ZEISS ON HOME OF THE BRAVE

“I tend to use the whole frame, painting edge to edge,” says cinematographer Tony Pierce-Roberts, BSC. “Like Zeiss film lenses, the digital series suited my style. That’s why I was excited about using the Zeiss DigiPrimes and DigiZoom for Home of the Brave.

“In Morocco, which doubled for Iraq, dust was flying everywhere and it was 127 degrees in the shade. The combination of the Viper camera and the 6-24mm Zeiss DigiZoom made for a compact, lightweight handheld package. It enabled us to get right into the action. The combat footage was exciting.”

The main characters return to the States only to face another form of combat – adjusting to home life. “The Zeiss DigiPrimes captured some amazing shots for these sequences,” adds Pierce-Roberts. “They were remarkable for picking up details in very dark areas. In one scene in which Brian Presley, as Tommy, is driving at night and is almost run into by another driver, all I needed for lighting was a MiniFlo at about half intensity. That lit Brian in the cab. The rest was available light. By consistently working wide open at a T1.9, we were able to control the depth-offield and achieve a look similar to 35mm.”

Pierce-Roberts enthusiastically describes how the Zeiss lenses handled the transition from bright to dark in two exciting helicopter sequences. “The first involved one of our biggest lighting set ups,” he recalls. “Fifty Cents’ character has a breakdown and holds several people hostage in a drive-in restaurant. We had the chopper for an hour, then simulated the light source from a Xenon on top of a tower and added flashing lights on police cars from ‘whirligig’ lamps.

“And in the second, we even shot a close up of the character Vanessa inside a flying helicopter,” he adds. “We ignored the waveform as the sun flooded the cockpit. We let the shot over-expose. The Viper and the Zeiss DigiPrimes handled the over-exposure brilliantly.

“The lenses really came through for me. When the shots were stitched together, the results were seamless.

“Thanks to the Zeiss DigiPrime and DigiZoom lenses, my first HD widescreen feature was a creative and satisfying experience.”