Shot On Sony VENICE 2 - Homecoming

Rob McLachlan, ASC, CSC, is well known for his work on shows such as Westworld, Ray Donavan, Game of Thrones, (for which he received two Emmy nominations), Lovecraft Country, and the upcoming The Shining Girls, the latter two shot on VENICE. In preparation for the VENICE 2 launch, McLachlan created Homecoming, a short film shot on location in Palm Springs and Los Angeles, California, and in Southwestern, B.C., Canada.

The first time McLachlan shot on VENICE was during preparations for HBO’s Lovecraft Country two years ago. He and Michael Watson, his DP partner, set up a scene with stand-ins, lighting, and a monitor. McLachlan recalls, “And the first image we made with it, we looked at each other and just we were beaming from ear to ear because we knew we were both going to make our favourite images that we'd ever made with that camera.”

McLachlan’s approach to camera selection takes a cue from the art world. If the movie set is a blank canvas, the camera is the equivalent of paint and brushes. He says, “I like to stick with the same camera, because being totally comfortable with what's going to happen inside the camera frees you to concentrate on the real creativity of making a good dramatic project and being able to focus way more on the finer details that elevate something above everything else.”

Early in McLachlan’s career, he shot at least half of his projects for his own production company, which meant the quality of his shoots always had to be the absolute highest to guarantee the next job. This influenced his approach for future film projects, where he looked for the camera and lens combinations that would allow him to be as efficient and economical as possible, while providing the highest performance available. The innovations in the original VENICE allowed him to lean into this approach and set the camera apart from its competitors.

The efficiency he seeks, McLachlan says, is perfectly illustrated by the built-in NDs: “Something as simple as those built-in NDs can add up to just an incredible amount of time savings. Those time savings add up to extra shots, extra setups, and that adds up to potentially a better scene and a better movie or TV show. If you add it up, let's say, even an average size TV series, which has probably got a 12-hour per day shooting budget around $300,000. Some might be more, some less. Just break that down into the minutes of the day and how much one minute costs.” (We did the math: it’s $416 per minute for a $300,000, 12-hour day.) “If you save ten minutes changing ND filters so that you can be consistent in your depth of field as you change lenses, or lighting conditions change, over the course of a four-month project, that's a massive amount of money, and that's a lot of extra shots. So apart from the fact that it makes absolutely gorgeous cinematic pictures, that alone is another reason to love the VENICE.”

The size of the camera also adds to McLachlan’s efficiency requirement: “The size of VENICE 2 made the drone people very happy. It went right into a Shot-over helicopter gimbal with a Fujinon 28-100 Premista; no problem.”

But the most striking thing McLachlan finds about the new VENICE 2 is the “phenomenal dynamic range.” He adds, “That, and obviously the sensitivity is great, that at ISO 3200 the blacks and shadows are as clean as a whistle. They're absolutely incredible. How clean the blacks are, even at 3200, is a big deal. I like the fact that the camera is a bit smaller and how well thought out it is. It balances nicely. I would say that this camera is a game changer largely because of how clean the shadows are at that very high ISO and how pleasing the images are. You'll see in the closeups in the house, which was our only sort-of-lit night interior, we didn't use anything but what was already in the house and it's pretty amazing.”