Blazar Cato Anamorphics - Review w/ Director / DoP Brent Christy
We ran through the ins & outs of the Blazar Cato Anamorphics with Director/DP Brent Christy, who helmed our production for Benton’s Broke Down Dreams music video, showcasing plenty of good ol’ lens character.
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The Blazar Catos have a very approachable price point, especially for 2x anamorphics. Ahead of using them, did you have any reservations about the image quality given the lens set’s affordability?
“A concern with cheaper anamorphic glass is the aperture threshold in low light. When the opportunity arose to shoot this project on the Alexa 35 with access to the Blazar Catos anamorphic lenses, I was excited to test their limits in low light as well as how they handled a strong contrast ratio.”
What were the strong points of the lenses? Did anything stand out to you about the frames?
“When running the Alexa 35 and the Blazar Catos through the gamut of production, we found that an f/4-5.6 split was the aperture sweet spot we were looking for regarding sharpness and contrast values.”
Some people fear the funk. But you embraced it. Talk to me about how the character of the Catos complemented the shoot - why were they the right choice rather than a modern spherical, etc.?
“There's a mix of hard daylight/moonlight and sharp color saturation that we wanted to create in this project. The Blazar Cato lenses helped create a classic cinematic image that delivered in both these capacities and became a true collaborator on the project.”
As both Director and DP, how do you go about choosing the tone of a project? How does the camera choice and lensing effect that?
“When building my pitch deck for the Benton music video I was heavily influenced by early Michael Mann, Spike Jonze, and late 1980s crime drama. Unify coming on board the project and pitching the Alexa 35 and Blazar Catos lenses created an exciting opportunity. Listening to my collaborators and their experience with the camera and lenses factored greatly in my choice for this project, and it paid off.”
You can view the final Broke Down Dreams music video here & find more of Brent Christy’s work at here.
Stay tuned for more of our lens reviews & example frames from our anamorphic and aspherical sets. You can check out previous write-ups of our Viltrox Epic Anamorphics set paired with the Alexa 35 here, and with the Alexa Mini here.