A Star Is Born Up Close

Matthew Libatique, ASC, who has won the 2018 Hollywood Film Award for Cinematographer of the Year, for his work on A Star Is Born, revealed that he used Cooke Anamorphic/i SF ‘Special Flair’ lenses to help him move the story from the main superstar character Jack (Bradley Cooper — who is also the director) to the newcomer Ally (Lady Gaga) in a way that would be believable to today’s audience.

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A Star Is Born was also Cooper’s directorial debut, which brought about a more ‘open’ workflow on set. “We had discussions early on,” said Libatique. “You are working with one person tasked with many hats: acting, directing, music. It made everyone on set responsible for a lot more than they normally would be — especially me — watching for things we don’t normally watch out for. How things look, how they sound, how a scene is going that Bradley’s acting in. We weren’t just responsible for our regular craft,” he added.

With Cooper set on shooting anamorphic, Libatique had to find the right lens. “I have used the Cooke S4/i spherical for a long time, plus the old Panchro glass, but I needed an anamorphic with character and personality that could perform flawlessly in a variety of settings with the right amount of light hits and flares. The Cooke Anamorphic/i SF primes were those lenses.”

Libatique had a range of seven Anamorphic/i SF primes: 25/32/40/50/65 Macro/75/100mm, which he used for 8590% of the film, with the 40, 50, 65 Macro and 75 being used the most.