Challenge

Roosters, the Dutch adaptation of the hit Spanish-language series Alpha Males, premiered on Netflix in early 2025. The raunchy ensemble comedy follows four middle-aged men dealing with crises of masculinity caused by aging, life changes, and a world that has seemingly left them behind.

Directors Anna van der Heiden and Anna van Keimpema tapped veteran cinematographer Guido van Gennep, NSC, to lens the series. Van Gennep, an experienced comedy cinematographer, in turn brought on his team, including gaffer Johan Hoitink.

“I’ve worked for four years now with Guido, we created a specific workflow and lighting package to go along with that. The approach is nimble, creative, and fast in a good way,” Johan Hoitink explains.

For Roosters, Hoitink faced a production schedule full of practical locations. “We needed brighter light for the sake of realizing a comedy feel within the drama,” Hoitink says. The team wanted a greenish dramatic look overall for the series, but also needed the ability to create bright, colorful lighting to heighten comedic moments. But power limitations, lack of access via neighboring properties, and weight-limited roofs meant each day brought a unique challenge with it.

Solution

After evaluating their options, Hoitink added the Aputure Electro Storm XT26 and CS15 to their kit. The Electro Storm family’s power, tunability, and CRMX control made them the perfect complement to the existing lighting package.

Electro Storm’s ability to operate on household power eliminated the need for generators and extensive cabling, significantly streamlining setup times. “Not needing a big generator somewhere far around the corner and laying big long cables to all sides of and into the location, is a time advantage right from the start.”

Hoitink adds, “Right from the first episode, we used a flat roof behind the house to reach the windows on the first floor and light up the kitchen. The location was surrounded by neighbors we were not in contact with, so we had to transport [the XT26] via the stairs, through our own windows, onto the weight limited roof. We kept the ballast inside, with the long ballast cable easily manageable. We would not have been able to reach it with a power cable coming from a generator on the street. So how cool is it, a 2600w LED light on a household outlet, the biggest light possible with those limitations, to have that on our shoot every day and to use it at pretty much every location.”

The remote control options and tunable color range of the CS15 also made a big difference. “We liked the creativity our full color lights gave us so far, which are CRMX controlled, and knew we needed that control for every light, including the bigger ones, added to our setup.”

The fixtures’ shared accessories, including reflectors, fresnel lenses, motorized yokes, and ballast cables were welcome extras. “It is nice not having to bring every accessory for every lamp head. That saves room and time.”

Results

The time saved during initial setup translated into a smoother workflow on set and gave van Gennep, directors, and talent earlier access to the set to do small rehearsals while the lighting team could make all the needed remote tweaks.

“Imagine what you can do when you’ve already seen and tackled the lighting challenges before rehearsal, and you can actually focus on the details and creative ideas at that point”, says Hoitink. “You look at your DP and are both satisfied as soon as shooting starts.”

The high output of the Electro Storm XT26 and CS15 gave the creative team the power to influence the tone of scenes even in direct daylight. Being able to overpower the existing light level, to extract someone's action or expression within a dynamic group scene, is key to helping the humor shine.

Roosters was well received on release and has already been renewed by Netflix for a second season.

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