Will Trent, a new series that just premiered on ABC, is the rare network television drama that creates its look with the Leica Summicron-C primes.

Will Trent on ABC

Will Trent stars Ramón Rodríguez and premiered January 3, 2023 on ABC. The police-procedural-turned-mystery is centered on an Atlanta detective named Will Trent. As a Special Agent of the Georgia Bureau of Investigations, Will is sent to investigate the apparent murder of a local teenager. But when the crime scene turns out to be the site of an abduction, Will starts leading the police to the kidnappers.

Genre trappings aside, Will Trent is dedicated to capturing the feel of Atlanta, where the story takes place. As Ramón Rodríguez, the titular star, describes: “It’s pretty great when you get to shoot where something takes place and so Atlanta very much, especially in the pilot, we really establish it as a character… The head of Atlanta, the warmth, the look of the show, the tones of this show really represent the city”.

And capturing the unique look of Will Trent would not be possible without the Leica Summicron-C primes.

 

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THE STYLE OF 'WILL TRENT'

In designing the style of the program, cinematographer Oliver Bokelberg clearly tried to introduce a contrast between the typically cold procedural and the warm forest climate of Atlanta. The image above is awash in warm, yellow tones—something not typically seen in police procedurals. In the back of the frame, the warm sunshine backlighting the trees is pleasant; providing an emotional contrast with the sickly yellow interior of the crime scene. While a good amount of this subtle color tinging may have been done in post, there is clearly the effort for a unified look throughout all departments and stages of production.

Check out the shot below, in which Faith (played by Iantha Richardson) stands in a room bathed with orange light. The warm, orange tone of the lighting is complemented by her costume: a yellow sweater with red fabric peeking out. Similarly, the background has hints red, and well as a yellow practical hanging in frame. Although color grading is a final touch, the warm look of this show is there from its beginning stages.

 

 

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SUMMICRON-C MECHANICS

The Leica Summicron-C lenses are small and lightweight, making them perfect for quickly shooting very active camera movements. Because long walk-and-talks are integral to the network tv procedural, the Summicron-C are the perfect tool for Will Trent. Beyond its convenient form factor, the Summicron-C primes have an excellent fast aperture of T2.0, as well as other useful features like a 300° focus rotation and a consistent front diameter among lenses.

An interesting feature of the Summicron-C is its patented focus system that expands the focus scale in the most critical range for each prime. This does away with the logarithmic focus system, which some see as inefficient for focus-pulling.

These Leica Primes are seat on a stainless steel PL mount, which means they are compatible with the industry’s leading camera bodies from manufacturers like RED and ARRI. All lenses in the Summicron-C line has a usable image circle of 36mm, which means they can seamlessly shoot Super35. The Leica primes can cover such sensors like the RED Helium 8K S35 and ARRI Alexa in 16:9 formats without any loss in the corners or vignetting.