American Cinematographer - March 1997 - 10

What we've learned at Clairmont
about the Zeiss Variable Primes:
ahtfter reading the script for
/l Free Willy 3,1 assumed

"When

everyone
theater was amazed to

I would have to

compromise
on lenses," says Director Of Pho
tography Tobias Schliessler.

the Variables

that

bit as

every

as the Superspeeds (which
excellent lenses). We were

are

really
needed for this job
"I had always avoided zoom lens¬
es, but on this job there seemed
no

were

see

sharp

Zoom lens

to be

projected the footage,
in the screening

we

even more

amazed to

Variable Primes showed

less flare than the

Flexible

alternative. Around

that the

see

even

Superspeeds."

framing

two-thirds of the picture would
be shot at sea, working from a

"The tests convinced me; and
we ended up shooting the whole

moving barge. The actors would
be on moving boats. Even with
a manned crane (moving) and a
Power Pod (also moving), trying
to frame properly with fixed
lenses would slow things down

picture with a set of Variables
and a set of Superspeeds. (And
a 14mm, which I hardly used.)

far too much."

We could fine-tune the

Sometimes

D.B Tobias
Schliessler

Variable Primes had

new

just become available. I was
skeptical, but I thought I should
try them; so I called Clairmont.
They lent me a set, together with
a set of Superspeeds, so we could
shoot A/B comparison tests
at the location

near

"For Free
to shoot

a

in frame. Even if the worst
hotspots were just out of frame,
it would be difficult to flag the
lens for tracking and crane shots
from the moving barge and
waves,

the

moving boats.

Some of those boats would be

brushed aluminum-like

big re¬

flector boards with actors
around on them."

riding

both

on

Comparison test
a

series of tests: each

shot with

fixed

Super¬
speed and then immediately with

a

a

Variable Prime at the

same

focal length,

from the same
position. We did that with every
focal length in the Superspeed
set and with the equivalent set¬
tings on the Variables, at various
T stops. Some of the scenes were
the aluminum boats

on

both

sun

in frame."

and

on

cameras

one

VP lens

of the

one

the B

when

camera.

framing
we

by changing focal
length slightly as things moved
around during the shot."
cameras

Perfect matching
we

could have done that

with two 5 to 1 zooms; but the
VPs were faster, wider and had
flare

problems. And their
color, contrast and sharpness
matched the Superspeeds,
no

which

we

used for hand-held and

2nd Unit. About

a

sixth of the

picture was shot hand-held; and
we

intercut that with the VP

footage,
was

the perfect matching
helpful."

so

very

backlit

water, with the sun's reflections
bouncing into the lenses. In
some of those, we even had the

had

lined up the shot-and then we
could keep it fine-tuned on

"Yes,

scene

backlit. Sun reflections off the

on

using them:
"We made

Willy 3,1 was hoping
lot of the water footage

hand-held

talks about

Vancouver."

Probable
flare problems

we

camera

other two VPs

Variable what?
"The

the A

on

How much

did

they cost?

"The VP lenses added about 25%
to

our

lens bill. We rented

set of VPs and

one

set of

one

Super-
American Cinematographer - March 1997

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