F1 director Joseph Kosinski sheds more light on the bespoke Sony cameras implemented inside the race car cockpit. Kosinski emphasizes that those cameras are next generation compared to VENICE Rialto utilized on Top Gun: Maverick.
Bespoke Sony camera
For now, we know that F1 utilized the same methodologies implemented on Top Gun: Maverick, and by the same filmmakers (Director, Producer, and DP). Basically, this great team took what worked on TGM and applied it to F1, which is one of the anticipated films of 2025. As you remember, the camera in TGM was the Sony VENICE Rialto. However, on F1 they used bespoke Sony cameras (some kind of Cinema Line – an improved version of FR7 ) that can shoot 6K and have PTZ capabilities. In an interview with Deadline, Kosinski elaborated: “We have bespoke cameras for this that are very small and light so that they don’t impede the performance of the car too much and that’s key because you don’t want to have a race car and then put 200 pounds of gear on it. Our camera mounts were designed with Mercedes as well. The cameras are specially designed by Sony. It’s the next generation from what we did on Top Gun. Everything is much smaller and the big innovation that is that we’re now able to control the movement of the cameras on the cars. We’re not locked into these kinds of fixed positions we had on Top Gun. Now we have real-time control of panning and focusing them while shooting through a very extensive RF network that we’ve built around the tracks”.
Filmed (mostly) for IMAX
Similar to TGM, F1 is a “Filmed for IMAX” movie. We don’t know yet the main camera, however, we can guess that those filmmakers picked the Sony VENICE as their main weapon of choice here. Additionally, F1 will be aimed at movie theaters, and especially at the huge canvas, as confirmed by Kosinski: “It’s shot for the big screen will have an IMAX version that has over an hour in full IMAX, you know, full-screen format, so you’ll get that expanded picture. We’ve always approached it as a theatrical film. As for when and where it appears downstream, I think that’s still to be determined, but the only way you’ll be able to see it when it first comes out is in theaters”. F1 is a mega-budget project ($300 million) and owns an ultra complexity regarding filmmaking and production. Brad Pitt is actually driving the Formula cars in front of a live audience (shooting at the actual Grand Prix in front of hundreds of thousands of people). Therefore we should expect a magnificent movie experience, not less than TGM.
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I too am curious to know what those small Sony cameras are. I suspect they’re using the 6k Venice sensor, with its very fast 3ms rolling shutter. At first I thought it was a global sensor, seeing the IMAX trailer, but I had the slightest feeling of seeing some image distortion, so I frame-by-framed the racecar footage and from 0:53 to 0:54, you can see the top of the QATAR AIRWAYS sign get wobbly in a few of the frames instead of remaining horizontally straight as it would be with a global sensor even when vibrating over bumps in the track. I guess it’s okay though, as most people are probably used to seeing some degree of jello in all the fast moving video from the past decade.
Solid observation. Wow. Didn’t think about that. THX!