Yes, there's life after digital for directors of photography
Since 2013, as an official partner of the Cannes Film Festival, Angénieux has been paying tribute to directors of photography through "The Pierre Angénieux ExcelLens in Cinematography" awards. This awards ceremony turns the festival spotlight on directors of photography whose quest for aesthetic effect and technical excellence has built the worldwide success of Angénieux optics. On the podium on 24 May this year were Bruno Delbonnel, AFC*, ASC**, nominated for an Oscar five times for his cinematography on Amélie (2001), A Very Long Engagement (2004), Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009), Inside Llewyn Davis (2013) and Darkest Hour (2017), and the young Indian director of photography Modhura Palit.
Without directors of photography, the cinema simply wouldn't exist. Masters of light, magicians of the silver screen, directors of photography or cinematographers have long been considered the life and soul of the seventh art. They are responsible for the image from beginning to end, and would have an exclusive preview of the work because the rushes were only available the day after shooting when they had been developed in the lab.
The digital revolution hit the cinema like a freight train, disrupting everything from design to distribution and transforming the art of movie production along the way. And new technologies are changing the way we watch films as well as the way they're produced. Streaming, OTT (Over The Top), smartphones, tablets and laptops are now in direct competition with media companies, cable networks and bricks-and-mortar movie theatres. Not to mention the ongoing feud between the traditional studios and new providers like Amazon, Apple and Netflix.
Digital makes everything possible
Storing video signals as computer files makes almost everything possible, from special effects to sophisticated post-production techniques and more. And while digital technology opens new windows of creative opportunity, it has also raised a number of concerns — chief among them, how to protect a cinematographer's work when everything could be denatured in post-production. How is it possible to preserve the integrity of the image, from the moment a scene is captured to the moment it is projected (digitally) on a screen?Caught up in this maelstrom of new technology, the industry wondered what was to become of the art of the cinema in the era of "move fast and break things". And what would be the role of cinematographers? Would they retain control by covering every aspect of the image creation process? Because it's the lens, more than anything else, that defines the images we see on the screen. It's the lens that translates the director's intent, proposes the style and sparks the emotion. The lens is the key to the creation of a distinctive movie shot that stands out from the rest.
The magician of the silver screen is no longer a solo adventurer. Today the director of photography has mutated into an orchestra leader working in real time, with new tools of the trade, new methods and broader responsibilities than ever before. Contemporary directors of production spend even more time previewing scenes in pre-production, influencing the action on the set, and checking image integrity in the post-production studio.
A fantastic opportunity for Angénieux
People started testing digital cinema production in the late 1990s but it only became a reality for professionals in the mid-2000s with the appearance on the market of single-sensor digital cameras. Angénieux has been supporting the development of the movie industry for more than 80 years, and saw digital technology and the exponential increase in the number of movie cameras not so much as a disruption to business as usual — Angénieux optics were compatible with the very first generation of digital cameras — but as a tremendous opportunity for the future. Digital has indeed turned out to be a powerful stimulus for technological creativity that has opened up new avenues of progress and potential.
“Enabling cinematographers to configure lenses optimally for each individual project and/or camera is truly a unique feature that is only available from Angénieux. IRO technology has an extremely promising future in this constantly changing universe," said Christophe Remontet, Technical & Engineering Director and Cinema Product Line Manager, Angénieux, a Thales Group brand.
The company embraced the technological transition with a vengeance, completely rethinking its lens product families, expanding the range of supported image formats and constantly enhancing the performance of its zoom lenses as each new generation of digital sensors pushed resolutions to higher levels.
In 2008, Angénieux revisited its world-famous Optimo family, adding new models that were compatible with the latest generations of digital cameras. Cinema professionals loved them. Industry awards abounded.
The latest model to date in the ongoing evolution of the zoom lens for cinema is the Optimo Ultra 12x with its Interchangeable Rear Optics (IRO) technology, capable of adapting lens configurations to three different camera sensor formats including Full Format. In September 2018, just a few months after the Optimo Ultra 12x FF/VV (36-435) first went on sale, it won the coveted Cinec Award in Munich.
For more information about this 7th edition of the Pierre Angénieux ExcelLens in Cinematography ceremony at the Cannes Film Festival, visit