Recently, the British drama "Adolescence" broadcast on Netflix has set off a wave of viewing and discussion around the world. Even British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has endorsed it. With the support of the government, the drama is planned to be broadcast in all secondary schools across the UK to help minors understand the nature of criminal behavior, correctly view hot topics on the Internet, and resist toxic masculinity.
The programme will be broadcast in secondary schools across the UK.
In addition to the impressive plot that is close to social reality, each one-hour episode is shot in one take, which has become a major attraction of "The Boys of Chaos". The transition from the protagonist's home to the police station, from the school to the panoramic view overlooking the entire neighborhood, are all impressive. Recently, the Hollywood website "IndieWire" interviewed the production team of the show and learned that such filming can be achieved to a large extent thanks to the increasingly lightweight photography equipment today, especially the lightweight movie cameras developed by the Chinese brand DJI.
Matthew Lewis (second from left) at the filming site.
In an interview, the show's cinematographer Matthew Lewis said that if the show was filmed five years ago, it would be much more difficult than it is now. He took the rivalry between Erin Doherty, a psychologist, and Owen Cooper, the protagonist Jamie Miller, in the third episode of "The Boys and the Beasts" as an example. During the entire psychological assessment scene, the camera rarely stayed still, and the picture kept changing with the verbal confrontation and emotional ups and downs between the two. Because of the requirement of one shot to the end, during the performance of the two actors, the cameraman also needed to hold the camera and walk around the actors according to the director's requirements, and always be accurate and error-free.
The verbal confrontation between the psychiatrist and the teenager Jamie Miller in the third episode of "The Boys Who Came Into Chaos".
"For the third episode, we shot twice a day in five days, for a total of ten times. If it were five years ago, considering the weight of the camera at that time, this would definitely require too much physical strength from us. So if it were five years ago, we might try to hang the camera from the ceiling and move it back and forth in the entire set full of wires or other things. The effect would definitely be very different from what it is now," said Matthew Lewis.
In recent years, movie cameras and lenses have been rapidly developing towards lightweight, giving Matthew Lewis a lot of options. He and his team have tested a number of machines, hoping to achieve a dynamic, smooth and effortless visual effect. In the end, they chose DJI's first movie camera, the Ronin 4D. According to Matthew Lewis, this is a very compact camera that no longer requires the use of an Easyrig (a carrying system developed by Swedish photographers in the 1990s that can help share the weight of a handheld camera), nor does it need to be connected to "a bunch of gadgets" required by traditional cameras. In addition, during the shooting process, it can be easily transferred from one photographer to another, which means that several people can take turns holding the camera and still be able to shoot from one shot to the end.
"In addition to being lightweight, it also has the advantage of being small, which means we can do things that weren't possible before, like putting the camera through a window and moving it onto a drone, which is impossible with larger equipment. With equipment from five years ago, even with an EasyBack, these tasks would have been very difficult. Even simply holding the camera through a doorway is much easier now. Every time you passed a doorway before, the photographer actually had to squat and hold the camera through the doorway," added Matthew Lewis.
In fact, this machine launched by DJI at the end of 2021 has won the favor of many Hollywood filmmakers. In "The American Civil War" directed by Alex Garland, this machine was also widely used, especially in several battle scenes in the film, where its effectiveness was best demonstrated.
In the behind-the-scenes featurette of "American Civil War", it can be seen that the footage was shot with DJI Ronin 4D.
This camera is also used to capture the exciting racing scenes in "F1: On Track", directed by Joseph Kosinski, which will be released in June.
DJI Ronin 4D camera appears on the set of "F1: Race to the Top".
For the photography team of "The Boys of Chaos", in addition to DJI's lightweight cameras, lightweight camera lenses are equally important. "Now there are more and more lightweight movie lenses, and the industry has recognized the gap in this market. In the end, we used the Cooke SP3 lens." Lewis said, "It is a 32mm lens, and it eventually became our favorite lens to use in "The Boys of Chaos."
