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Leica UK Shoots the Night Sky With Cinema and Poetry
Like the Night is a two-minute cinema commercial commissioned by Leica UK and directed by Barney Cokeliss, released in the United Kingdom in November 2019, that demonstrates the Leica SL camera's moving-image and low-light capabilities by following female photographers through nocturnal urban environments across eight global cities.
The film was Leica UK's first-ever cinema short, according to shots.net, marking a deliberate departure from conventional product advertising toward long-form cinematic storytelling. Its creative premise draws on Lord Byron's poem She Walks in Beauty, reinterpreting the verse as a meditation on women who navigate and photograph the night with confidence and artistry. That literary foundation gives the work a cultural gravity that separates it from category norms, anchoring a premium German optics brand within a tradition of humanist image-making rather than technical specification.
Filming took the production across New York, New Orleans, Los Angeles, Berlin, Bucharest, Paris, Soweto, Johannesburg, and Lesotho — a global canvas that simultaneously demonstrates the Leica SL camera's geographic versatility and signals the brand's cosmopolitan ambitions. The campaign was released for UK cinema audiences, positioning the Leica SL and its companion M lenses as instruments for serious visual artists rather than consumer electronics buyers. The Clapboard Score for Like the Night is 73 out of 100, reflecting strong craft credentials and award recognition offset by limited disclosed performance data.
Leica UK's brief for Like the Night was specific. According to barneycokeliss.com, Jason Heward, Managing Director of Leica UK, tasked director Barney Cokeliss with demonstrating the Leica SL camera's moving-image capabilities by shooting the entire film on the camera itself. That product-as-production-tool constraint is the strategic engine of the campaign: every frame of the film is simultaneously a demonstration and an advertisement.
The strategic rationale becomes sharper when set against the broader camera market. Global digital-camera unit sales fell by approximately 22.4 percent year over year in 2019, following a comparable decline in 2018, according to cined.com. In that contracting global environment, Canon held approximately 45.4 percent of digital-camera unit market share, according to nikonrumors.com, with Sony at approximately 20.2 percent and Nikon at approximately 18.6 percent, according to petapixel.com. Leica operates outside the volume economics of those mass-market competitors: its positioning is anchored in optical heritage, handcrafted manufacture, and a community of professional photographers and serious enthusiasts who regard the brand as a creative tool rather than a consumer device.
In the United Kingdom, that positioning is sustained through deliberate scarcity and cultural alignment. Choosing cinema as the primary medium in 2019 — rather than digital pre-roll or social video — signals that Leica UK is speaking to an audience that values considered creative experiences. The decision to foreground female photographers as protagonists broadens the brand's cultural conversation without diluting its technical authority, addressing a sophisticated UK audience that expects both artistic ambition and optical precision from the Leica name.
Barney Cokeliss directed and wrote Like the Night, according to barneycokeliss.com, taking on a dual role that unified the film's creative voice from script to camera operation. Cokeliss shot nine out of ten locations on the Leica SL camera, as reported by shots.net, with much of the film captured on the Leica Noctilux lens at its maximum aperture of f0.95 — an optical specification that allows the camera to render available-light night scenes with a depth and luminosity that conventional cinematography equipment cannot replicate in the same way.
The production spanned multiple continents and required separate production partners in each territory. According to barneycokeliss.com and shots.net, production companies involved included Bubbles Films in Berlin, Icon Films in Romania, and Them Media in New York. Philippe Kress served as lighting technician on the Bucharest locations, as reported by shots.net. The post-production team assembled for the film reflects the level of craft investment Leica UK made in the project. Colour grading was handled by Simone Grattarolo and Myles Bevan at Time Based Arts. Sound design and mix was completed by Ben Leeves at Jungle Studios. Editing was carried out by Ben Corfield at Stitch Editing, and VFX was delivered by Duncan Malcom at Glassworks, according to Clapboard's editorial record.
Music for the film was composed by Anné Kulonen, according to barneycokeliss.com — an original score that supports the Byron-inflected atmosphere of the night sequences across New York, New Orleans, Los Angeles, and Paris without imposing a commercial register onto the imagery. The aggregate of these craft decisions produces a film that sits closer to documentary short than conventional advertising, which is precisely the effect Leica UK sought to achieve in UK cinemas.
Like the Night earned significant recognition across the international craft awards circuit following its UK release. According to journal.cresta-awards.com, the campaign won Silver for Outstanding Direction in the Film and Video category at the 2020 Cresta Awards, Bronze for Cinematography, and Silver for Music — a triple recognition that validates the film's consistent quality across three distinct craft disciplines. At the 2020 Kinsale Shark Awards, the campaign won Gold for Cinematography, according to clapboard.com. The film also received awards for both Direction and Cinematography at the 2020 Ciclope International Festival of Craft, a competition dedicated exclusively to production craft.
No verified commercial performance data for Like the Night — such as audience reach figures, cinema attendance uplift, or Leica SL sales impact in the United Kingdom — is publicly available. What the awards record does confirm is structural effectiveness: a film that wins recognition for direction, cinematography, and music simultaneously has achieved coherence across every layer of its production, which is the prerequisite for durable brand storytelling. The decision to release Like the Night in UK cinemas rather than solely through digital channels placed the film in an environment where audiences are predisposed toward extended visual attention, amplifying the impact of Cokeliss's low-light cinematography.
The Clapboard Score of 73 out of 100 reflects that strong craft foundation while acknowledging the absence of disclosed audience metrics. Within the United Kingdom, the film functions as a proof of capability — establishing that the Leica SL and M lenses can produce cinema-quality moving images in the most demanding available-light conditions across locations from New Orleans to Soweto.
Like the Night is a two-minute cinema commercial made for Leica UK and released in the United Kingdom in November 2019. Directed by Barney Cokeliss, the film follows female photographers through nocturnal urban environments across eight cities, demonstrating the Leica SL camera and M lenses while reinterpreting Lord Byron's poem She Walks in Beauty.
Barney Cokeliss directed and wrote Like the Night for Leica UK. According to barneycokeliss.com, Cokeliss also handled key cinematography duties, shooting nine out of ten locations personally on the Leica SL camera, using the Noctilux lens at its maximum aperture of f0.95 to capture the film's distinctive low-light night sequences.
Like the Night was shot on the Leica SL camera paired with M lenses, per the film's production documentation cited on barneycokeliss.com and shots.net. Much of the film was captured using the Leica Noctilux lens at a maximum aperture of f0.95, a specification that enables the camera to render available-light night scenes with exceptional depth and luminosity.
Like the Night was filmed across nine locations on multiple continents. According to shots.net and barneycokeliss.com, filming took place in New York, New Orleans, Los Angeles, Berlin, Bucharest, Paris, Soweto, Johannesburg, and Lesotho, with separate production partners including Bubbles Films in Berlin, Icon Films in Romania, and Them Media in New York.
Like the Night won multiple awards in 2020. According to journal.cresta-awards.com, the campaign took Silver for Outstanding Direction, Bronze for Cinematography, and Silver for Music at the Cresta Awards. According to clapboard.com, it also won Gold for Cinematography at the Kinsale Shark Awards and received recognition at the Ciclope International Festival of Craft.
Leica UK released Like the Night in UK cinemas as the brand's first-ever cinema short, according to shots.net. The cinema format placed the film before audiences predisposed to extended visual attention, amplifying the Leica SL's low-light cinematography and aligning the brand with considered creative culture rather than mass-market consumer electronics advertising.
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