Gareth Edwards filmed 'Rogue One' with the ARRI Alexa 65

For the filming of the film, its director, Gareth Edwards, together with the director of photography, opted for the ARRI Alexa 65 as the main camera for units A, B and C.

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, a film starring Felicity Jones, Diego Luna, Ben Mendelsohn and Donnie Yen, has been the box office hit this Christmas all over the world. For the filming of the film, its director, Gareth Edwards, together with the director of photography, Greig Fraser, opted for the ARRI Alexa 65 as the main camera for units A, B and C.

Fraser has acknowledged that when he learned about the possibilities offered by the camera sensor, "I was speechless. It's one of those moments when it seems like all the dominoes are starting to fall in front of you. I remember thinking: 'Well, here we go: this is the beginning of a new era in photography.'"

"I think sometimes people don't fully understand what the advantages of 65mm are. The images are sharper and have more resolution, and these are advantages, but for me it is about the depth of the image... it has dimensionality. Often the beauty was given by the texture. We found that the camera really stood out when it captured something with texture: it really improved the quality of the image," he added.

Available exclusively through ARRI Rental, the Alexa 65 system includes a 65mm digital cinema camera, custom-designed prime and zoom lenses, and fast, efficient workflow tools.

Alexa 65 in other productions

Before Rogue One, Stuart Dryburgh shot with Alexa 65 for The Great Wall and used it as his A and B cameras in the main unit.

The first production to use this camera was Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation. Although the film was originally shot on 35mm film by Robert Elswit, an important underwater sequence was captured by Pete Romano with Alexa 65 cameras and Prime 65 lenses inside HydroFlex housings.

The combination of the Alexa 65 camera and the Prime 65 has also been very successful in other feature films. Director of photography Emmanuel Lubezki used this combination during the filming of The Revenant, just as Anthony Dod Mantle did in Snowden, by Oliver Stone. Other productions that have used the Alexa 65 camera and Prime 65 lenses for certain sequences include, Captain America: Civil War, rounded by Trent Opaloch; The Huntsman, shot by Phedon Papamichael; y They allege, shot by Florian Ballhaus.

In addition to the Alexa 65, Lucasfilm also used Rogue One other ARRI solutions such as its new SkyPanel LED lighting systems.