and love, and the most important thing is the characters' journeys. Part of the joy of the game is the interactivity with the characters, seeing action from their perspective, so for the TV show we wanted to stay as close to them as possible, and that informed our choice of camera and lenses, explained Sereda.
Following a short period of tests, Ksenia decided on pairing Cooke S4/i spherical lenses with the ARRI ALEXA Mini camera. I am obsessed with spherical lenses, she said. I wanted to keep close ups on the normal side and not go to long or wide lenses because, working from the characters' perspective on the story, we needed to be able to stay close but at the same time preserve the depth of background. I also wanted to work within the range of 25mm-50mm lenses, so the challenge was: which lens won't distort faces at 25mm; where can I come with wide lens on the close-up without being too poppy? Cooke S4/i was an excellent choice for this.
They are gorgeous, and are one of my favourite lens series. You have this focus plane which is very distinctive, but after that the falloff between the focus plan and the defocused area is very smooth. I love to work without filters too, and on the close ups I just could not take my eye off the portraits we could create with the light. The system of light, lens and camera gave a very specific, textured and warm image.
In a post-apocalyptic world, low lighting and flares were a challenge that the Cooke lenses coped with well. Some of the scenes went into areas where people did not have electricity, so the scenes were literally built only with flashlights. With the Cooke S4/i's, you know that when you're working with flaring, it's sympathetic - it's never too overwhelming or over-tinted, said Sereda. Shooting low light with the S4/I and ARRI ALEXA Mini produces beautiful work with very high intensity areas and low exposed areas. In general, I really love to work on the bottom of the exposure curve, I really love to pack the image from 60% and down, having the whites always in very low range to give us the opportunity of more shades and textures in the blacks.
Related COW News
March 21, 2023Major Omniverse updates increase access to generative AI, simulation and the industrial metaverseDevelopers and creators can better realize the massive potential of generative AI,
March 21, 2023Magewell to Unveil New Video Capture, Live Streaming and IP Workflow Innovations at 2023 NAB ShowDemonstrations will shine spotlight on new products and end-to-end workflows As the
The organic, gentle Cooke Look was important as well, but not to the detriment of cooler images. I did want to stay on the warmer side, we didn't want to anticipate sad scenes being blue and happy scenes being warm. I've heard a lot about Cookes being warm, but I never had problems getting a cooler image that's what I feel they really support, the neutral look of light. And what I really love about that is that it helps me to keep all the colours where I want them to be.
The show features a lot of visual effects, many of which were achieved practically. Alex Wang, the VFX Supervisor, was wonderful to work with. John Paino, the production designer, created some fantastic sets and Barrie Gower did incredible work with prosthetics, so it was amazing to work with real elements on set, said Sereda. We used blue screen for very specific scenes like night scenes or more controlled environments. The key thing was, even though we used completely different VFX techniques over the show, the lenses and the camera provided complete flexibility in creating every type of visual effect.
The Last Of Us is currently available to view on Sky Atlantic in the UK a
North America Stories
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
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
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
A fentanyl countermeasure that adapts to combat future black-market drugs Scripps Research scientists developed a vaccine that teaches the immune system to rapi...
11/06/2026
The immense size of the tourney and its Atlantic-spanning operation also disting...
11/06/2026
Nielsen has released a new soccer fandom consumer research report, The Fans Behind The Game: FIFA World Cup 2026 Edition, examining the soccer audience in the...
11/06/2026
Telemundo will launch its FIFA World Cup 2026 coverage on Thursday, June 11 with...
11/06/2026
FuboTV Inc. has announced a distribution agreement with NBCUniversal. Fubo customers can now stream Telemundo and Universo, with NBC Sports Network (NBCSN), NBC...
11/06/2026
DAZN has announced its in-app features for FIFA World Cup 2026 coverage in Spain...
11/06/2026
Roblox has released the 2026 Roblox Digital Expression Report: Wave 4 - Sports D...
11/06/2026
FIFA has unveiled DNA, the Official FIFA World Cup 2026 Anthem, performed by A...
11/06/2026
ESPN will provide English- and Spanish-language news and information coverage of FIFA World Cup 2026 across its U.S. media platforms from June 11 through July 1...
11/06/2026
The latest product of the outstanding RIT Sports Network program, this recent grad from Long Island is carving out a promising path in broadcast engineering
In...
11/06/2026
DAZN has announced a multi-year agreement to make DSPORTS channels available to ...
Cooke S4/i lenses capture emotional heart of The Last Of Us 
