Deakins is a career-long user of ARRI camera equipment. He started out with the ARRIFLEX 35BL 4 in the 1980s, moved on to the ARRIFLEX 535 B in the 1990s, ARRICAM in the 2000s, and made the transition to digital with ALEXA in the 2010s. His latest film, “1917,” marks another significant progression; it is Deakins’ first foray into large-format cinematography.

“The format, to me, feels more like my stills camera,” he says. “I have always been a stills photographer, really, since I was pretty young. So I feel more familiar with that format and that sort of depth of field than I do with regular [Super] 35.”

His experience with 35 mm stills, which is the same size format as full-frame cameras like the ALEXA LF and Mini LF, meant Deakins had an instinctive feel for how different focal lengths would behave. “It was the sense that you could shoot with a longer lens, get less depth of field, but still maintain the width of view,” he says. “I don’t like shooting close-ups of people on wide lenses. A 40 mm is very comfortable, I think, for shooting a close-up, unless you’re going intensely close. And that’s what drew me to it, really, the idea of shooting on a 40 mm but getting the width—getting the background at the same time.”