Light, Flare, and Illusion: An Evening of Cinematic Craft with GABA and ZEISS
Beyond the Lens Event, Sherman Oaks, CA, July 29, 2026
GABA’s film community gathered at the sold-out ZEISS Cinema Showroom in Sherman Oaks for an evening built for conversations that go beyond the screen. Surrounded by iconic ZEISS cinema lenses, historic collection pieces, and the latest in imaging technology, guests connected with the industry professionals and creatives shaping today’s film and streaming landscape.
At the center of the evening was an exclusive conversation with acclaimed cinematographer Markus Förderer, ASC, BVK, interviewed by Joachim (JZ) Zell. Together, they pulled back the curtain on the craft behind the image, from visual language and collaboration with directors to the character of a lens and the discipline of letting every frame serve the story.
Markus shared the kind of detail that separates a good shot from an unforgettable one. Practical lights set to flicker at a precise pulse. Mirrors positioned on a foggy set to catch daylight and redirect it straight into the lens, manufacturing the warmth of a summer afternoon out of a gray sky. Lens flare, an effect the eye barely registers in real life, invited deliberately into frame to create the illusion of warmth on film. Lens coatings that bend the way color travels through glass, and lenses with a character all their own, some built to render a scene with an unmistakably romantic feel.
The throughline of the conversation: a cinematographer must be completely aligned with the director on how a film should look and feel. And yet, some of cinema’s most memorable images are not planned at all. They are discovered in the moment, an in camera composition the cinematographer creates spontaneously on set, in response to the light, the actors, and the scene as it unfolds.
Before and after the conversation, guests enjoyed beer, wine, and appetizers while expanding their network among fellow film and streaming professionals.
A special thank you to the ZEISS team, who not only sponsored the evening but hosted it. GABA’s film community felt genuinely welcomed in a setting as inspiring as the conversation itself.