Technical stuff

We recently worked on three French feature-films and a series for Netflix; these are the subject of this month article.

For over 20 years, ACS France has been assisting production teams in their aerial and dynamic shooting projects, and we took part in more than 150 feature films and 200 commercials, in France and abroad.

First production units of Angenieux 30-72mm AS2 Anamorphic lens are making a splash on the set of Star Trek Beyond (2016) with Cinematographer Stephen Windon ACS, ASC.

Multi-format support and versatile interfaces deliver a new level of convenience for 4K productions.

In this article, we present a facet of ACS France expertise, the aerial coordination. We are working on a new series, and have finished the 2015 French Open “Roland Garros”.

The month of June is full of news: new projects in feature films, a French movie release, a new series to discover and our new lightweight grip-equipment.

Partners of the event since 2001, our team is preparing for the annual tournament of Roland Garros, which will this year take place from the 24^th of May to the 7^th of June. Our A380 replica on the Cablecam®, which will be equipped with our new generation of gyro-stabilized head Shotover F1, will fly over the courts throughout the tournament!

Adapted from Jiang Rong’s best-seller in China, Wolf Totem has been shot in 3D by Jean-Marie Dreujou, AFC, talked about his experience with Angénieux lenses during the shooting.

Effective 1 January 2015, we have the following new contacts for the sale and support of our Motion Picture Film products in the France / Benelux region.

One more year at our customers’ service to advise them about how to achieve specific and aerial shots. We always work and think about how to better approach directors and cinematographers. Once more, ACS France has worked upstream Warner Bros Production to study, advise and meet a specific request for aerials with "ground effect" (turbulence created by the helicopter rotor wind).

Thales Angénieux is honored to be the recipient of the British Society of Cinematographers (BSC) "Bert Easey Technical Award", presented at the annual BSC Operators Night on Friday 28^th November 2014 at Gibson Hall in London. This award was named in honor of Bert Easey, who, in 1947, was head of the camera department at Denham and Pinewood Studios and was integral in the formation of the BSC. The award is given to "an individual or company who has contributed something outstanding in the way of endeavor or equipment."

Since the end of last year, we have made several shootings in the fauna and flora for two French Directors’ next documentary... Hedgehogs, blackbirds, wolfs, ponies... So wildlife shootings!

The teams of ACS France realised aerial shots on one movie released in August and two in September: SMS, by Gabriel Julien-Laferrière, Métamorphoses, by Christophe Honoré, and The Hundred-Foot Journey, by Lasse Hallström.

Remember 50 years ago... On July 31, 1964 Ranger 7 took the first pictures at close range of the Moon. These pictures were made by Angenieux 25mm f: 0.95 M1 lenses.
The Ranger program was a series of nine unmanned space missions by the United States in the 1960s, between 1961 and 1965, whose objective was to obtain the first close-up images of the surface of the Moon: large-scale topographic information needed for the Surveyor and Apollo projects.

Lucy, the latest film by Luc Besson, featuring Scarlett Johansson and Norman Freeman, will be released in France on 6 August and was filmed with the Sony F65. Thierry Arbogast, AFC, and director of photography on this film and on many of Besson’s other films, shares his experience of shooting with the F65.

Having shot with John Toll, ASC, and the Wachowskis on Cloud Atlas, it was a pleasure to be asked to shoot on Jupiter Ascending. ACS France provided the complete aerial shooting solution in Iceland and recently in Bilbao including helicopter, Aerial DOP, Film Pilot, crew and low level flying permissions. All the logistics involved in getting that perfect shot.

A great team for Supercondriaque, Dany Boon’s latest movie, photographed by Romain Winding, AFC. Our team worked at night in Paris streets during Christmas time, and in Budapest also at night time in order to follow car pursuits with the Ultimate Arm and with Jean Baptiste Jay as a camera operator.

A beautiful project with Nils Tavernier photographed by Laurent Machuel, AFC. We worked within the Nord Ouest camera team (7 cameras to cover the event) for the Ironman competition in Nice.