For people curious to know what ‘Chamkila’ was shot on, I thought i’d share this. I try to curate the camera and lens combination that best serves the story and director’s vision. I’ve found that lenses play a disproportionately greater role in creating the image (vs the camera). Most modern digital cameras are very close to each other under general shooting conditions and they can be matched up very well during the DI/grading process. Only under extremes is where you can see certain cameras providing an edge over the others. (e.g. Sony Venice 1 & 2 with low light capability, Alexa 35’s extended highlight retention ability etc.) After several tests I picked Cooke’s Full frame anamorphic lenses which are designed to work well with today’s digital sensors. A squeeze factor of 1.8x (vs the traditional 2x) gives it the distinct image texture. The sharpness at full open is decent and at T2.8 the lenses performed quite well. Their special flare set had uncoated glass elements leading to some interesting soft flares and blue streaks making the image more organic. Moreover, the large field of view of these lenses is fantastic to create a certain ‘bigness’ on the screen, which the audience perceives subconsciously. The Sony Venice camera complemented the lenses beautifully. The sensor has good skin tones, decent dynamic range, vibrant colours, and clean shadows without perceivable noise. In some night scenes we pushed up the ISO to 2500 to help get the necessary exposure. The inbuilt ND filters tackled harsh sunlight seamlessly without any colour shifts and the Rialto rig is always a bonus. @netflix_in @imtiazaliofficial @pradeep.pashte @nileshchaubey21 @tinysubtleties @monicatiwari @profilmmakingbysony_india @cookeoptics @sonyprofilmmaking #Netflixindia #ARRahman #ImtiazAli #DiljitDosanjh #ParineetiChopra #sonyvenicecamera #cookeoptics #anamorphic #baselight