Would you use high-end cinema lenses to shoot a feature-length documentary? Well, a production company called ‘Shoot The Company’ has done this with the Cooke Varotal lenses. Why did the team choose these specific cinema full-frame zooms? Read below.
Cooke has provided the team of ‘Shoot The Company’, the Varotal/i FF zoom lenses, in order to cover the monumental sporting event on and off the field of play. ‘Shoot The Company’ is a production company that shot and produced the Official Film of the 2022 FIFA World Cup. The official film of the 2022 FIFA World Cup has not been launched yet. However, you can still watch the 2018 film, so you can get an idea of the look & feel of these films. These feature-length documentaries are telling the behind-the-scenes story of the FIFA World Cups. The 2018 film was also produced by ‘Shoot The Company’. Check it out here (there’s no option to embed it due to licensing regulations). Anyway, this proves that the new trend of cinematic sports events is getting very popular. That means, utilizing top-of-the-line cinema equipment in order to shoot sports. Let’s elaborate a bit on the glass used, which is the Varotal lenses.
Coole Varotal/i FF T2.9
The Varotal lenses are spherical zooms that were designed to meet cinematographers’ high demands for capturing precise 8K footage. All Varotals offer FF T2.9 and are equipped with the Cooke/i technology. As stated by Cooke, the lenses are characterized by “Superb resolution, constant optical speed, and minimal breathing throughout the range”. Furthermore, all Varotal/i FF zooms deliver the acclaimed Cooke Look, offering natural, flattering skin tone and character, and match the Cooke S8/i FF (at T2.8) and S7/i FF prime lenses, enabling cinematographers to preserve their creative intent when switching between primes and zooms. The first two zooms (30-95mm, and 85-215mm) were launched in 2021, together with the Panchro/i Classics. BTW, it appears that the Cooke Varotal was used in the film “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood”. Hence, it’s intriguing to explore this glass being utilized in shooting sports events.
Shooting zooms with the quality of primes
As stated by Shoot The Company: “Throughout our early discussions with our DOPs, we came back to the same question – do we shoot more on zoom lenses to ensure we don’t miss a key storyline, or do we shoot only on primes to ensure the footage looks as beautiful as possible? Along came Cooke Optics which solved that problem with one word: Varotal. A range of zoom lenses from Cooke gave us the versatility to capture footage in high-pressure, fast-paced environments with the ‘Cooke look’ that cinematographers across the world covet. Our team quickly grew to love these lenses and we’re hugely proud to be the first-ever crew to film a sports documentary on them”. We can’t wait to see the film when released.
