14 Sep Alexa 765 65mm Shoot

So the past week I have been in Birr Castle, Co. Offaly assisting an amazing camera crew shooting on the Alexa 765.

It was amazing to get to work with this camera, there are only seven of them left in the world and only five working.

This camera is certainly a challenge to work with, aside from the extra stress for the focus puller shooting on large format with these lenses it weighs a whopping 38kg when loaded with a 1000ft magazine. Normally this would limit the way you would shoot a film because aside from the weight it is top and front heavy but we still managed (just about) to shoot a scene hand held.

I like the precision shooting on film requires, every decision has to be deliberate so there’s no ‘lets just roll on that for a few minutes’ cause those few minutes will cost you around 2k. But there is also the downside of having to constantly take light meter readings and make tweaks and adjustments to stops, filters and lights. It is definitely not a format to pick for speed.

The Location was absolutely amazing, the castle is home to a giant telescope that at the time it was constructed would have cost the equivalent of one billion to build. It was also home to a few little visitors that came over to the camera to keep us company.

I have to say a big thank you to out DP Halyna Hutchins, Focus Puller Ivan Vountidis, Camera Tech Sascha Mieke I really learned a lot from them and it was great craic working with them. And of course our trainee Nathan Campion was a massive help. It’s back to shooting digital next week, I don’t think I’ll get to see 65mm film again soon but I look forward to working with film again.

For anyone that’s interested here is the playlist we listened to while we were wrapping the camera gear after wrap. I took us till around half one in the morning. https://open.spotify.com/playlist/66lqP6W3FZEUY3BkTg9iWV?si=tzVgevhdQ_eVQDx6de0gbA