Artist Profile

Cinematographer

Red Scarlet-W +
Atlas Orion Anamorphic Lenses

The Tate Liverpool
Lucy McKenzie
Anattic

Lucy is known for using the trompe l'oeil technique, paintings that are so convincingly real they literally "deceive the eye". For the look of our profile piece, we wanted to distort reality and blur the line in homage to her trompe style. For this, we chose anamorphic lenses, which used wide open distortion and broke apart the image, giving it a vintage quality.

The anamorphic lenses gave us a broader canvas to work with. I could capture more width in a cinemascope aspect ratio to depict the exhibition in more single frames. With these wide shots, I added a subtle push-in, gently moving the camera through space so as to subtly put the audience in the room and move them through the exhibition.

We had access to the gallery during the preparation phase, which worked great for Lucy's interview, where she could sit in the middle of her work and the clutter of the gallery floor. The interview was very simple yet beautifully lit with two light sources to create a naturally soft shape. Matt (director) ran the interview twice, giving me the option to use a medium focal length before stepping up to a telephoto 85mm. The gallery itself was shot under its natural lighting conditions - a touch dark, but we got away with it by opening skylights and positioning practical lights.

Lucy's exploration of the floor was shot handheld for a documentary feel - to be present with her at this moment before the opening. We wanted a visual separation of Lucy's behind-the-scenes content and the final exhibition, so all the completed exhibition shots were created with a tripod and slider.