The Cinematographer's Dilemma
In filmmaking, there's a fundamental trade-off. Wide shots are great for establishing a sense of place—the sprawling city, the opulent mansion, the chaotic kitchen—but can leave you feeling distant from the characters. Tight close-ups, on the other hand,
create an immediate emotional connection, but use them too much, and the world of the story shrinks. The great challenge for any director of photography is how to get the best of both worlds: to create a feeling of intimacy while preserving the story’s sense of scale. The answer often lies in the subtle but powerful choice of which lens to put on the camera.
The 'Succession' Method: Voyeurism on a Grand Scale
HBO's "Succession" is a masterclass in making audiences feel like they are eavesdropping on the mega-rich. The show’s cinematographers, including Patrick Capone and Andrij Parekh, crafted a distinct visual language to achieve this. Instead of traditional scene coverage, they often used long zoom lenses from a distance, creating what they describe as a "photo journalistic" and "voyeuristic" perspective. This technique compresses the background, making it feel closer, and isolates the characters in the frame, enhancing the feeling that you are spying on a private, tense conversation from across a vast boardroom or a luxury yacht. The decision to shoot on 35mm film added a unique texture and grain, making the clean, modern look feel more organic and raw. Combined with handheld cameras that seem to be actively searching for the action, the effect is that of a documentarian capturing the private moments of a powerful, dysfunctional dynasty.
The 'Bear' Approach: Intimacy in Chaos
FX's "The Bear" tackles a similar challenge in a completely different environment. Its goal is to plunge the viewer into the sweaty, high-stress, and claustrophobic world of a professional kitchen. Cinematographer Andrew Wehde achieves this with a dynamic blend of techniques. For scenes inside the kitchen, the camera often gets extremely close to the actors, sometimes using wider lenses to create a sense of frantic energy and forced proximity. For other moments, the crew uses long lenses to pick out specific details, like a delicate plating technique or a flicker of emotion in a character's eyes amidst the chaos. Wehde and his team use modern digital cameras but pair them with vintage Panavision H-series lenses. These old lenses offer the best of both worlds: they are tack-sharp where it counts—like a character's eyes—but have a softer, "dreamy and creamy" quality that flatters skin tones and makes the image feel less sterile. The result is a look that is both visceral and beautiful, trapping you in the kitchen's pressure cooker right alongside the characters.
More Than Just a Look
These technical choices aren't just for style; they serve the story's core themes. In "Succession," the voyeuristic camera reinforces the constant paranoia, scheming, and lack of privacy in the lives of the Roy family. The camera is another character, observing and judging, but never truly getting close. In "The Bear," the tight, often handheld camera work mirrors Carmy's anxiety and the relentless pressure of the kitchen. The visual language forces the audience to feel the heat, the noise, and the tension. The moments of stillness and beauty, often shot on a longer lens outside the kitchen, provide a much-needed visual and emotional breath of fresh air. The choice of lens, therefore, becomes a crucial part of the storytelling toolkit, shaping our emotional response to the narrative on a subconscious level.
