CNN Create takes the ZEISS Nano Primes above the Bosphorus

Jamie Roper, in-house lead cinematographer and senior editor at CNN Create, CNN International Commercial’s brand studio, recently got in touch with the ZEISS Cinematography team to let us know how him and his teammates added ZEISS Nano Primes to their kit list for their high-end branded content. Not too familiar with this kind of production, which has its own demands, processes, and timelines, we were happy to have a chat with Roper, along with cinematographer Benjamin Liddell and producer Hannah Tilley, who are both recurring freelance collaborators of CNN Create.

For the 3rd installment of their Restaurant in the Sky series, which they created for Turkish Airlines, CNN Create took New Yorker Chef Fariyal Abdullahi to Türkiye. In the space of a 2 minutes and 42 seconds film, they manage to introduce their main character in her New York restaurant and borough, fly her to Istanbul to meet the local chef of the company, Chef Emre, enjoy a family meal of grilled fish (after watching said fish being taken out of the sea), have her and her host cook one of the airline dishes, and finish by enjoying the dish in the comfort of business class. Talk about a lesson in storytelling!

Being part of CNN, Roper and his team get to collaborate on projects all around the world, relying on a wide network of cinematographers and other technicians. “We’ve fostered those relationships quite carefully, to make sure that we have the right teams for the right campaigns,” Roper explains. The core crew is intentionally lean, and can be complemented by hiring locally, whether it be in Türkiye, Africa, Asia, or the Middle East. This variety of locations and clients, from global brands to governments promoting tourism or development initiatives, requires both consistency and flexibility. “Each location needs a different look and feel, right? And there are regional practicalities to consider – the approach that works in South Korea won’t necessarily work in West Africa. The light is different, just for starters,” says Roper, who’s also aware of the specific context of being part of CNN. “The stories we tell need to feel like they come from the world of CNN, and they are tailored to its audience: an educated, curious, and globally minded group of people who understand and care about how the world works. Our work needs to fit within that world, of course, but it’s so important to tell real stories and represent people in the correct way.”

After the 1st episode of Restaurant in the Sky (featuring chef Michel Roux), producer Tilley took over both the creative and the narrative direction, in close collaboration with the director, to figure out the story, the guests, and the locations. She recalls, “The second and the third episodes are a similar format, but we wanted them to be distinct in terms of feel and location. The 2nd episode with Chef Pam in Bangkok was amazing. Her progressive Thai-Chinese cooking was formidable, and Turkish Airlines were so happy that they wanted us to repeat the format while keeping it fresh and innovative.”

Approximately six weeks before the shoot, after agreeing with the client on the dish to be prepared by the chefs on camera (seasonal sea bass from coastal scenery Bosphorus), preparation can start. Location scouting is key when filming a living postcard. “I help bring the director’s vision to life,” says Tilley, “warm exteriors, ambient lighting, lots of colors and textures, one of those picturesque outdoor family restaurants with beautiful plates of food. I would research and work with the fixer as well, looking at different seaside villages.”

Roper, who photographed the first episode of the series, confirms the importance of cultivating a scene in unconventional environments. “Turkish Airlines wanted to showcase the most up-to-date version of business class, so we had a very narrow window when the plane was grounded.

Asked about the specificities of shooting a documentary style project on primes, Liddell adds, “It's not actuality, it's not TV. You're looking for moments rather than actually having to capture everything that happens. So, within that, I can follow what's happening, and I'm looking for certain beats and little moments and reactions. And I can move around. I know what I need to cover so working on primes is not a problem really.”

Flexibility and adaptability are key factors to achieving such shootings in a short time. Liddel describes how planning goes with the director: “It's not storyboarded too precisely. Often when I work with directors, we have that as the framework. We're familiar with where we're trying to get to and what sort of beats we need to hit. I will plan out the order for the day, but we might adapt the shots to something that we see. So, it's very well planned, and there's a bit of improvisation as well.”

Roper insists on this specificity of their creative process, “That's where we differ from the traditional commercial production, where everything is storyboarded and scripted within an inch of its life. We have the plan, the idea, and the structure, which are all part of the creative strategy. That's the framework that we work from. But we need to be able to think on our feet in case circumstances change or the location isn’t as expected. The reason why we shoot like this is to allow us to have that flexibility.”

Roper and Liddel, being both cinematographers working on common projects, have developed an efficient way of assigning roles. There is still one cinematographer in charge on the shoot. As Roper says, “Establishing that hierarchy on the shoot is paramount. You need to make sure who's making the decisions. What we do is help each other out in these environments. It's a shorthand as well that you can develop, like what you have with the director.” Liddel agrees, “The creative shoot is slightly less formal. Obviously, someone needs to make the decisions, and you can't have too many voices, but with slightly smaller crews and less production, things become more of a conversation. On the shoots where Jamie and I have been together, it was really good because we both know what we're trying to do, even though I was thinking more about the look of things while Jamie was operating, whether on a buggy or with a gimbal running along a professional footballer. I could just stand at the monitor and watch him, which was nice. And when there are different deliverables, such as a Tik Tok reel, you can split off and make two units.”

In line with the call for flexibility, the crews remain rather small, almost documentary style. “On the Turkish Airlines shoot we had a 1st AC, a 2nd AC, a gaffer and couple more sparks for the plane,” says Liddel. “But that's about as big as it gets, and it's enough. To me the look of these things always wants to feel quite natural, not too controlled, not too over-lit. We use or enhance natural light as much as possible, even when we're filming the interiors.”

“We send a core team of highly skilled individuals to do the job that we know they can deliver, rather than sending ten midweight people.” Liddel and Roper are aware of the privilege they have, working within the CNN world network. Roper says, “You need the support on the ground, and you need the trust as well, because this is a trust game more than anything else. It’s trusting the people that will turn up and do the job. They've said that they'll do the thing and then they will do it. We're not editorial, we don’t go to conflict zones, but we do go to quite far-flung places where it's not necessarily easy to find a spare part for a Sony FX6, for example. These things really matter in those scenarios. You need to be able to rely on your crew and kit.”