Rob Sim is racking up the frequent flyer points. Sim, president and cofounder of equipment supplier Sim Video Productions, has been doing a fair bit of to-ing and fro-ing between his company’s Toronto and North Vancouver facilities.

Speaking from the Vancouver office on the grounds of Lions Gate Studios, Sim explains that his West Coast business is skewed more towards the big-budget features shooting there.

‘We do a lot of 24-frame playback, computer graphic playback, computer monitors and lcd projectors – all different kinds of playback for film,’ he says.

One of the highest-profile features Sim Video has worked on is The 6th Day, the forthcoming Schwarzenegger sci-fi flick in which Arnie gets cloned. The Columbia Pictures release, which was shot earlier this year at Lions Gate on a high-tech, $2-million set, has the star playing two characters. The effect called for the use of two motion-control rigs, furnished by Los Angeles’s General Lift Motion Control Systems.

‘They would shoot a take with him screen right with a film camera,’ Sim explains. ‘At the same time we were recording it [on sp video]. Then they turn around, and with the motion control the camera replicates its moves precisely and they do a second take with him screen left. We play back the right side screen so he can play to himself. That was a big part of the project.’

Sim Video also provided all of the film’s video assist and playback as well as the five Avid systems currently running at the production’s editing facility in l.a. Sim calls the 10-month involvement with the film a ‘huge contract.’

In addition to the productions themselves, the Vancouver feature industry has spun off substantial video work. The benefit to Sim has been broadcast camera rentals for both electronic press kits and the tv program Entertainment Tonight.

Warner Bros. passes on 24p

Sim is using his foothold in Vancouver as well as the company’s new office at Raleigh Studios in Hollywood to help develop a West Coast market for high-definition production, which he anticipates being highly active.

To this end, Sim Video brought one of its Sony HDW-F900 cameras to l.a. in June. The HDW-F900 is Sony’s revolutionary 24p (progressive) hdcam whose 24 frames-per-second capture rate and 180-degree shuttering are similar to those of a motion picture camera. The resultant look is closer to film quality than digital video has ever been, and 24p is becoming an attractive alternative for filmmakers, especially those working in television. By dispensing with film stock, 24p is more efficient, and its defenders believe its quality to be at least superior to 16mm.

Sim brought the hdcam down in response to a call from old friend Rodney Charters, dop on the Fox Television show Roswell, which originates on 16mm. Charters was interested in doing some 24p tests.

‘After I showed Rodney some of the camera test results, he really wanted to shoot this series on hd,’ Sim recalls. ‘So we took a camera package to the Paramount Studio in Hollywood. The first day we said we’d just do a little camera test and show some of our demo tapes. We were told some people from Fox were going to show up. I was expecting two or three, but 28 people were there.’

Sim showed the audience a split-screen test from the Alliance Atlantis Communications/Tribune Entertainment program Gene Roddenberry’s Earth: Final Conflict, where 35mm and 24p hd footage were mounted side-by-side. (It was these tests that convinced efc producer John Calvert to make that program the first to switch to the new format.)

Sim also screened other programs for which his company has supplied hdcams, including Salter Street Films’ Lexx and aac’s I Was a Sixth Grade Alien, shot on the 30 fps 1080i (interlace) format.

Their interest piqued, the Fox brass said they wanted to do more tests with the hdcam, so Sim left it with them. Scenes with available cast members were shot and edited together, and with the program ready to commit to the switchover, the whole enterprise was nixed by distributor Warner Bros.

‘They had to get final approval from Warner, and that didn’t come through,’ Sim recollects. ‘Warner said, ‘No, we’re shooting it on 16mm.’ ‘

As for the progress of efc, Sim says ‘It’s been going very well. They’re right on schedule, and I’ve seen the quotes and they’re saving substantial money.’

One limitation to 24p is that since it shoots only at 24 fps, it cannot do any off-speed work.

‘Part of the Roswell tests was shooting a sort of slo-mo by slowing the machine down, and it looked pretty good, but I’m not going to say it’s as good as shooting 35mm at 80 fps,’ Sim says. ‘I know on efc any high speed they’re shooting is still on 35mm.’

Not the only HD in town

While Sim expresses disappointment over Warner’s case of cold feet, he does concede that 24p is not necessarily always the ideal hd choice – especially in documentaries.

‘It definitely could be used for [docs], but there are some characteristics of 30 fps hd that maybe lend themselves better to documentary shooting,’ he says. ‘With 24p, it’s like film – if you do a fast pan, you get a sort of blurring artifact. You get a different feel. You could go either way [on the formats], but our 1080i cameras are more cost-effective, and documentaries generally have lower budgets than series work or movies.’

Sim Video recently worked on the Associated Producers/Yorkshire Television 1080i documentary Planet Storm, to be aired on Discovery Channel in the u.s. They are also involved in the Good Earth Productions documentary Rivers of Canada, which is being shot in the same format, with the intention of being sold for hd delivery.

Sim Video currently has six 24p hdcams and three 1080is. As Rob Sim explains, the hd systems are a major investment. He estimates that the HDW-F900 camera body plus accessories brings the cost of each individual package to $300,000 to $400,000. He reports the hdcams are not only attracting the interest of series producers, but they are proving popular as single-day rentals for commercials as well. *

-www.simvideo.ca

-www.general-lift.com