[Cinematographer Crescenzo Notarile, ASC, AIC] soon felt confident that he “wanted to go further with color, lens flares, light and personal camera compositions. A lot of the time we’re using in-camera effects: filters, prisms, probe lenses and shakers. I’ll use a piece of beveled glass in front of the lens and then “flash the glass with a handheld Xenon flashlight.”

After extensive conversations, Ron Engvaldsen at Schneider Optics designed some specialty streak filters that allowed Crescenzo to change the color of his lens flares and control their effects. Prisms by Schneider and pieces of rummaged beveled glass were used in front of the lens to bend and distort the image during moments of intense drama or combat. “Sometimes I’d just get myself a colored gel, crinkle it up and tape it to the front of the beveled glass,” says the cinematographer. “But you’ve got to know when to go hard and when to back off. If it’s a more delicate, pensive or intimate scene, I’ll settle down to respect the words and the dramaturgy.”