With my background in travel, advertising and music videos, the FE 35mm f/1.4 GM inspired me to create a low-light and cinematic short film with strong tones of Americana. I wanted to take advantage of the lens’s new features and make a story that only it could help me tell. 35mm is a perfect movie focal length for me. It’s so adaptable for different subjects and I love the cinematic feel. It’s not too wide, but still gives a sense of place, and it’s great for capturing shots of people. Maybe best of all, the 1.4 aperture produced beautiful bokeh and let us work with atmospheric lighting.

The FE 35mm f/1.4 GM uses a physical aperture ring that can be de-clicked via a button on the barrel for movie applications, so it’s ready for either stills or video. This means you can get almost invisible transitions in aperture, tightening focus or extending it, depending on the narrative you’re creating, and changing the exposure in the same way. It helps me as a videographer because there’s no hard jump that can take the viewer out of the moment. It’s just beautifully natural and smooth.

Working with his α7S III’s Face Detection AF, I was also impressed by the FE 35mm f/1.4 GM’s focusing speed, precision and lack of motor noise. It uses a frictionless XD Linear Motor, so AF was stunningly quick and accurate. We only did six shots in manual focus. All the others were made with face detection at f/1.4 and it never skipped a beat.

Find the the full article and some behind the scenes informations on the Alpha Universe website, click here!

Creating this short film in dramatic rainy night-time streets of my hometown Erfurt in Germany, the FE 35mm f/1.4 GM’s weather sealing stood up to the conditions and its lightweight design meant I could move it on a gimbal with complete freedom. No-one wants a lens that holds them back, but the FE 35mm f/1.4 GM does the opposite. It was raining heavily when we were shooting, and the lens got quite wet, but it just wasn’t a problem at all! The lightness is a huge factor, too. Compared to previous fast aperture 35mm lenses I’ve used, at only 524g, it’s so much more portable.

Find the the full article and some behind the scenes informations on the Alpha Universe website, click here!

Camera, Editor & Director: Dennis Schmelz
BTS & Lighting: Christian Fleischer
Assistant: Nils Riedl
Stills: Stefan Liebermann & Christopher Schmid
Actor: Daniel Mey
Band: Desert Machine + Crowd
Venue: From Hell Erfurt Show
Lighting: MM-Veranstaltungstechnik
Car: 1977 Lincoln Continental Town Car
Thanks to Sony, DJI & Smoke Factory for the support.