Shot on Irix: A Frame of Adventure

We've been working with cinematographer Van Wampler and his production company, Cinemaraven, for a while now. Our collaboration started when Van first tried out our Irix Cine 150mm Macro lens all the way back when this was our first Cine lens. Ever since, he's been the guy we call whenever we launch a new lens, and he's always delivered impressive demos. A while back, Van came to us with an idea: Why not create a demo using our full lens lineup at the time—11mm, 15mm, 45mm, and 150mm? He even planned to use a FPV drone for some aerial shots. Of course, we were on board.

In this article, Van shares insights into the making of "A Frame of Adventure," discussing his lens choices, creative hurdles, and the artistic decisions that shaped this project. Read on for a firsthand account from the man behind the lens.

Does a film always have to put telling the story ahead of everything else? I would always argue that, yes, it does. Well, until recently, that is when I started doing films specifically to demonstrate the characteristics of lenses. Suddenly, the storyboards and shot list are front and center, and the content is there just to support the image. I don’t need to tell a riveting story - in fact, it may be better not to. As a cinematographer, I usually work with the director to go through a script and create shots that support every action, every line. Is a character feeling trapped? Well, let’s not shoot anything too wide. Feeling groggy? Yeah, shallow focus. Maybe handheld. You get the idea. Now I get to do the opposite.

So here I am with this beautiful set of Irix cine lenses. Let’s take an 11mm - I want to see how it flares. I want to see the absolute rectilinear design, which keeps all of the vertical lines so perfectly straight. How about wandering through a grove of aspen trees? Maybe it doesn’t make sense to be wide open for so many shots - but I want to see it, so it’s happening. For the longer lenses, let’s rack focus plenty of times to demonstrate breathing. Let’s make sure we hit all the lenses with light sometimes to see flares. High key and low key lighting. Handheld, slider, steadicam. Indoor. Outdoor. Practicals. I want to put as much variety in as I can. And, to top it off, let’s put a lens on an FPV drone and watch it get completely covered in dust (and take a few unintentionally hard landings and a mild crash...).

Enter, A Frame Of Adventure. 

Here it is: a film that is all about the lenses. Even the story is literally about photography.

A number of shots were taken on the Cine 15mm T2.6 lens using a RED Komodo, mounted on a FPV drone. The Komodo is great for the FPV drone, because with all of the quick movement, the global shutter means there won’t be any additional distortion due to rolling shutter. 

A lot of these shots really demonstrate how the 15mm controls distortion - which becomes especially noticeable when the camera is moving so quickly. And, as mentioned above, this lens truly took some abuse while on the drone. Multiple hard landings. Dirt and dust everywhere. The Irix ND filter on the front of the lens took a gouge that rendered it unusable after one tumbling landing, but the lens continued to function perfectly through all of it. Durability? Check. [screen grabs of drone footage]

The Cine 45mm T1.5 lens spent a lot of time on the Steadicam. It’s a great all-around focal length, and I loved using it for the outdoor medium close-up shots. As the background moves further away, the bokeh is just spectacular. This screen grab is one of my favorites as far as showing off the amazing traits of the 45mm: the bike and helmet are sharp, but not too sharp. [screen grab 2:23]

There is absolutely a very mild softness there, which adds so much character to these modern lenses. And the falloff in the background is just so creamy and uninterrupted. This shot is wide open at T1.5. Shooting wide open with bright backgrounds is also a sure way to reveal some chromatic aberration. Chromatic aberration, by the way: not necessarily a bad thing. Most vintage lenses have little control over it. It adds some character, and it can add a little separation. The Irix lenses have a bit, but not much.

Since every shot is built around showing off the glass, you’ll notice an abundance of other things as you watch A Frame of Adventure. We made a small room look quite spacious with the help of the Cine 11mm, showing its incredible distortion control.

Another thing I love about the 11 is the fact that it flares very easily - basically if there’s a hard light within 180 degrees of the front of the lens, it’ll be showing flare. The Irix lenses exhibit a fair amount of flare suppression - flares don’t wash out the image or lower the contrast significantly, but they still show up nicely. [screen grab?] 

Flares are very subjective, but I do find them to be quite pleasing throughout the Irix set. We also set up a number of long focus racks, purely to demonstrate the
lens breathing - which, as is expected of any modern cine lens, is basically undetectable. There’s even an extreme close-up or two showing off the ability of the Cine 150 T3.0 macro. 

If nothing else, three days pushing the Irix lenses to the limit taught me this: They really are great. They’re lightweight, durable, and, unlike a lot of "budget” cine lenses in today’s market, they truly have some character to them. One becomes closer with a lens when one shoots with primarily the lens in mind. Since shooting A Frame Of Adventure, I’ve used the Irix lenses on many shoots from mop ads to sci-fi western films. Every project has different needs, but there are certainly projects where I would choose Irix over any other lens set out there.

Text and images by Van Wampler (Cinemaraven).