The Man, The Mystique

To present how papacy influenced the world over the years in Pope: The Most Powerful Man in History, cinematographer Dane Lawing wanted each era to have a historical look with a distinctly cinematic feel

- Pradeep Suvarna

Revisiting history for a TV series can be a challenging affair – while on one hand, viewers want to know what transpired years ago, they do not want to visualise it through the dusty lens of antiquity. And when the protagonist at the heart of the series is a character who is always a topic on intrigue, then the ante is raised further.

When CNN decided to come up with its six-hour, six-part mini-series on the centrifugal character of Christianity, the idea was to present how each pope used their influence to shape the course of world history and the religion during their time. Produced by Glass Entertainment Group and Rearrange TV, Pope: The Most Powerful Man in History, goes inside the Vatican to reveal the true nature of power and control held by popes through the ages.

HISTORY IN FOCUS 

To present the historical vignettes in this CNN Original docu-series, titled, Dane Lawing, SOC, the DOP for this project wanted each era to have its own look and a distinctly cinematic feel. To achieve this, he relied on Cooke S4/i prime lenses.