Nicola Daley ACS on production of The Handmaid’s Tale, season five!

Award winning Nicola Daley ACS, cinematographer based in the UK, http://nicoladaley.com DOP for season five of The Handmaid’s Tale spoke to us about the camera lenses that she used on set.

The above picture taken on set of The Handmaid's Tale - Season Five! On the left you have Nicola Daley ACS, DOP and on right is Elisabeth Moss, who plays leading female character June Osbourne.

Right - Elisabeth Moss, who plays leading female character June Osbourne.

The Handmaid’s Tale, an American television series by Hulu and MGM, based on the fictional novel by Margaret Atwood, started production in 2016 and released its first season in June 2017. It has won many awards through the years, including a Golden Globe Award for Best Television Series – Drama.

Through the seasons the lenses used in production had been a set of TLS rehoused Canon K35’s. The lenses were hired from Keslow Camera https://www.keslowcamera.com. When Nicola came to production for season five, she states that it was a no brainer but to carry on with the TLS rehoused Canon K35s as they had produced such an amazing look in the previous seasons!

Nicola had already used the K35s previously on other shows, so she was confident that they would carry out the workload and not fail to impress. She expressed how easy a set of TLS rehoused K35s can be to work with especially when in comparison to a pair of lenses that had not been rehoused. She states that a non-rehoused K35 can be a focus puller’s nightmare! The TLS rehousing has allowed the beautiful vintage glass to be usable in a modern-day set.

Nicola then went onto explain how the lenses produced such stunning soft imagery with the most beautiful fall-off, they gave a beautiful roundness finish with a gorgeous flare. She also tells us, given that the Handmaid’s Tale was captured in wide-open majority of the time, the lenses proved to hold up very well. The close-ups taken on the 28mm and 35mm of ‘June Osbourne’, Elizabeth Moss’s character, allow you to see the detail of the intense emotion of what ‘June Osbourne’ is going through. The shots draw you in and allow you to feel the emotion of character.

“I absolutely loved working with the K35’s”, they are so beautiful, light weight, perfect for handheld filming, perfect for bringing a gritty emotional tale to life. There is most definitely nothing bad to say about the rehousing!”

Thank you Nicola for sharing your experience with us!

Watch out for season six, the final season which Nicola will also be filming.