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Lift-Off: Kate Reid BSC on the Sony VENICE Extension Mini
Unless you’ve been in orbit yourself, you can’t have missed the reveal of the new Sony VENICE Extension System Mini: an ultra-compact camera extension block for the VENICE 2.
We worked with Sony to design a bespoke camera cage for the new camera system; using our all-new LeftField Mini baseplate for compact convenience. Our camera cage is currently being put through its paces on a range of exciting features and shorts.
Descent was Sony’s official showcase of the new camera extension’s power: a tense and claustrophobic short film centred on an astronaut as her shuttle hurtles towards the surface of the Moon. We caught up with Kate Reid BSC, who shot the film on the Sony VENICE Extension System Mini, to explore how she created the look of this (inter)stellar short.
Descent was shot in March 2025, just before the official unveiling of the VENICE Extension Mini. Reid kept the setup lightweight using low-profile glass, which perfectly complemented the compact setup and equally compact camera.
I wanted to shoot anamorphic, to fully embrace the lens flare and emphasise the sun’s light and its absence in the film. I also needed to have great close focus and for the lens to be as light as possible.
I choose the Xelmos Apollo anamorphic primes as they are incredibly beautiful, and also have this gorgeous wild flare. I also had a set of spherical Tamashii primes to hand (beautiful, incredibly small, lightweight vintage Japanese glass) but in the end I was enjoying the Xelmos flare so much, I only used the Tamashii for one trickier handheld shot where I wanted the camera to be as light as possible.
Unless you’re Katy Perry or Jeff Bezos, space travel is a scary prospect. Many films over the years have depicted the sheer terror of the void of space: from the constant life-threatening tension of Gravity to Kubrick’s 2001 inspiring looney lunar conspiracies. Reid and directing duo the Lynch Brothers took inspiration from a range of sci-fi classics when crafting the look of the film.
[The directors] and I felt we could take a fair degree of artistic licence with the look of the film, that first and foremost it was a promo for the camera system and therefore we wanted it to be eye-catching and fun, and this led to a slightly stylised colour palette not entirely rooted in reality. During prep I revisited some of my favourite films set in space for inspiration including 2001, Sunshine and Alien as well as Gravity.
But rather than the Nostromo or Discovery One, Descent’s spaceship set is tiny – a practical constraint, but one that helps build authenticity and demonstrate the VENICE Extension’s most practical benefit.
[The set] was a tiny space, but filming in it was very comfortable operating the camera using the VENICE Extension System. The biggest challenge was crew access: small lighting adjustments, or the art department needing access in between takes was a close squeeze!
The actual filming itself was surprisingly comfortable; the set had been built in six sections (like segments of an orange) with the expectation that we would remove sections as and when we needed for the shots, but the size of the camera and using it handheld as I did, meant that this was never necessary.
Though we never leave the capsule, the universe outside gets its own degree of characterisation. The sense of scale – with the opening shot showing Planet Earth as a distant dot out of one window and the Moon looming impossibly large out of the other – feels weighty and realistic. Sony’s VERONA virtual production screens were used, creating a deep contrast between the inky-black space and the relative safety of the Earth and Moon.
Being able to look out the set window and see the scale of the Moon – its luminosity, how it moves in and out of shot when the capsule is in freefall, et cetera – enabled me to work in much finer detail and greater accuracy with my lighting, particularly the lighting cues, particularly with the lighting cues motivated by what was on the screens, as well as the shot design and timing of the camera movement when operating.
Creating the light effect to convey the capsule in freefall was a really fun challenge. The directors had created and shared the visuals that would be on the screens ahead of the shoot, so I knew what we would be seeing out of the portal in terms of how the light needed to match.
Creating the feeling of the sun moving around the exterior of the capsule on multiple axes in a low-fi and budget-friendly fashion was a task that Gaffer Carolina Schmidtholstein and I embraced. We achieved this with lighting cues firing hard tungsten sources of several mirrors spinning at random around the exterior of the set.
I loved the shots that utilised the chaotic light to suggest the capsule falling. And the spinning shot achieved with the Spinhawk and some old-fashioned shaking of the tripod really sold the 360-degree spin. These would be my favourite for their simple effectiveness.
Getting coverage of the capsule required a range of complex setups, with the VENICE Extension being transferred from different specialist tools. But from Cyclops POV rigs to simple sliders, and even back-to-basic handheld shots, Reid and her team kept on track with the help of Bright Tangerine’s exclusive VENICE Extension Mini cage and our LeftField 3 quick-release Baseplate.
My ACs made it look easy! I can’t take any credit for the speedy transitions between different set ups as that was all handled by my brilliant camera assistants: Focus-Puller Dan Wombwell, 2nd AC Bulman Arshehit and Camera Trainee Grace St George. They had everything thrown at them across the day, but despite the number of different configurations we were never waiting on camera.
I hope it is the highest compliment to say I didn’t even notice [the cage]! The camera felt so small and compact even with the cage it wasn’t something I was thinking about. Dan [Wombwell] was brilliant in prep, making sure that the handheld build was as compact as possible and that with the necessary accessories it didn’t suddenly become an unwieldy beast! And certainly the Mini cage made this possible.
Thanks to the VENICE Extension Mini, Reid and the team were able to create without compromise and fully realise their vision. Descent is out-of-this-world without ever leaving a Stratford studio.
Our dedicated kits for the Sony VENICE Extension System Mini are available to pre-order now.
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