ARRI Rental launched the ALEXA 65 at Cinec in September 2014. Within the next 25 months, ALEXA 65 cameras worked on more 65 mm productions than had been shot in the previous 25 years. Continuing ARRI’s involvement with this iconic larger format where the 765 left off, the ALEXA 65 has now been taken up in earnest by the world’s leading filmmakers. One early adopter was Emmanuel Lubezki ASC, AMC, who combined it with ALEXA Mini and ALEXA XT on "The Revenant" (2015). A year earlier, Lubezki had gracefully glided an ALEXA M through "Birdman" (2014). He noted, “Handheld cameras, especially smaller ones like the ARRI ALEXA M, allow you to get really, really close to the actors. You can move within their space and between them. It allows you to get into the eye of the hurricane, as we say. It was inconvenient timing that the ALEXA Mini wasn’t ready for `Birdman.´ But we were able to work with the ALEXA M very nicely. To me what is important, and what I wish for, is that we have many brushes, many different tools to tell stories and express emotion in different ways.” 

2017: ARRI at 100

Dr. Joerg Pohlman joined ARRI in 2014 as Managing Director. He commented, “If we think about the 100 years of ARRI, look at where we are and where we want to be in the future, one of the key factors is how unique a company it is. We are involved in almost all aspects of the motion picture industry, from developing cameras, lighting and accessories, to product manufacturing, including sensor bonding. Our ARRI Rental Group gives us proximity to film sets, and provides immediate feedback if something does not work or can be improved. When you finish shooting, you can come back to ARRI Media for postproduction, editing, sound, VFX, mixing, DI and distribution. ARRI can provide the entire process from developing a camera all the way to releasing feature films into theaters. I think that makes ARRI unique.” 

The cinema has been reinvented over and over again. For a hundred years, ARRI has created the tools and technology that enabled filmmakers to find new ways to tell their stories with moving images. Styles evolved, techniques changed, reacting and in reaction to the art and tools that brought cinematographers, some skeptical, others thrilled as an audience on opening night, along a century’s trajectory from studios to locations, from silent to sound, from analog to digital. 

Endurance is elusive in the pursuit of cinematographic dreams. Providing the tools to tell those stories is also risky business requiring resilience. As successful merchants of the means to those dreams, ARRI has provided the tools and services of cinema production for one hundred years, collecting an impressive 19 Academy Sci-Tech Awards along the way. A company founded by two friends has grown to a team of 1,500, some of whom are third-generation employees—truly a family concern. And the adventure continues. If there is one comprehensive explanation for ARRI’s longevity, it is their foresight and acumen to listen to customers, friends and colleagues. 

By Jon Fauer