Definitive if subtle changes were made for Mindhunter’s latest season, the most notable of which was shooting with the custom XENOMORPH with HELIUM 8K S35 sensor and being able to monitor HDR on set.

“We tried to stay within sources motivated by natural light and practicals — which is the style of the show - while simultaneously keeping in mind where the story was going,” he explains. “This season broadens the story out and takes a slightly different direction. It gets a little bigger, so the photography had to support the change in the story’s scope.”

The second run has the Behavioral Science Unit investigating potential serial killings in Kansas and another in Atlanta, while continuing to conduct interviewers with killers, including Charles Manson. While the first season was shot with XENOMORPH with DRAGON sensor at 6K, 4:1 compression, Messerschmidt was tempted to take advantage of the added sensitivity of the HELIUM sensor and the reduced noise.

“We wanted to keep the post costs as reasonable as possible and made extensive tests when it came to handling the larger 8K R3Ds. We found we could shoot 8K at 8:1 but then transcode to 6K openEXR without major changes to the post workflow. The downscaled camera raw (R3D) at 6K had a much lower noise floor when compared to DRAGON at 6K at 4:1 compression. The camera was also faster and for the most part, I would argue, had superior color fidelity.”