Avishai Cohen at the Olympia, shot on seven Sony Burano
For Avishai Cohen’s sold-out concert at the Olympia in Paris, SPHERE Cameras built a seven-camera Sony Burano system for Paramax Films. Sony made the shoot one of its cinematography case studies, and its reel reached a million views on Instagram.
The film
The concert
Avishai Cohen is a bassist, singer and composer, winner of the Miles Davis Award at the 2023 Montreal Jazz Festival. He plays in trio with Guy Moskovich on piano and Roni Kaspi on drums.
The concert film Avishai Cohen à l’Olympia (2024) was recorded during a sold-out night at the Olympia for his album Brightlight. Paramax Films produced it. SPHERE Cameras supplied the camera system and the crew.
The camera setup
- Seven Sony Burano, the core of the SPHERE multicamera system since 2024, replacing the FX9 and FX6 the team used before.
- Two cameras on cranes, one facing the stage and one at the back of the hall, to show the room as much as the musicians. Christophe Boula had in mind the famous image of Edith Piaf in a spotlight on this stage.
- Crane operation by Nicolas Glachant: the Burano is light enough that he needed no counterweight to balance the lens.
- Handheld by director of photography Ugo Tsvetoukhine, with the Burano’s built-in stabilisation and its autofocus locked on the musicians’ faces.
- Recording in X-OCN LT, Sony’s RAW format, to hold the deep blacks and hard light of a jazz stage.
Why the Burano
For Christophe Boula, president of SPHERE Cameras, the Burano is sensitive enough to move from ISO 800 to 3200 on a dark stage, with 16 stops of dynamic range, and it keeps detail in the highlights where many cameras with similar figures lose it in the grade. It is also light and simple enough for one operator.
“We opted for the BURANOs because they offered the best of everything.” Christophe Boula, quoted by Sony
Grading in HDR
Colourist Grégoire Lesturgie, who has worked for Netflix, Disney and Amazon, graded the RAW files in ACES for HDR and reached the look he wanted without complex colour conversions. He compared the experience to working with a Sony VENICE.
Post-production took place at Loedens Studio in Paris, founded by Laszlo Chatelard: a 4K DCI auditorium with 7.1 sound, grading rooms for Dolby Vision, HLG and HDR10+, and a Sony BVM-X300 reference monitor.
Credits
- Artist: Avishai Cohen Trio, with Guy Moskovich and Roni Kaspi
- Production: Paramax Films
- Cameras and crew: SPHERE Cameras, Christophe Boula
- Director of photography: Ugo Tsvetoukhine
- Crane and remote heads: Nicolas Glachant
- Colourist: Grégoire Lesturgie
- Post-production: Loedens Studio, Laszlo Chatelard
Read and watch
- The Sony Pro case study (English)
- L’étude de cas Sony Pro (French)
- Avishai Cohen à l’Olympia, “Seven Seas”, an excerpt of the concert in 4K HDR on YouTube
- The Sony Pro Filmmaking reel on Instagram, a million views
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