1:21:03
He looked for the old-fashioned
Mitchell BNC cameras. . .
1:21:07
. . .for a very specific reason.
1:21:09
These were the only cameras
where he had a chance. . .
1:21:13
. . .of fitting these big Zeiss lenses.
1:21:16
Stanley sent me this lens and said,
could I mount it on his BNC camera?
1:21:21
I said it's absolutely impossible
because the BNC has two shutters. . .
1:21:26
. . .a thick aperture plate,
and all that. . .
1:21:29
. . .between the film plane
and the rear element of the lens.
1:21:33
And so I explained that to Stanley
and said we'd have to. . .
1:21:36
. . .damn near wreck your camera
and make it purely dedicated.
1:21:41
He said, "Go ahead and do it. "
1:21:43
It originally was designed,
developed and manufactured. . .
1:21:48
. . .by Zeiss, for NASA.
1:21:52
NASA was planning to use it
in satellite photography.
1:21:57
For that reason, it's an extremely
fast lens. It's an f0.7. . .
1:22:02
. . .which is two stops faster than
lenses that are available even today.
1:22:07
Of course, Stanley's intention
for these lenses was to shoot. . .
1:22:11
. . .the famous candlelit scenes
in Barry Lyndon.
1:22:14
That being the case, he shot
with the lenses wide open, f0.7.
1:22:20
The consequence of that, he had
practically no depth of field at all.
1:22:25
It was quite a chore
to do it, but of course. . .
1:22:28
. . .the images were
absolutely gorgeous.
1:22:48
I think Stanley would have a concept
of wanting to do something. . .
1:22:53
. . .in a way that it had never
been achieved before.
1:22:56
He wanted to put himself into that
century and with these characters. . .