Based on interviews with a dozen renowned cinematographers and industry experts, Large Sensor Cinematography is a 30-minute documentary released by the Digital Cinema Society.

A nonprofit educational cooperative dedicated to the industry’s informed integration of new technology, the Digital Cinema Society added a new title to its growing collection of videos about the filming industry, which is now close to 900. There is a short version of the documentary, for those who believe they don’t have the time to watch anything but short videos, but DCS has also released the full version of its Large Sensor Cinematography documentary, a 30-minute voyage inside the world of cinematography with large sensors. ProVideo Coalition shares here the condensed video but invites you to check the whole documentary if the subject interests you.

What started, in 2003, as an outgrowth of a pro bono documentary on the subject of Digital Cinema is now the Digital Cinema Society, an international membership of approximately 6,500 and count some of the top filmmaking, technology, and business leaders in the Entertainment Industry. The DCS’s Vimeo space is a place to add to your list of favorites, as there is so much there to browse and watch, to better understand the industry.

The Large Format Cinematography documentary features popular names from the industry. Listed in order of appearance are, reveals the note distributed by DCS:

Julio Macat, ASC — Tobias Schliessler, ASC — Director Nigel Dick — Nancy Schreiber, ASC — ARRI’s Art Adams — Megan Donnelly from AbelCine — Zeiss’ Snehal Patel — Matthew Duclos of Duclos Lenses — Panavision’s Aaron Kroger — DIT Lewis Rothenberg — Steve Yedlin, ASC — Cinematographer Todd Bell

The documentary is, according to Digital Cinema Society, a format agnostic exploration of Large Sensor Cinematography, in which the participants look at the benefits, aesthetic and technical differences, as well as the challenges of shooting larger format sensors as compared to S35. Besides the interviews with renowned cinematographers and industry experts, viewers are invited to look at the behind-the-scenes coverage and sample footage.

Dedicated to the memory of Douglas Trumbull

The Society’s purpose, one discovers reading through DCS’s website, “is not to advocate for digital technology, but to objectively examine all media, solutions, services, and technologies without favoring any one brand, service, or format over another. Membership benefits include a monthly eNewsletter, admission to regularly scheduled educational presentations, and access to our members site with streaming coverage of past events, and news of the latest developments in the field of Digital Cinema. Our library of “Streaming Knowledge On Demand” includes programs such as:

• Lighting Workshop featuring four prominent ASC Cinematographers
• Presentations of new equipment such as the latest Cameras, Lenses, and Lighting Technology.
• Panel discussions on subjects such as ACES, 4K Editing, Indie Finance & Distribution, Post, and Exhibition, RAW Workflows, Look Management, The Role of the Digital Imaging Technician, How To Monetize Your Stock Footage, Underwater Cinematography, Sound Recording for Digital Image Capture, Digital Storage Solutions for Production & Post, Web Distribution, and Metadata.

The Large Format Cinematography documentary is dedicated to the memory of Douglas Trumbull, the Godfather of Large Format Cinematography. A longtime DCS member, Douglas Trumbull, whose credits include sci-fi classics such as 2001: A Space Odyssey, Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Blade Runner, died on January 7, 2022 at the age of 79.