Blog Abraham Martinez on Optimo Prime Series and The Lincoln Lawyer

This interview was conducted by Jon Fauer for the FD Times.

Abraham Martinez graduated from the University of North Texas film school, worked as a prep tech at MPS in Dallas, moved to New York, was a camera prep technician at F&B Ceco / Cinema-Vision, and then went from camera loader, AC, Operator and on to DP. He currently lives in Los Angeles. His credits include The Lincoln Lawyer, Cobra Kai, Queen of the South, etc.

The Lincoln Lawyer is a Netflix legal drama series based on the books of Michael Connelly. The Netflix logline is “Hotshot LA defense attorney Mickey Haller will do whatever it takes to win as he navigates the criminal justice system from his trademark Lincoln Navigator.”

Abraham: I started on season 2. Pedro Gómez, the previous DP, had opened the door to using Angénieux lenses. Then I got Cobra Kai and wasn’t able to do Season 3, but it was a friendly handoff to Moira Morel, who continued using the Optimo Primes. I came back for all of Season 4, and of course kept the Optimo Primes — but went a few steps further with the Internal Optical Palettes.

Lenses give us the texture, contrast and tone to tell the story. The subjective and technical performance of lenses in alignment with the story speaks for you as an advocate for your show. You’re translating the script. You stand in the gap between the rental house and the director, using a certain kind of language and grammar.

Using the Angénieux Optimo Prime lenses on Lincoln Lawyer was like something you might call “Lens Couture.” Lens Couture means that you’re tailoring your cloth, you’re tailoring your lens to the measurements of the show. That’s the best way I can describe it.  It’s almost like I bought a suit, but now I’m going to tailor the suit to fit me. Of course, there’s the mass market way of making something, which is not bad, but this is something special.   The French fashion haute couture industry, of course, calls this “sur mesure’ (made to measure, bespoke) as opposed to “prêt-à-porter” (ready-to-wear, off-the-rack).   This kind of custom measurement and style allows me to have the creative input and dialogue with my tailor. It’s the opportunity to say, “For this show, we have these windows here, we want to see this sky, we want this kind of flare. And so, Angénieux Optimo Primes and the lens technicians at Camtec, provided the conversation and ability to custom tailor the lenses here in Burbank. I’m excited because our tailoring of the optical performance of these lenses can help us translate what the director or showrunners have in mind. What’s in the magic box, what is the secret sauce? In this case, it was something that I went through with Camtec. I live in Burbank, they’re also in Burbank. I was able to go there three or four times just to find the sweet spot of these lenses with Kavon Elhami, President of Camtec and his lens department. I was very particular about what I was looking for, and it did not take them long to figure out what we needed.

Pedro Gómez was the first out of the gate to choose the Optimo Primes. When Pedro was leaving the show, I came in mid-season. I had to get ramped up very fast to learn about the performance of these lenses. Basically, there are two different ways of looking at lenses. Either you go to a rental house and it’s like a lens spa. They lay it all out for you. You get to pick which lenses you want. That’s a lens spa: checking the lenses on the camera, projector and then atmosphere (the real world on my stills camera). But in this case, it was like I had to go out on a speed date.

I did some tests right away in the lens room at Camtec. Then I went to the projection room and looked at all the focal lengths. Then I had conversations with their lens techs. Next, I put the lenses on my Fujifilm GFX50R and 50S cameras, with a GF to PL lens mount adapter. I spent about a week in my three tier system of checking lenses, which is: projector lens test at the rental house, studio tests (courtroom interior to see the colors , windows and highlights) and then a street test right off the truck.

Slowly but surely, I was in a honeymoon phase. I fell in love with these lenses. Having been a camera prep tech at rental houses and an assistant for many years, I was comfortable with specs, with the numbers, iris blade count, bokeh, all the classical things that one would look at in a lens. But now it was all about the magic: the fall-off at T2.0, at T2.8, at T5.6. I don’t specifically shoot wide open all the time. I base everything on the scene. The story that we’re trying to tell is in Los Angeles, after all. So sometimes you want a deep stop to show it all off, to tell the world we’re here. I’m starting to go into the phase where I’m seeing where the stops are playing. I check every stop, the halation, where the highlights are blooming, I check for performance and character.

The lens techs at Camtec also tuned the 60mm Optimo Prime because we were living on that focal length for many of the closeups. The result was beautiful portraiture with backgrounds that had the impression very much like a watercolor, very creamy. For the colors in the courtroom, I was able to move backgrounds around to give them a little bit more of a watercolor creamier effect. Or if I wanted more contrast with darker backgrounds, we could place extras in dark suits. These lenses held the contrast very well, showed details in the shadows and in the highlights. It is a unique thing because sometimes to get that effect, you might have to go for lower contrast. You want to have the colors meshed together. For me, the Optimo Primes had an in-betweenness that I really liked.

When I think of watercolor, you’re outlining with the pencil. You’re actually giving it some sort of boundary. There’s an interplay and that’s the kind of falloff the lenses provided gave me. When I came back on Season 4, I decided to add some more lensing character to the show, which leans a bit on the warmer side. I decided to add in an IOP (Internal Optical Palette) with some more warmth. We also added diffusion. We went through a series of tests, looking at the stock options that they had, such as Glimmerglass and Black Promist. Kavon Elhami, President of Camtec, had everything set up for me to take a look at skin tones, highlight, fall off, contrast—everything in his Lens Spa.

I wanted to have some sharpness and yet have some gentle feeling of diffusion. On top of that, I asked for unique flare characteristics. To me, mitigating the flare is everything. We use hard mattes, we controlled the direction of light. I wanted to shoot the lens at their best performance, but still allow flares to sneak where it’s appropriate. Lens flare is not an essential thing I look at. But here, we were able to micromanage the flare that offered a kind of ocean mist, which if you’re a fan of the show, is very much a part of the redemption or healing of Mickey Haller, our lead character. He goes to the ocean, he stands there, he works out of his car. There’s this little mist that he sees before he takes on cases. And then at nighttime it gave a very interesting flare to the city lights. It had this glamor and grit quality. The flare that barely covered the actor’s face was pleasing. And at nighttime it gave us an edgy quality, giving us the grit we needed, which is basically the look of our show. It’s daytime, it’s sunny LA, almost blue sky. He’s going out, he’s trying to solve the case. And then at night, it’s a little more neo noir, Los Angeles noir, a little bit of muscle and tone.

My goal this season was not to have any front filters. Rolling out off the rental house with my IOP lens couture, I didn’t want to undermine the values of the Optimo Primes that we tailored for the show. The whole concept was to use the integrated optical element inside that added some warmth and diffusion. Also, we did not use a rear filter. However, that excites me for Season 5. We definitely have options for front and rear optical filters in addition to the internal optical element.

With the IOP, we are not moving elements around; we are adding something inside. But you can still adjust the fall off of the Optimo Primes. Camtec was able to dive into the optics and tailor those looks that I wanted to feel and see. I think Angénieux has opened up a door that I willingly want to explore further. I seek a lens couture approach with a full service rental company like Camtec where they can do this precision work anytime.

Photo by Lara Solanki/Netflix

We had Sony VENICE on Season 2. Season 3 was ALEXA Mini LF. On Season 4, I had four ALEXA Mini LFs, a Blackmagic Pocket 6K, Blackmagic PYXIS 6K, Blackmagic 4K Micro, and a Blackmagic URS Mini Pro 12K. I also had my personal Sony FX6 for certain rigging shots and Ronin RS3 shots. I also own the Blackmagic PYXIS 6K and the Micro as well. And then at the very end we used the new Sony Rialto Mini. Sony lent us a demo unit and I fell in love with the Sony Rialto, tethered to a VENICE 2.

It’s a big courtroom show. We have a camera crew of 12 total for courtroom days. Having come up from being a film loader, where we’d work with many film stocks, my approach is the same with the many cameras. Each camera has a different purpose in the lineup, based on things such as light-sensitivity, rigging, movement, or gimbal-mode. This way, I’m able to prepare or pivot as needed. I feel very lucky that all these cameras are able to blend seamlessly.

I set up the lock-offs and work out the Blackmagic setups, but mostly I’m at the DIT cart. There are so many cameras in the courtroom that some people say they feel like they’re at Best Buy.We’re a full-time two camera team. In the courtroom, which is at LA City Center Studios, we actually have many three camera days with our ALEXA Mini LFs plus lock-offs.

They’re all on Preston FIZ hand units and they have Preston Light Rangers.

Before eighth grade, I was drawing comics and doing graphic novels. I think of every show in terms of art and drawing. My wife is also a painter. So we’re always in and out of museums.

Yes. We had Camtec’s Angenieux 12x (36-435 mm) Full Frame Zoom and the Optimo Ultra Compact 37-102 FF, especially in the courtroom.

For the zooms, we put a diffusion filter on the front.

Testing is everything. I would tell everyone to look on a lens projector. Then take your lens into the real world, put a front filter on. Then take a look with the IOP, see what that does. What really excites me about the IOP and even the rear filter is that it reminds me of the nets in the rear. I love filters. I use filters. But the IOP suggests something magical.   The beautiful thing about the Angenieux IOP system that you have your true north of the default lens. You say to the lens, “I can count on you, let’s go on tour together, but let’s do it for this specific project. Let’s have this flare, let’s have this much contrast or diffusion. Let’s have uncoated, let’s have glimmerglass, or something else.”  And then you know the beauty and the magic in the tailoring of it all. That is a very unique scenario.   Can anyone do that kind lens tailoring and customizing?   That’s the beauty of the IOP system. It makes tailoring available to most rental houses and lens technicians. In fact, a proficiently technical camera assistant could do it, preferably in a clean environment. When you go into a rental house and the cases are all pulled out, go and talk to the lens tech, look at the projection room, see what they have in terms of lens service hardware. Even it looks like a mad scientist’s room, you’re going to have great conversations. I need the math. I need to have a numbers to know where to stray from. You always have to know the lens and to have a relationship.

I was fortunate to work at rental houses early in the mid to late nineties, going through lenses that were barely vintage back then, but are now revered as vintage today. Those were our day to day lenses. Connections and closeness between you, as cinematographer, and your lens technician at the rental house is very important. Some rental companies have had this all along. And often what it came down to was the serial number; it was like a bond that you had with the lens technician. It’s something that producers are unfamiliar with or unaware because the lens tech is the magician in the box.

Social media has flared up some of the terminology but for us back then, we knew the performance of the lenses and the characteristics, but sometimes it can be so subjective that people will assign certain terms to try to get their point across. You stand in the middle as a technician and an artist and determine what you’re getting and what you are surprised by. When I was a prep tech, working with Joe at MPS Dallas or Lowry at F&B/Ceco, I would look at dozens and dozens of lenses on a projector day in day out. I didn’t know that the fruit of those labors would come out much later in my career, 20 something years later.   Back then, there was no website, no hashtag to look this up. Living in Manhattan, I could go to Washington Square Park during my lunch hour and read a camera manual or one of your books, then go back to work and hang out with the seasoned rental house technicians. It was done in a classical apprenticeship style.   Lenses were always a mainstay for me. I would put lenses on the projector, look at the chart. Back then, it was mostly about having the best possible image, sharp and in focus. It wasn’t until later that my attention turned to all the things that were out of focus and intriguing. And then accidental and intentional flares added to the dialog.

When we checked lenses at the rental house, we checked that focus scales hit the marks, tracking was true and if the flange focal depth was off, we’d change out the shims and get things consistent. I remember working as loader for Emmanuel Lubezki, ASC, AMC and for Ralph Bode, ASC. As a film loader, you’re the person writing down all the serial numbers during checkout. It was always about the serial numbers for these cinematographers.   True. We had carefully curated favorite serial numbered lenses. It wasn’t fickle; these lenses were handmade and assembled by hand, just as many still are today. And that human touch made each individual lens unique. These days, the manufacturing can be more consistent. So that’s where the IOPs come into play to tailor them.   The Angénieux IOP system lets us be adventurous and ask “Where else can we go? It’s a gateway to find out what else can we do. It’s about trying to create our own unique look by using the IOP system to custom tailor the lenses to fit the story and the show. It is very much in sync with the concept of French fashion and individual style.   That’s what I love about Angénieux lenses. They definitely remind me of Impressionist painting. The impression of the background, what’s out of focus, has a special look. It lets me talk to wardrobe and the art department to layer our backgrounds, knowing that the focus fall-off offers dimensionality. I want the image to have a pools of light and I want to stagger that with a rhythm similar to painting techniques of foreground, middle ground and background. That is very intentional, knowing the performance of these lenses and it is definitely my favorite piece of the puzzle.

Photo by Lara Solanki/Netflix

Photo by Lara Solanki/Netflix

Photo by Lara Solanki/Netflix

Photo by Lara Solanki/Netflix

Photo by Lara Solanki/Netflix