Lights, Camera, Action

IN CONVERSATION WITH BERTRAND DAUPHANT: THE PRESIDENT AND CEO OF ARRI ASIA PACIFIC TALKS ABOUT THE IMPORTANCE OF LIGHTING ACROSS DIFFERENT CREATIVE INDUSTRIES

- FARISIA THANG

If you’re in the film and broadcast industry, you’ll definitely have heard of ARRI. The German brand began in Munich, founded by August Arnold and Robert Richter around a small and portable film camera. However, over the last 106 years, it has risen to become the very best when it comes to motion picture equipment — cameras, lenses, lighting, and more.

The brand has long been associated with motion pictures and the relationship is as strong today as it has ever been. Just look at the list of films shot by ARRI camera systems that have recently won Academy Awards — Everything Everywhere All At Once (2022), Dune (2021), Nomadland (2020), and Parasite (2019), to name a few. But its influence has also expande

What would you say is the central role of lighting in film? 

I love this question because my personal background comes from lighting. When people think of ARRI, they often only think of cameras — but without lighting, you have no pictures. I mean it’s literally pitch dark. You need lights before you need cameras, and you have many ways to approach that with your perspective of cinematography. Lighting depends on what the director or storyteller wants to say. You can use lighting to recreate a reality but the lighting in cinematography is also a sensorial thing.