American Cinematographer - July 2017 - 18

Sigma offers Cine High Speed Zooms,
Cine FF Zooms and Cine FF High Speed
Primes; and Fujifilm has recently unveiled
its MK Series of cinema zooms.
The trend will continue as more
companies embrace the marketplace's
need for cine-style lenses for HDSLR and
other mid-range cameras. Most of these
lenses sell for around $4,000 to $8,000
per lens, but some are substantially more
affordable; some of the Tokina and
Veydra lenses come in under $1,000 per
lens. The majority of these affordable
cine-style lenses are available with Micro
4⁄3, Canon EF, Nikon F or Sony E mounts,
and some of them also offer PL mounts.
These lenses are anything but amateur,
and they often feature performance on
par with high-end lenses four times their
price. In addition, because many of them

are designed to cover the full-frame
formats, they often feature larger image
circles than high-end cinema glass.
The type of lens you should be
using depends on the particular project
you're shooting - no one lens is perfect
for every job. News, documentaries and
sports are better served with ENG/EFPstyle lenses. Studio productions and
stadium sporting events are best served
by studio lenses. Still photographers have
a struggle on their hands with anything
other than still-style glass. And filmmakers
working in commercials, music videos,
shorts and features are best served by
reaching for cine-style glass.
If you're in that latter category?
Yes, absolutely, the price tag is worth it.

from show to show," she
teases. "Honestly, it's
pretty basic and unorthodox, but it's become so
effective and necessary.
"It all started when I
was doing Necessary
Roughness in 2011," she
continues. "We'd be
setting up a shot, and
when lights and camera
were ready, I'd go up to
the ADs, give the thumbsup and say 'ready.'
Minutes later, they'd ask,
'What are we waiting on?'
Lisa Wiegand, ASC checks her meter on the set of Chicago Fire.
And I'd say, 'Um, nothing.
I told you we were ready.'
Pro Perspective
And they said, 'We can never tell when
Lisa Wiegand, ASC:
you're ready!'" Laughing, she adds, "I was
Clear as a Bell
like, 'So the word "ready" with my thumbs
in the air isn't sufficient?'
A past recipient of the ASC Karl
"I think because my voice is a bit high
Struss Heritage Award, Lisa Wiegand was it gets ignored," the cinematographer
invited into the Society's ranks of active continues. "I usually have to say people's
members in 2014. She's most known for her names like 10 times before they hear me. It's
work in television, where her credits include really annoying."
the series Dollhouse (AC Feb. '10), Detroit
Hoping to streamline her communi1-8-7, Necessary Roughness, Chicago Fire cation on set, Wiegand turned to a surpris(AC March '13), American Crime and, most ingly simple device. "I bought a hotel desk
recently, Chicago Justice (AC April '17).
bell," she notes. "I put it on my cart next to
"There's one tool that I take with me my monitor, and when I finished lighting I hit

the bell. The result was phenomenal. It's a
pure Pavlovian situation. When people heard
the bell, it was like the AD had shouted 'last
looks!' The vanities rushed in and did their
final touches, everyone focused up, and no
one had to say a word!
"After that show, I carried the bell
with me to every new show. I have a new
use for it now. Because we never 'check the
gate' anymore in the digital world, after the
director says 'cut' and wants to move on,
they may forget to check with me to make
sure we're good technically. I try to get ADs
to say, 'Check the gate,' but everyone laughs
at that. Now when a director wants to move
on, the ADs check with me, and if the take
was good for camera, I slap the bell and
everyone moves on. The crew won't move
on till they hear that bell.
"I've tried other things - a buzzer or
a horn or a gong - but the bell just really
works," the cinematographer adds. "Now
I'm very specific about what kind of bell I
use; it has to have the right tone with the
right decay to it, or it's not as effective."
After Wiegand left Chicago Fire and
handed the reins to cinematographer Jayson
Crothers, the tradition persisted. "After they
get used to it," Wiegand notes, "the crew
really loves the sound of that bell. It means
progress. Jayson is still using the bell."
- JH

July 2017

American Cinematographer

➣

Wiegand photo by Elizabeth Morris.

apparent. Most cine-style lenses try to
design-out axial shift.
Not all cine-style lenses are ridiculously expensive. Some, of course, are as
much as $90,000 per lens, but a recent
trend in more-affordable digital motionpicture cameras has created a burgeoning
market for less-costly cine-style optics.
The Zeiss CP.2 primes, introduced
in 2011, were some of the earliest
cinema-style lenses that were specifically
manufactured for HDSLR cameras and
mid-range cinema cameras; the company
recently introduced its next-generation
CP.3 lenses. Canon has unveiled the CN-E
cinema primes, and Schneider-Kreuznach
has introduced Cine-Xenar and Xenon FF.
Additionally, Rokinon offers Xeen lenses;
Tokina has its ATX and Cinema Vista
primes; Veydra has added Mini Primes;

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Cinematographer - July 2017