The Cinematography
The film
- Client
- Abu Dhabi Ports
- Directed by
- Sofia de Fay
- Production
- Grolez Films
- Role
- Director of Photography
- Lens
- Laowa 35mm Proteus anamorphic
- Location
- Abu Dhabi
On the Abu Dhabi Ports teaser I was director of photography, not director; Sofia de Fay directed, produced by Grolez Films. My job was to make ports, cranes, and logistics read as scale worth watching. Ports are enormous and repetitive, all horizon lines, containers, and geometry, so I framed wide anamorphic to let that geometry carry the image. The film moves between two distances: aerials to establish the size of the operation and the patterns only visible from above, and close-ups of the logistics systems for precision. I worked on false colour across the very mixed light of the site so the exposure held, and graded it in DaVinci Resolve for one consistent, cinematic look.
Shooting For Scale
Ports are enormous and repetitive, all horizon lines, containers, and cranes, so I framed to use that: wide anamorphic compositions that let the geometry of the place carry the image. Anamorphic gives an industrial subject a cinema-wide frame and a scale a flat corporate look never reaches.
The film moves between two distances, aerials to establish the size of the operation and the patterns only visible from above, and close-ups of the logistics systems for the detail that shows precision. Between them, the port reads as both vast and exact.
I lit and exposed for very mixed environments, hard sun on open yards, shadow under structures, artificial light inside, so I worked on false colour throughout to keep exposure balanced as the film moved across those spaces.
DOP note
The job was to make ports and cranes read as scale worth watching.
The Craft
Craft spec
- Role
- Director of Photography
- Camera
- Blackmagic Ursa Mini 4.6K G2
- Lens
- Laowa 35mm Proteus anamorphic
- Grade
- DaVinci Resolve, false colour
- Directed by
- Sofia de Fay
A single wide anamorphic prime kept the whole teaser in one visual language, and the anamorphic frame gave the infrastructure the cinematic scale the brief needed.
Everything was graded in DaVinci Resolve to hold one consistent, cinematic look across a location that changes light every few metres.
Inspirations
The teaser presents Abu Dhabi Ports as scale and precision rather than machinery, an industrial subject shot with the width and polish of a cinema piece.
Cut from aerial establishing scale down to the working detail, it makes trade infrastructure read as something with power and exactness.
References
- Register
- Cinematic industrial, wide
- Scale
- Aerial to working detail
- Frame
- Anamorphic geometry
- Client
- Abu Dhabi Ports