SURROUNDED | Released TODAY 6/20 on
@primevideo &
@appletv
Director:
@anthonymandler �
Lens story:
2 months before principal photography started on Surrounded I sadly hung up the phone with Panavision. I was disappointed to hear that the infamous T-series primes were not available for our film.
Surrounded is a western genre film. I wanted to go big and wide. I was dead set on shooting 2x anamorphic on a large format sensor. So when I was not able to work with Panavision anamorphics it set me off on a DIY deep dive into an anamorphic journey.
First question was how do you expand anamorphics to cover a large format sensor? With the help of Stephen Gelb at LensWorks and Ethan MacDonald my long time assistant. We discovered that anywhere between 1.2x and 1.4x duclose extender would magnify the optics enough to cover the larger sensors.
With that knowledge we began testing all kinds of anamorphic lenses. Over several weeks we narrowed it down to 10 lenses. All the longer lenses covered. The 50mm focal length seemed to be the threshold where the lenses needed to be expanded. However we discovered one unique Cineovsion 50mm that actually did not need to expanded. It naturally covered and looked gorgeous. That 50mm became the signature lens for the look of the film.
We mix and match 5 different makes of lenses. Mostly vintage. Due to exptenders we had some strange focal length issues. For example the 35mm Atlas with a rear expander had a tighter field of view than the unexpanded 50mm Cineovison.
Crew:
1st AC:
@ethanmcdonald
A-cam/steadicam op:
@markchiefmeyers
Gaffer:
@jameseltondavis
Key Grip:
@Rudygkey
PD:
@thegrangeupstate
Lenses provided by:
@oldfastglass
@lensworksrental
@keslowcamera
@mariocontini
Color:
@tomopoole @company_3
Writer:
@andypagana
Shot on Sony Venice
@sonycine
And thank you to all the producers. Derek Iger
@cheryldoobers , Jason Berman
@jasonmichael826 and David Manzanares. And all at
@mgmstudios &
@bronstudios 
