The Cameras Used in the 2018 Oscar-Nominated Films

Love my Alexa mini!

Good point! Resolution above 4K is useless.

“The most common format this year was ARRIRAW (3.4K)”
This! People here often goes nuts about 4k. 90% of all Digital Projectors in Cinema are 2k projectors. Of course it is nice to shoot in 4k and scale it down, reframe, whatever.

Personally I am really excited to see a Blackmagic Pocket 2 or Micro 2 Camera. Maybe a slighly bigger sensor. 2.8k. 13 stops. maybe 14 or 15. Raw 3:1 or Raw 5:1 internal recording. That would be great. I could not care less about v-log / s-log 4K ISO 64.000 low light consumer mirrorless cam. Blackmagic is the only brand that is pushing “cinematic” to the consumer market and it is a shame that people choose a camera like the GH5 over a BMMCC.

This should be “FRONT PAGE” to all the KIDS studying nonsense…

https://ascmag.com/articles/a-clear-look-at-the-issue-of-resolution
http://yedlin.net/ResDemo/

The End of all Camera Resolution Myths:
https://frankglencairn.wordpress.com/2017/07/25/the-end-of-all-camera-resolution-myths/

Only use for above 4k is VFX! (after denoising ;-) )

No, there was a mistake. I opened the wrong envelope. Sony is the winner for Best Cinema Camera.

I would be quite concerned with the monopoly. Interesting to see that there are only 3 films shots purely analog.
We don’t see RED or even Blackmagic.

Hollywood DPs love those Alexas. Now that the Arri LF is coming out expect to see that more as well.

I think this brings up the question, why no RED? With higher Rez, smaller form factor, and more flexibility in post you’ve got to wonder why it’s not here.

I think it’s because there is something missing in RED’s image. It’s like 80-90% there, but it’s missing that final pop that make images come alive and these DPs see it, and they don’t care about a resolution that is 2x higher than Alexa.

I didn’t check every credit in their filmographies, but I saw no RED usage by the Best Picture Nominated DPs.

It’s pretty much all film and Alexas.

“One of the most interesting questions that may strike your curiosity when watching a movie – and especially one nominated for an Oscar – is “what camera was that shot on?””

Well, at least in my case the more interesting tidbit is how many movies, if any, were made on film, and which kind of lenses were used in each movie. Beyond that, the list has been featuring pretty much the same usual suspects for the past decade or so, with very few exceptions here and there.

“most of the source formats were under 4K!”

And?

“Does this data surprise you?”

Nope.

“Did you expect to see RED in this list?”

Not really. Maybe an odd Sony might have been even more likely than a RED, but I digress. Beyond that, the Arri dominance has hardly been any surprise for a good while now.

That said, if you widen your scope beyond the few high budget Oscar winners of this year to all films released during the past few years or during this decade, with or without Oscar nominations, including smaller budget indie productions and maybe even documentaries, there will be more diversion in cameras.

Sure, on the top movie list there will still be a whole lot of Arris and some film cameras, but you’ll also spot a few Sonys, possibly REDs, too, maybe even some Canons and others. Count in TV productions, and there may be even more diversion.
For example, there have been two Oscar nominees and winners shot mostly with 16mm Arri and Aaton film gear.

I’m kinda annoyed by the non-story of this article. The “journalist” on this story should take his time and look into why there might be a reason for the massive over-representation of ARRI cameras in this area. I don’t it has anything to do with the fact that ARRI cameras are better than other cameras but it probably has more to do with historic facts of a deep belief in ARRI as a company, their long-lasting position in the film business and the way they treat cinematographers that shoot on their cameras.

When you shoot a movie is not only about resolution is about ergonomics on the set and the general workflow.
Arri cameras give you really nice image but most important for a DoP, is really easy to use and you don’t get crazy to get the look you want on your recorder.
The response of the sensor and the eletronics is very similar to the film and very constant in wired light/color condition, without many ‘bad’ surprises, like some other camera do.
What does cost much in a movie is not renting few camera but paying all the people around the set, if you lose time shooting you lose $$$$ every minute, if you can’t get your light set up fast and show to the director he get the image style you promise to him because your camera is a nightmare you have good chance to lose your job.

Btw sound like many people here don’t know that in film industry the camera is the DoP choice and not the director choice.

Even for medium-short time shooting project renting a Alexa mini can be the best choice.
In 2017 (and I believe also 2018) I didn’t meet any serious producer that consider shooting in 8k, maybe some marketing guys who want use the buzz that the “8k” make, and some nerds that still think resolution is the factor that transform a crappy scenario to a Oscar winning movie.
Professionals DoP go most of the time for Arri because is the best professional camera in the market for traditional movie shooting.
If your shooting conditions change you can use a better camera for this particular context, be felxible when you chose your camera: be smart and kill your inner fanboy.

People ask why so few Reds? Or point out if you factor in TV you’d get a lot more Reds. The reason for so many Reds in broadcast is that Netflix and Amazon has made 4k 10 bit plus a mandate regardless of IQ. When tech guys make unjustified calls this is what you get. When the filmmakers choose, you get Arri – for now. Unless I’m ten feet from the screen or have my face pressed up against my computer, I can’t tell the difference between 2 or 4k. But I can see the streaming artifacts of 4k as Amazon and Nflix force too much data through inadequate bandwidth.

having actually used many of these cameras… RED’s are unreliable in my experience. You just never know when they will not work, not accept TC, RED Mags wipe out and you have to have a spare body basically with you as a hot swap. Never mind their choice of odd ball connectors which aren’t consistent across bodies to make things more complicated.

Not a huge fan of the Alexa Mini either. It too suffers from oddball connectors, lack of proper operator controls. Sure its small, sure it makes nice pix and is so far been reliable, but it has its limitations too in ergonomics. its fine for remote / steadicam work but using it as an A camera on a long job wouldn’t get my vote. The regular Alexas are much more pleasant to work with, or the much unrated Amira which I like.

Interesting, but may be mainly a referendum on who are the most talented film makers and what equipment are they familiar/comfortable with (if it ain’t broke don’t fix it). If those same film makers were forced to use other cameras, what would have happened? So if its the talent rather than the camera determining the oscars, I would expect a lot of inertia keeping other products from breaking into this list. It would be interesting to extend these stats to other lists, such as what movies were shot by camera, to get a feel for “hey, I loved that movie and it was shot on…”.

Total Alexa domination. I think a lot of this comes down to industry paranoia. Hollywood doesn’t like risk, they pick the same actors over and over again, hire the same crews repeatedly etc etc. If you are a DP and you pick the ALEXA you instantly remove 1 risk factor that may get you fired. Same is happening in TV, if you choose anything other than an FS7 “it’s on your head mate”.

Oh, they used Arris… Not gh5s!

I don’t buy the assertions here that Alexa’s dominate because Hollywood is slow to change or “inertia”. What were they using before Alexa’s? Productions jumped from Panavision to Alexa’s in a heart beat. They did not embrace the Arri D 20. DP’s choose Alexa because of the image and producers like the simple workflow as well as reliability. At this level of DP’s, if there’s a better camera, you can bet they have the budget to test it and incorporate it. I’m sure virtually all of these DP’s have done side by sides with the prevailing cameras. It’s that they don’t post everything they do on Youtube. Another thing to think about is reliability. If a camera goes down for even five minutes on a large budget film, do the math – that costs way more than the weekly rental rate. Imagine data corruption which could lead to a half day re-shoot (assuming it’s found during the day). Again the cost of that could be six digits or more.

A few years back, I did an ABC test with Alexa, Red Dragon and F55 for a feature with some big names. We screened the results to the director and producers on a 20′ screen at Company 3 (NYC’s premier post house) with no credits whatsoever. No one knew what camera they were viewing. Then we took a poll. The results were unanimous. They all chose the Alexa (at 2k shot on Pro Rez 4444) over Red (Raw) and F55 (Raw). There wasn’t even a debate. No one was loyal to any brand. None of us techs were surprised. 2nd and 3rd were Red then F55. No one cared or noticed the Red and Sony were screened at 4k. The overwhelming reaction was toward the colors in that they looked natural, true to life, especially the skin tones. Considering we’re looking at actors most the time, this took priority over resolution, DR or Raw. Now imagine if we screened Arri raw. But I was confident, even in pro rez, it’d wipe the floor with the competition.

This is what the competition is up against. Red’s lease on life for high end is kept afloat by Netflix/Amazon 4k mandate and EFX/Composite heavy films (Marvel, Michael Bay, etc). The new LF will undoubtedly change this. I also believe, though off to a slow start, Panasonic Varicam will make inroads to high end Oscar worthy shows. Some big TV shows are incorporating it. The color science is excellent and the Dual ISO is a game changer. Meanwhile Red still hasn’t figured out internal ND’s.

Hollywood buys reliability and consistency. Alexa has established itself as dependable camera.It’s ironic too that with Canon all their new releases in cameras,Hollywood DP’s sill chose the 10 year old 5DMarkII for tight spots that the Alexa cannot get into.Which goes to show that DP will chose a camera with a proven track record on consistency and reliability. But I heard that RED Dragon is making headway though.

I am impressed by the fact that about 75% of the Oscar-nominated films are shot in the taller 1.85:1 “flat” aspect ratio, even when the majority of today’s films are shot in the 2.39:1 “scope” aspect ratio. Although I’m a fan of scope, I actually prefer the 1.85:1 ratio because of the extra height, but I’ll still use scope for the more epic films.