We sampled more than 40 of the highest ranked Netflix series, and we checked their tech spec on IMDB, to explore the cameras behind them. The results were the opposite of what we found at the Academy Awards, Cannes and Sundance Film Festival. It seems that Netflix is another game of cinematography when RED cameras take the lead. Charts below!
Netflix: A whole new (cinematography) ball game
In case you have missed our statistics regarding the cameras that shot the selected films of the Oscar, Cannes, and Sundance, we can tell you that ARRI significantly rules the game, especially with its ALEXA Mini that was the most common camera in all of them. That wasn’t a piece of good news for RED’s fans. Our Cannes 2019 camera chart, which got hundreds of thousands of views, initiated the old and stormy never-ending discussion: RED vs. ARRI. So we decided to check what’s going on at Netflix productions.
We took the highest ranked Netflix original series, based on the entertainment and popular culture news website, Uproxx, and checked on their IMDB Tech Spec page. Then we built the graphs. The results were completely different. It seems that Netflix is another cinematographic world than artistic festivals. Furthermore, we discovered that the cameras diversity is lower and not expanded like in traditional film contests.
RED first, ARRI last, and Panasonic VariCam rocks
It can be clearly deduced that, according to the data, the RED Weapon and the Epic are the dominant cameras that shot Netflix best series. The ARRI Mini, on the other hand, is in the last place. Furthermore, as you can explore from the list that other cameras besides RED that have reached a proper place are Sony and Panasonic VariCam. Interesting? Sure! Take a look a the following list. The Chart is down below it.
- Stranger Things: RED Monstro, RED Epic Dragon, RED Weapon Helium
- Orange is the New Black: Panasonic VariCam 35
- American Vandal: RED Weapon Dragon
- Mindhunter: Red Xenomorph Dragon
- Russian Doll: Red Helium
- Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt: RED Weapon, RED Epic Dragon
- Master of None: Panasonic VariCam 35,
- GLOW: RED Weapon 8K, RED Weapon Dragon
- The Umbrella Academy: ALEXA 65, ALEXA LF
- Sex Education: Sony VENICE
- Dear White People: RED Weapon
- Everything Sucks!: RED Weapon
- Godless: RED Epic Dragon
- Marvel’s Daredevil: Red Epic Dragon, RED Weapon
- Dark: ALEXA 65, ALEXA Mini
- Marvel’s Jessica Jones: Red Epic Dragon
- 13 Reasons Why: Panasonic VariCam 35, Panavision Millennium DXL, Red Helium
- Peaky Blinders: RED Monstro
- The End of the F***ing World: RED Weapon
- Luke Cage: Red Epic Dragon
- The Crown: Sony F55
- Bloodline: Sony F55
- Sense8: Sony F55
- You: ALEXA LF
- Travelers: Red Epic Dragon
- Ozark: Panasonic VariCam 35
- Seven Seconds: Red Epic Dragon
- A Series Of Unfortunate Events: Sony F65
- Alias Grace: Sony F65
- House of Cards: RED Weapon, RED Epic Dragon
- Narcos: Panasonic GH4 (Drone Footage), Red Epic Dragon,
- The Punisher: RED Weapon, RED Epic Dragon
- Altered Carbon: ALEXA 65
- The Defenders: Red Weapon
- Santa Clarita Diet: Sony F55
- The Get Down RED Epic Dragon
- Grace and Frankie: RED Epic Dragon
- Friends from College: RED Epic Dragon
- Love: Panasonic VariCam 35
- Easy: Red Weapon
- The OA: Panasonic VariCam 35, RED Weapon
- Gypsy: Panasonic VariCam 35
Explore the chart below. Click on the image to get a larger view:
What do you think about these statistics? Why is RED so popular in Netflix and so unpopular in film festivals? Why is ARRI so popular in film festivals and so unpopular in Netflix? Enlighten us!
Arri cameras aren’t used because Netflix didn’t want them. They only wanted “native 4K” cameras which forced film makers to other choices.
There are ARRI cameras on Netflix, including the ARRI Mini, but in low quantities. Furthermore, a lot of cameras that don’t meet Netflix image capture requirements can be approved on a case to case basis.
In most of the cases a ARRI was used was either because the DP and or Director had the clout to get on the platform or Netflix bought the rights to the show that already shot on ARRI. But all Netflix commissioned work has to be on approved cameras, they have it in their guidelines. Must shoot native 4k and minimum AP-C sensor. This is well know information in the industry. Does it mean the one platform is better than the other? No, these cameras are all tools with specific looks and sometimes DP’s choose RED sometime ARRI. If you look at Oscar nominated films most films are shot on ARRI and film.
Correlation and causation are two very different things.
Hi Jon, Thx for commenting.
What I’m saying is that: If a DP wants to shoot ARRI, he can get special Netflix authorization for this and yes, even if it’s a Netflix original. There are options in spite of Netflix very defined image capture and camera requirements.
BTW, I’m not against ARRI. I wrote myself those articles regarding ARRI dominating the market:
Oscar: https://ymcinema.com/2019/02/15/the-cameras-behind-oscar-2019-old-film-cameras-2k-resolution-alexa-and-more-alexa/
Cannes: https://ymcinema.com/2019/05/23/the-cameras-behind-cannes-2019-from-cheap-camcorders-to-high-end-alexa/
Sundance: https://ymcinema.com/2019/02/05/alexa-mini-is-the-dominant-camera-behind-sundance-2019-films-reds-fans-take-a-stand/
You really should put in an effort to describe why the statistics of Netflix productions skew this way in comparison to the cameras used on streaming service productions, film festivals or major motion pictures. The main sticking point being that producers often don’t fight for shooting on many ARRI cameras because up until the last year, the camera selection for an ARRI camera with a 4K non-upscaled resolution was prohibitively limited to the Alexa 65.
Not completely true. There are a lot of Netflix series that were shot on the ALEXA Mini (for instance). DPs can get authorization from Netflix to shoot on a camera that does not exactly meet their image capture requirements, on a case basis.
You keep mentioning all these Netflix series shot on Alexa Mini. What are they? Take a closer look at the comments your readers are posting. They are correct. I bet you can’t name 5 original content Netflix shows that we’re shot on Alexa Mini. If the show was purchased content, then it’s a different story. But the answer to your question of why camera choice skew away from Alexa Mini on Netflix is simple
Netflix aquisition requirements. They want 4K with at least 10bit for their in-house colorists and for archive. That is the reason RED dominates the network. Go over to Hulu, its Alexa all day long as per usual. Netflix is known to have the most stringent requirements and they have a big bias for RED cameras.
That being said, Netflix will on rare occasion bend their policy for the right person, meaning not us, unless you’re a household name.
Arri was shunted out of the picture because of a silly and arbitrary boardroom decision to limit Netlfix shows to 4k capture, even though Arri generally has a more pleasing cinematic look and is superior in post production at 3.2k. The really silly decision about 4k capture, is that there is no mention of how much compression is permitted to achieve 4k capture, and that is a bigger arbiter of final image quality. So, it is possible to shoot to achieve 4k requirements on relatively low end cameras that use a lot of compression to get their numbers.
And yet.. there are many Netflix series shot on ARRI Mini.
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Sure RED dominate by number but the shows I prefer visually are all shot on ARRI 65 or LF, or Sony Venice / F55. Ozark was beautiful too.
Where I found the RED excel is in the over the top look of Kimmy Schmidt.
Not hating the RED look at all, but wouldn’t be my choice as a DP unless I’m doing something surrealist or something.