DoP Philip Lozano AFC put the Sony Rialto Mini at the centre of Evil Dead Burn's most brutal sequence

Cinematographer Philip Lozano AFC has revealed how the Sony Rialto Mini, also known as the VENICE Extension System Mini, carried the most physically demanding sequence in Evil Dead Burn, an interior car fight staged in a space so tight that a conventional 8K camera package would have been impossible to handhold.

Evil Dead Burn was shot on the Sony VENICE 2, with Lozano pairing the camera with Panavision Ultra Vista anamorphic lenses to hold a single, textured look across the entire film. For the specific interior car fight scene, that Director Sébastien Vaniček wanted as brutal and visceral as possible, he reached for the Rialto Mini, a tethered extension head that separates the sensor block from the camera body and lets the operator work with a fraction of the bulk.

The brief for the scene was unforgiving. The production could not strip back much of the car interior and the seats stayed where they were. Every inch of clearance mattered, both to widen the frame and to give the camera room to move.

"I was willing to use it for the specific interior crazy car fight scene where spaces were so tiny as I thought the mini Rialto could be a real asset and make a real difference," Lozano said.

His expectations were set by the geometry of the car itself. "Space was so tricky in the car as we couldn't move many pieces of the interior," he said. "Every inch would count to be able to be a bit wider and lighter, to operate fast handheld camera moves."

The requirements came down to one difficult equation. Lozano wanted the best possible weight for the camera and lens combination and the smallest possible footprint, without giving up anything in lens or recording quality.

"Without the mini Rialto it would have been way more complicated, not to say sometimes impossible, as with many shots I was at the very limit and out of options," he said.

The Rialto Mini solves a problem that has followed large format cinematography since the format became practical for narrative work. A full VENICE 2 body is a very capable and substantial object and an 8K full frame sensor paired with anamorphic glass needs a mount and support structure that does not shrink. On a stage or in an open location, that mass is an asset. Inside a car, with actors wedged into seats that cannot be repositioned, it becomes the limiting factor on every creative decision.

By moving the sensor block off the body and onto a compact head, the Rialto Mini leaves behind only the parts that need to be in the shot. The result is a camera package that behaves like the lens it is attached to, with the processing and recording hardware sitting out of frame and connected by tether.

Lozano put it simply. "It worked amazingly well and it definitely helped make the shots better by having the ability to work in that tiny environment."

The critical decision was refusing to compromise on glass. A lighter, smaller lens set would have solved part of the weight problem and created a new one, breaking the anamorphic consistency that defines the rest of the film. The Rialto Mini let Lozano keep the Ultra Vistas and cut the camera down around them.

"It's size and weight," Lozano said, naming the Rialto Mini's WOW factor. "Basically I almost ended up holding just the lens weight as it's so light and small. I could have chosen lighter and smaller lenses for that specific scene but I really wanted to keep a consistent anamorphic look with the rest of the film, so the Rialto Mini was the perfect tool to make the camera smaller, lighter and easier to use in such a small environment, without compromising the look in any way."

For a film that lives or dies on texture and visual continuity, that is the whole argument. The tool did not ask the cinematographer to trade image quality for access.

Asked what other advantages the Rialto Mini gave him, Lozano pointed to a combination that he says has no rival.

"It is an amazingly light camera package, like no other 8K camera can give you and getting such a wonderfully textured look from the Sony VENICE 2," he said.

That pairing of full resolution 8K capture with the VENICE 2's colour science and latitude is what makes the Sony route distinctive. A cinematographer chasing a smaller camera can usually find one, but not one that holds the same sensor, the same codec options and the same rendering as the A camera. The Rialto Mini is not a different camera. It is the same camera, relocated.

The Rialto Mini was not available for the whole production. The extension system was still new when Evil Dead Burn was in prep, and it had not yet landed in every Panavision rental office worldwide. Sony Australia loaned the production a unit for the days allocated to the car fight, with Panavision Australia and New Zealand supporting the logistics.

"We shot the entire scene handheld," Lozano said. "Sébastien wanted the scene to be as brutal and visceral as possible. Having such a light camera configuration permitted us to easily shoot almost any kind of shot and to also be able to be a few inches wider and away from actors when necessary, because of its reduced inner size."

Those few inches are the difference between a shot that exists and a shot that does not. In a confined interior, pulling the camera back by inches changes the framing of both actors, the relationship between them and the audience's sense of proximity to the violence.

"The audience and press feedback on that action car fight scene has been excellent," Lozano said. "The Rialto mini helped us make Sébastien's vision possible due to its incredible size, flexibility and camera moves."

For a horror title, that is the measure that counts. Practical, in-camera intensity reads differently from assembled coverage and the handheld freedom the Rialto Mini allowed Lozano is what produced that quality.

One detail matters as much as the size and weight. Moving to the extension system did not change how the production worked.

"There is no difference with shooting with normal Sony Venice 2," Lozano said. "It is just amazing."

That continuity is not incidental. Crews do not have to relearn a menu structure, post does not have to accommodate a second format and the material cuts together with the rest of the film without special handling. For producers weighing a specialised rig against a schedule, that is a meaningful line in the budget.

Asked why Sony cameras keep "winning the job", Lozano's answer is unambiguous, "To me there's nothing that competes with the Sony Rialto Mini in terms of size, weight and being able to shoot in 8K anamorphic with Ultra Vista Panavision lenses," he said. "For me the only choice is the Rialto Mini. End of story."

That verdict speaks to a broader pattern. Sony's cinema line has become a default for productions of every scale and genre, from no-budget features shooting on a single body to large franchise pictures running multiple units. The reason is not one headline specification but the range the ecosystem covers. A filmmaker can start on a Sony body and stay within the same colour science, the same lens mount, the same workflow and the same post pipeline as the project grows in ambition.

For Evil Dead Burn, that range was tested at both ends. The film's main photography ran on VENICE 2 with Ultra Vista anamorphics. One sequence needed the smallest, lightest version of that exact camera that the industry can supply and it arrived without a change in look, codec or workflow. That is what a mature camera system buys a production: the ability to match the tool to the scene instead of matching the scene to the tool.

To learn more about the Sony Rialto Mini go to: https://pro.sony/en_AU/products/camera-adaptors/cbk-3621xs 

Picture credits

Cinematographer Philip Lozano AFC using the Sony Rialto Mini to shoot Evil Dead Burn.

Images courtesy of David Fontao

Ends

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