The 6-hour Netflix series Senna follows the life of legendary F1 driver Ayrton Senna with white knuckle racing scenes, action, drama and stunning cinematography by Azul Serra, ABC and Kauê Zilli, ABC (Association of Brazilian Cinematographers). 

This story began with an email in May 2024 from my friend Ernesto Musitelli, head of Musitelli Film and Digital Rentals in Montevideo, Uruguay: “We supported Senna, a huge production for Netflix in Uruguay, Brazil and Argentina. We sent out 266 cases of cameras, lenses and equipment – 2,000 kg of gear.” 

Azul Serra, ABC called in July, on location in Marrakesh, Morocco.

Thanks to Ashley Trudel at Netflix, who provided the BTS stills and framegrabs, and to Musitelli Film and Digital for rental house photos and details for this article. 

Jon: Please tell us about the series.

Azul Serra, ABC: It was impressive when we realized the size of the project. We divided the cinematography into different areas. One was where all the characters’ drama happened. And the other part involved the car races: cart racing, Formula Ford, etc. We decided to shoot the drama with the new ARRI ALEXA 35 cameras. They were quite new when we got them. The director and showrunner, Vincent Amorim, really liked the look of the ALEXA 35. And it was a natural choice—a brand that has been there for so many years with such good results. So their new Super35 camera fit wonderfully with this story.

We shot the car racing sequences with RED RAPTOR and KOMODO cameras. One of the main reasons to shoot on RED was because we needed a lot of crash cameras like the KOMODOs, and we also had a lot of slow motion. Also, the RED’s global shutter was important for the action scenes. RED cameras are extremely versatile, not just for frame rates, but also for their small size and how we could rig them in the cars. Also, in terms of visuals, we knew that RED would give us a little different look—a little bit more crispy, let’s say—on the race courses which are really hostile environments.  

Why is a Brazilian cinematographer renting all this equipment from Uruguay if you’re shooting in Brazil?

Actually, we shot mostly in Argentina. There were two main reasons. One was because we tried to find a race track that could serve as a studio base and also could work for many different racetracks around the globe. This is a period film and we needed the race tracks to look as they did in the eighties and nineties. Buenos Aires has a famous race track that is quite old and still remains.

The second reason was the company that built all the replica cars for the series. Tulio Crespi and his family have a factory in Balcarce, a small city south of Buenos Aires. In addition to Argentina, we also filmed in Uruguay, Brazil and the UK. It was a huge job with 9 months of prep and about 7 months of shooting.

So, if you were filming mostly in Argentina, why did you rent from Uruguay?

Because Musitelli Film & Digital is such an amazing company. Not only in terms of the equipment, but also the human treatment that Ernesto and everyone at the company brought to the whole process—from day one  of pre-production until the end, they were totally close to us. We talking constantly. Ernesto came to see us all the time on location to see if everything was OK. Brazil has a very big film industry with great rental houses, but Musitelli is conveniently located close to Brazil, Argentina and, of course, Uruguay.  Also, when you go to Musitelli, you see their great facilities and how they love what they do.

Tell us more about the equipment and what was inside the hundreds of cases you rented from Musitelli.

Cameras consisted of 6x ARRI ALEXA 35; 1x RED RAPTOR; 3x RED KOMODO; 4x GoPro 11 with C-Mounts for Bolex lenses. 8x TERADEK Bolt 6 XT (5,000 ft range); 24x TERADEK Bolt 6XT Receivers; 3x BRIGHT TANGERINE Prodigy Air Deflectors; ARRI Hi-5 Wireless Focus Controls; TILTA Wireless Control for Iris; SMALLHD monitors in all sizes; ANTON BAUER batteries and chargers; CARTONI Maxima Fluid Heads.

For the race sequences, we used vintage Canon FD [Full Frame still lenses introduced in 1971, rehoused by True Lens Services (TLS) with PL mounts]. 

Focal lengths were: 14mm T2.9, 18mm T1.6, 24mm T1.5, 28mm T2.1, 35mm T1.5, 45mm T1.5, 55mm T1.3, 85mm T1.3, 100mm F2.1, 135mm T2.1.

For the drama sequences, we used Canon K35 lenses, also rehoused by TLS with PL mounts, as well as some FD lenses to complete the K35 set: 18mm T1.5, 24mm T1.5, 35mm T1.5, 55mm T1.3, 85mm T1.3. And Canon TLS lenses: 45mm T1.5 (FD-X), 60mm T1.6 (Type SK), 100mm F2.1 (NFD), 135mm T2.1 (NFD), 300mm T2.8 (FD).

For specific emotional scenes, we used the Canon 50mm F0.95 “Dream Lens,”  rehoused by TLS with an LPL mount. [This lens was originally introduced in 1961 for the Canon 7 rangefinder camera.] 

We also had zooms. The drama unit had: Angénieux Optimo 24-290mm – PL Mount and Canon K-35 25-120mm – PL Mount.

The racing/performance unit had: ARRI 65-300mm T2.8 Signature Zooms with 1.7x Extender (ARRI LPL Mount), Fujinon Premista 28-100mm T2.9 Lens Kit with Chrosziel Drive Unit (PL Mount), Fujinon Premista 19-45mm T2.9 (PL Mount) and Angénieux Optimo Zoom 24-290mm – (PL Mount).

You must have had an interesting job matching all those cameras and lenses and locations?

Grading was a very long process because there were a lot of visual effects. Apart from matching the cameras, many different visual effects houses were bringing the puzzle together. Grading was done on DaVinci Resolve. Our lead colorist was Luisa Cavanagh—she’s Argentinian. The grading process was one of the most incredible that I ever had because we had so many sessions before we actually started to shoot. We did 10 or 11 sessions just to find out the look and the LUT that we would use along the way.

 

I had a Leica SL2 camera to take pictures during the creative scouting. It is a beautiful camera to have because it provides so much information. We started with those images, and I also got many references of Senna from the seventies, eighties, and nineties. Then we started to decide which look to have in each phase of his life. We ended up separating into four different phases. Phase one was his childhood in Brazil and the beginning of his career. Phase two involved Formula 3 and Ford in the UK, where he had arrived, alone, from Brazil trying to start his career. The third phase was when he went to Formula 1 and spent his time in Team McLaren. Most people, especially in Brazil, usually remember Senna with his red and white McLaren car. The fourth and last phase was when he was with Williams. The look changes because Formula 1 has also advanced, modernized with technology and pristine garages.

Contrast, colors, subtle changes in the shadows, a bit of warmth in the highlights all contributed to those different looks. 

Essentially you had four different LUTs ?

Yes. We had four LUTs, with each one available at 100, 75, 50 and 25 percent for flexibility in balancing.  

Do you operate the camera yourself?

Yes. I operate myself, usually with a Cartoni Maxima head and Panther dolly on tracks. Ariel Schvartzman was on Steadicam and as second operator. We mainly had two cameras in the main unit.

I understand you also filmed in a Virtual Production Studio.

It was very interesting. We shot in an LED studio in São Paulo. That was relatively new for most of us in the industry in South America. They had a very large, new facility for this show with almost 360 degrees of LED panels. Since the cars move so quickly around the race track, turning left and right, with the sun angle changing constantly, the camera tracking and the backgrounds had to adjust rapidly as well. The sense of movement depended on the sun direction which we had to track with Unreal Engine and quite an engineering structure.

I would also like to thank the wonderful work of our great crew and Kaue Zilli, the other DP who worked on this series.  

We actually had a special camera car built because traditional ones were not fast enough or low enough. It was pretty much based on a Formula 1 car, but it carried the precision driver, camera operator and focus puller. 

How did you get started in filmmaking? 

I went to film school in São Paulo. I graduated in 2006. Then, I went to London for seven years. I worked in many different jobs to learn English and to understand the culture there. Then, I met a journalist from Brazil who worked on breaking news around the world. I did four years shooting news: covering presidents, meetings and summits and traveling to war zones. And then, with time, I started working in fiction, drama, and narrative productions and I embraced that. And the rest is history.