
07-14-2025 - Filmmaker Interviews
Cinematographer Jon Fraser and the Sony FX3 Capture Intense Color in the Award-Winning Short NYX
By: Yaroslav Altunin
Crafting a compelling short that's fun to watch is a feat in itself. But doing it in a shortened time frame, with a limited budget, and also making it look like a big-screen action blockbuster is a herculean task.
Yet director Bulent Ozlarusso and cinematographer Jon Fraser did just that with NYX. Based on a Blade-inspired project Ozlarusso has his sights on, NYX is a short film about a fierce warrior fighting through a long line of henchmen to confront an underworld sorcerer.
Sony Cine sat down with Ozlarusso and Fraser to learn more about their creative approach, the challenges they faced with such a tight production window, and how the Sony FX3 was the technical glue that brought it all together.
Filmmaker Interview: Capturing NYX on the Sony FX3
Even with a short runtime, NYX draws you in with story-inspired lighting and cinematography that keeps you on the edge of your seat. Long takes capture the martial arts grandeur showcased by Nilly Cetin, who plays the titular character, and vibrant LEDs color the scene in a bloody red.
"In terms of lighting, we had this red theme overall," Fraser said. "Bold reds, high contrast, and low light. That's part of why I was inclined to use the FX3 because I knew it could handle it. I knew I could use really small lights, and it would look great."
"I'm very comfortable with the FX3 [and] the FX6 as well. Those are my go-to cameras," Fraser added. "I knew that red was going to be a challenge technically, but that [the FX3] could handle it and that we could push the grade."
Shot over a single day with a limited budget, Fraser leaned on small LED fixtures to mimic practical lights on set. This approach allowed Ozlarusso and Cetin the opportunity to freely explore the location during the action. Since the compositions would hold on to the choreography instead of hiding it in the cut, the lighting could also be part of the scene or completely hidden.

"My favorite part was nailing the opening shot," Ozlarusso said. "For me personally, that opening oner was the key to unlocking everything for the rest of the short."
Capturing the opening shot was the biggest challenge for Fraser and Ozlarusso. The sequence took nearly a dozen takes to capture in its entirety, with Fraser operating the FX3 on a gimbal and Ozlarusso himself pulling focus off the barrel.
To extract everything he could from his lighting, Fraser shot NYX entirely at ISO 12,800 using the internal XAVC codec. With the camera's high sensitivity and the efficient codec, the team could shoot quickly and focus on the action.
"It was all the internal codec," Fraser said. "That's why I'm so impressed with [the FX3] because I knew it could handle our lighting with just the internal codec. I didn't need to use an external recorder."
"It also made our rig so much more compact. I wanted it to be as small as possible so we could move quickly and having that internal codec quality was just huge."
Filmmaker Interview: How Bulent Ozlarusso Brought NYX Together in the Edit
After the blazing fast one-day shoot, Ozlarusso cut and colored the film himself at an equally fast pace to meet festival deadline (script to screen within 2 weeks). Much like the FX3, he found the codec compact for quick editing, but it could also be pushed in the grade without breaking down.
"I could push and pull [the codec] all day long," said Ozlarusso. "I put a heavy grade on it, and it didn't break the image. The balance between relatively small file sizes, image quality and dynamic range was on point which is especially important (for me) when color grading. You want to present the most aesthetically pleasing version of your vision without too much compromise - The FX3 codec delivered just that.”
NYX picked up the Golden Firefly (Luciola d’Or) Award for Best Super Short Film at this year’s Cannes World Film Festival (2025). To learn more about the Sony FX3 and the other cameras in the Sony Cinema Line, explore our camera comparison tool here.