ARRI first began making movie equipment in 1917 in Munich, Germany, and is one of the original cinema equipment companies still in existence to this day. In a testament to its core principles of building only the highest quality, most durable, and innovative products in the field, they’ve become a fixture throughout some of the biggest and most recognized Hollywood productions. Needless to say, I am a huge fan.
ARRI has been at the forefront of camera innovation starting with their first camera: the Kinarri 35, a 100-foot hand-cranked film camera released in 1924. In 1937, they made their first ARRIFLEX 35 — the first reflex mirror shutter cameras which removed parallax errors that allowed for accurate framing.
Fast forward several decades, and the digital age brought ARRI new opportunities. With the release of the ARRI Alexa, the company introduced a unit with impressive dynamic range of approximately 14 stops, which also had the signature ARRI camera body style, was reliable, and most importantly had an image quality and color science that was beloved by the most discerning cinematographers in the world.
The latest and greatest of the ARRI line of cameras is the recently-released Alexa Mini LF. This is absolute powerhouse of a camera fits a large format sensor into the body the size of the much smaller Alexa Mini, all the while improving upon the high-end specs and features users of the Alexa Mini are accustomed to.
Lenses that have defined cinema:
While ARRI makes world-leading cinema cameras, they also complement those cameras with impressive glass. The ARRI/Zeiss Master Primes and Ultra Primes lenses have been widely used on many of the best films of all time. They produce a clean look, resolve incredible detail, and they have nearly zero distortion, even on the insanely wide 12mm lens. If you have seen some of the movies shot by the amazing cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki, especially Tree of Life and The Revenant, you will see lots of close-up, wide angle shots that don’t distort faces. That’s all thanks to the incredible technology loaded into these lenses.
My personal favorite lenses, when I want am especially clean look, are the Master Anamorphic lenses. Not only do they perform perfectly, but they don’t have the imperfections you typically find in older anamorphic lenses, such as a “mushy” top and bottom of the frame, especially on the wider lenses. However, when you need something to look modern, the Master Anamorphic lenses are a treat to work with and render clean, beautiful, sharp imagery.
Lighting tools that are up for a challenge:
My most frequent use of ARRI equipment is easily their lighting line. I work as both a cinematographer and a gaffer, working with lighting in both roles. Every single time I am on set, there is an ARRI light. I absolutely love the robustness, color accuracy, output, and reliability of ARRI lighting tools. ARRI has been making lights since they opened their doors in 1917 and the lights they have built over the last 100-plus years are the benchmark for quality lighting instruments.
In 1937, they started to produce lights with Fresnel lenses, which directs the light in a tighter pattern. This technology was revolutionary and it is still use in many lamps today, including the ARRI L-Series.
Today, the Skypanel, in all of its various dimensions, is all over film sets worldwide. LED has made a huge impact on how we light on-set, and the advent of the Skypanel — a portable, professional-level, battery operable, soft, LED light — was definitely a watershed moment in lighting. It has all the colors of the rainbow, nearly removing the need for gels. It has effects that are needed on film sets and used to be complicated to reproduce (such as the chasing lights of a police car, or the irregular and intense light of a lightning storm). It also draws extremely little power for the amount of output you get, and always remains cool. This light solves the problems that traditional tungsten, HMI, or any non-LED light has. All of this confirms to me that film lighting will be headed full steam to LED, and film sets will feature Skypanels in the years to come.
The future is also looking bright (sorry, I couldn’t resist). ARRI has just introduced the Orbiter, an extremely bright, directional LED light. It has adjustable beam angles, is color tunable, and even has a color sensor mode which will read the ambient light temperature and match it. I am very excited to see what this light can do (and you can look for a hands-on review soon).
A level above:
When I started to ARRI lights in the early 2000s, I knew I was making progress in my career. Now I am working on sets with Alexa Mini’s and the Amira with Super Speed lenses. When I now work with these amazing tools, it is a sign to me that I am trusted with the responsibility of making someone’s vision come to life through my work. This is something that I don’t take lightly and make sure to get as right as I can every time I’m on set.
I not only love working with gear f— ARRI being the pinnacle of that — I pride myself on using it to the maximum of their abilities, trying to squeeze out every bit of that cinema goodness to capture images that represent the story as well as possible. Whether that is by using the appropriate camera, choosing the perfect lens, or finding the right style and type of lighting. No matter what happens, I know I will be using ARRI equipment for the rest of my career, which I hope has many great years still ahead.
There are still many tricks for me to learn and, as a creative, it’s important that I never stop challenging myself. I hope to one day, years from now, read this piece again and be grateful for the progress I have made.
