It’s a vivid illustration of what ARRI’s cameras are capable of. The showreel takes us from the perfect skin-tones of Helen Mirren face, through to explosions and car chases, on to the almost hypnotic fascination of seeing a blizzard’s every snowflake, and the reflection in a horse’s eye. It draws on footage from Roger Deakins ASC, BSC, CBE's Academy Award winning "Blade Runner 2049," and big budget blockbusters like "Black Panther" (DoP Rachel Morrison ASC). We travel from the aquatic world of "Shape of Water," to the glamor of Padmaavat, to the drama of "Darkest Hour."
But less well known works also feature, like the documentary "On Yoga – the Architecture of Peace," shot by Adolpho Veloso, along with pictures from The Who’s Royal Albert Hall concert (captured with an AMIRA Multicam system), and television entertainment shows.
“We look at the material and think – ‘What cool things they do!’” says Henning Rädlein, the showreel’s producer, “This is us paying tribute to the artistic work of the cinematographers”.
With editor Thomas Erichsen he sifted through images sent in by 160 cinematographers from all over the world. “We spent days looking at astonishing images,” says Henning. Then, with Thomas, he narrowed down their selection, before they were able to start thinking about blending the material together.
The end result took a month to make, and is eight minutes long. “We wanted to make it shorter – but it just didn’t work out like that,” says Henning, “it’s my honest appreciation of the work that cinematographers do – it’s not about us.”
Nonetheless, the work of those cinematographers brilliantly showcases the capabilities of ARRI cameras – ALEXA, AMIRA and ALEXA Mini – most notably the outstanding image quality they deliver.
Henning and Thomas having been working on the Camera showreels since 2010 – and enjoy reviewing their past work.
“We like looking back over the showreels we’ve made,” says Henning, “they represent a certain moment in our lives, in the development of the cameras, in the life of the industry.”
And he believes the showreels are just as entertaining and thought-provoking for the people who produce the cameras. “ARRI staff really appreciate them – they know it’s important to see what comes out at the end.”
“And we all know that the end product is not our camera – it’s the film that’s made with it.”
