Emma Raducanu | Vodafone

Emma Raducanu frozen inside four second light trails: 120 cameras, a rear curtain flash, an illuminated racket and 35mm film, with no CGI anywhere.

What Did We Do?

Vodafone signed Emma Raducanu as its grassroots tennis ambassador, and we worked with director Nathan Gallagher and Fuse to shoot the campaign at Black Island Studios in London, the same studio we used for the SkyBet Euro 2020 advert. The rig was 120 DSLR cameras on a 10 metre diameter system, capturing Emma alongside young up and coming player Katie.

Every shot is in camera with no CGI. The technique is bullet time light painting: all 120 cameras on a four second exposure with a rear curtain flash to freeze Emma at the end of the movement. Nathan created an illuminated tennis racket, so the racket drew its own light trail through the exposure before the flash locked Emma in place.

The main unit was a 35mm ARRI camera shooting film negative. The director wanted the natural grain of film rather than digital filters added afterwards. Above the court sat a Briese overhead lighting rig with 13 SkyPanels on a purpose built hoist.

Our software controlled every camera in the array, pushed settings changes instantly, and had images downloaded and preview movies built in under 30 seconds per shot. Delivery was 5.5K 12 bit TIFF sequences and 5.5K ProRes, post produced by our in-house team.

Common Light Painting FAQs

What is bullet time light painting?

Every camera holds a long exposure, four seconds here, while a light source draws trails through the frame. A rear curtain flash then fires to freeze the subject sharp at the end. A frozen figure wrapped in light paths, all in camera.

Does the array work alongside a film camera?

Yes. The main unit here was a 35mm ARRI shooting film negative, with the 120 camera array running around it.

More From The Set

More from the build and the shoot. Click any image for a closer look.