Q&A: DP/director Bill Bennett

Bill Bennett recently ran the new ARRI Master Prime lenses through their paces during a challenging, four-day shoot of winter running footage for American Suzuki Motor Corporation. The film was produced by Film Rà©alità© for agency Colby & Partners. Bennett was cast as director and cinematographer, a familiar role for him on these types of projects. He shot about 30,000 feet of film showing SUVs navigating snow-covered mountain roads and in blizzard conditions.

Bill Bennett, ASC
Director/cinematographer, Los Angeles
Latest Project: Running footage for Suzuki
On: Using ultra-long lenses to get the shot

It surprises some people that I mainly used [Kodak Vision2] 5205, a 250-speed film balanced for daylight in that situation, because faster films tend to render images with wider latitude and less contrast. I had ND filters on the lenses in the brightest daylight, and began taking them off as it got darker. There were fewer magazine changes and no short ends. There were also times when we were ramping at up to 150 frames per second for which I needed a 250-speed film. I carried some [Kodak Vision2] 500T 5218 for the darkest shots. You can use it as a 1,000-speed film without any grain in telecine. I used Angenieux zooms and ultra-long 600, 800 and 1,200 mm Nikon and Canon still camera lenses that Century Precision Optics adapted for my ARRI 435s, along with five of the new ARRI Master Prime lenses made by Carl Zeiss.

Bennett: Before I decided to use them, I shot a series of tests of resolution charts comparing them to other lenses. The Master Primes were sharper and recorded more nuanced contrast while shooting wide open at T-1.3, when compared to other lenses that are a stop slower. You can also change focus while the camera is rolling without breathing- with most of the older lenses, even a small change in focus alters the size of the image, which can make it look like a small zoom. There is also no ghosting of images, called "narcissis," with any of the Master Primes.

I shot a test scene [on 5218] of a young woman and man having a romantic, candlelit dinner. There were six or eight candles on the table and others in candlesticks on sideboards. You can see details even in a dark painting on the wall. My conclusion is that we no longer need to go to great lengths to photograph scenes at very low light levels. If you can see it with the naked eye, you can photograph it. This is the most significant breakthrough in lens technology I’ve seen during the 25 years that I have been a cinematographer.