Take Off For the Sony BURANO
Oscar-winning DoP James Friend ASC, BSC takes us behind the scenes for The Wingman.
Introduction
James Friend ASC, BSC eyes an F-type Jaguar through a circular polarizing filter, checking the reflections in its immaculate bodywork. A Sony BURANO sits high on a Scorpio 45’ crane, a second nestling below on a Chapman dolly. The A-cam will boom down and swing around as the gleaming Jag pulls up outside a hangar at White Waltham Airfield, Berkshire, the B-cam capturing a classic long-lens approach shot on its Cooke Varotal FF 85-215 mm. The weather is unseasonably beautiful for October, backlighting the car perfectly as Friend and his crew near the end of their third and final day shooting The Wingman.
“It’s gone very well – a lot better than I’d hoped, because it was a very ambitious project for the time and money that we had,” Friend reflects later, as the crew pack down and champagne is poured. “There were a lot of elements in every scene that we weren’t sure were achievable.”
Expected to run at just a few minutes in length, The Wingman follows a pilot arriving at an airfield and taking his vintage aircraft for a spin. Tipping the hat to one of the VENICE’s most high-profile productions, Top Gun: Maverick, The Wingman is a showcase for the newest camera in Sony’s Cinema Line, the BURANO. The film is also a nod to Claudio Miranda ASC, ACC – who shot Top Gun: Maverick – and is one of Friend’s heroes, who he considers “one of the finest cinematographers working today.”
“The Wingman is a film that Sony is going to screen at Camerimage, so I was very conscious it’s going to go on the big screen,” says Friend. “That’s quite exciting!”
We’ve had three BURANOS, which we have rigged into and onto airplanes, and we’ve shot out of a helicopter with Marzano Films - John Marzano was my aerial operator. That was excellent, going up in the chopper with him and discovering shots in the sky.
James Friend ASC BSC
Friend makes no claim to be a director, though he is effectively helming The Wingman in addition to DPing. A BSC member since 2014 and ASC member since 2019, Friend’s credits include Patrick Melrose and the upcoming Star Wars series The Acolyte, while his work with the Sony VENICE includes Your Honor for Showtime and night work in All Quiet on the Western Front for Netflix (the latter earning him an Oscar, a Bafta and a BSC Award).
The new Sony BURANO features an 8.6K full-frame sensor, the same color science as the VENICE, and a compact form factor. It will hit the market in spring 2024, but Friend and his crew have a trio of prototypes. “We’ve had three BURANOs, which we have rigged into and onto airplanes,” he explains, “and we’ve shot out of a helicopter with Marzano Films – John Marzano was my aerial operator. That was excellent, going up in the chopper with him and discovering shots in the sky. We also attached the BURANO to a car rig and on a Ukraine arm.”
First AC Tom Dunne notes that the car shots employed the BURANO’s in-body image stabilization. “That’s a key feature,” he points out, “the electromagnetically suspended sensor.” The BURANO is the first PL-mount camera to include this feature as well as the first to combine it with electronic ND filters.
Friend continues, “It was important to me, when you test a camera, not only to test the image quality but also how you can utilize it. What are its strengths and what are its weaknesses? I treated it as more like a simulation process than an actual movie. It was an experiment really. And I’m delighted with it. It’s a fantastic camera: it’s lightweight; the image stabilization in it is absolutely breathtaking; the variable ND, for me, was a brilliant tool.”
To read the full 4-page article by British Cinematographer’s Neil Oseman, please click below and download Creators magazine issue one.
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