Over the years, we have thought that for blockbuster motion pictures and films with high end budgets, only the ‘best’ of gears —in this case, full frame cameras— are employed to get the job done, but news around the block are proving otherwise, as a large part of images from the Dune movie were shot with the Fujifilm X Series camera.
Chiabella James, the unit photographer for Dune via an interview with B&H shared that majority of the images were shot with Fujifilm X series camera. She further shared that she mainly chose the X Series because of its almost completely silent shutter, which helps in maintaining the dead silence needed when cameras are rolling. The X Series are also quicker, compared to the medium format systems which takes more detailed photos and were good for more static images.
“I have started shooting with the Fuji’s, and they have served me very well. In fact, quite a lot of what you see on DUNE was shot on the Fuji’s.
I shoot Fujifilm X system. The GFX system is too large for on set photography. It’s great for specials and when you have a selection of images, not so broad. But when you are shooting all day every day on a film set, those files are too big and unnecessarily big, you don’t need it for that, so it’s not worth the time that they take [to load and process]”- Chiabella James
It is also interesting to note that Dune is not the only film to have been shot on a crop sensor, as Oppenheimer and The Joker also did take the same route for their photography.
With work of this magnitude been shot with affordable gears, it goes on to reinstate that knowing your craft and what works for your vision is paramount; that helps with your choices and what is needed. So, if you never accorded your crop beauty with the respect it duly deserves, your time starts now!
