Zack Snyder‘s space adventure film “Rebel Moon – Part One: A Child of Fire” will be running for one week (Dec. 15-21) in selected 70mm theaters before debuting on Netflix. However, the question you should ask yourself is if it’s worth watching a film on a giant screen that was shot entirely on Anamorphic T1.5. On the other hand, why not? We all remember Nolan’s Oppenheimer which was shot wide open using IMAX film cameras and was screened on 70mm as well.
Rebel Moon: 70mm screening
Zack Snyder’s Rebel Moon which was directed and shot by him (Snyder was the DP as well), will be playing exclusively on 70mm from Dec. 15-21 at the following locations: Los Angeles (Egyptian Theatre), New York City (Paris Theater), Toronto (TIFF Bell Lightbox) and London (Prince Charles Cinema). The first “Rebel Moon” film streams Dec. 22 on Netflix. There’s even a dedicated site for the 70mm screening (rebelmoon70mm.com), with a devoted poster (Even the poster is in anamorphic aspect ratio (2.39: 1) – see above).
Watch the trailer below (notice the very shallow Depth and Field):
Also, check out this featurette where Snyder takes you behind the scenes, and elaborates on the making regarding directing, cinematography, and VFX:
Shot on V-Raptor XL paired with bespoke anamorphic lenses
The film was shot by Snyder on one of the first V-Raptor XL DSMC3 cameras, paired with specially made Zero Optik Summiscope anamorphic glass. That’s a very fast anamorphic lens T1.4-T1.5. Furthermore, Zack has mentioned that the speed of the anamorphic glass was well utilized. Similar to Army (Army of the Dead), Rebel was shot almost entirely on maximum aperture, which means, wide-open, with an extremely shallow depth of field combined with a true anamorphic look. Snyder confirmed that Rebel and Army are part of the same universe. Hence, expect the look to be extreme too. Anybody who watched Army knows what to expect. That means a wide-open aperture, a dreamy look, a lot of out-of-focus sequences, and tons of flares.
That would be the opposite compared to ‘conservative’ cinematographers like Roger Deakins for instance, who “can’t stand flares”. Additionally, Rebel Main is the first movie that was shot with the V-Raptor XL camera, delivered specially to Snyder by RED Digital Cinema CEO, Jarred Land.
The lenses: Zero Optik Summiscope
There’s not much info regarding those fascinating lenses. We know that the name is Summiscope and it was developed by Zero Optik. Land claimed that those Summiscopes paired with the Raptor seem like a lethal combo. Unfortunately, Zero Optik didn’t elaborate much due to a pretty strict NDA, but said: “There’s a doc coming about these lenses so the details will eventually be very public”.
Wrapping up
First, there’s no doubt that Rebel Moon will own an extreme look, or as we called it, the “Snyder Look”. Many audiences complained about the ultra-shallow DOF of Army, and now it seems that the imagery is even more edgy. Nevertheless, we’d be happy to watch Revel on the huge canvas, especially if it’s 70mm. So imagine that: Fast anamorphic glass, wide open, T-stop 1.4 all the way, and with a lot of camera movements and action. Now get this on a big screen. Epicness or migraine?
Watch this article:
