The DigiClam

Y-Vamp Corporation, a subsidiary of Toronto-based video equipment rental company Para-vision International, was unsatisfied with the video assist systems available and so decided to create one itself. The DigiClam is a standalone MPEG-2 digital recording system, approximately the size of a laptop, which works with any film or video camera. It does not operate on Windows, and therefore, according to the manufacturer, boots up 10 times faster and doesn’t crash. The control system is a simple touch pad, as opposed to a mouse or keyboard.

The DigiClam is lighter than many video assists, making it ideal for shooting in cramped quarters such as helicopters or in remote locales like mountains or deserts. The system has a built-in distribution amplifier for both audio and video and it cuts audio to the monitor when in record mode. (The monitor is a high-brightness LCD.)

In keeping with the system’s mobility, it runs on a ‘chocolate bar’ battery. It offers variable-speed playback and comes with a built-in anamorphic converter and color bar generator. The DigiClam operates with a cinematic EDL logging system and offers a scene and take search function. It operates on one fixed and two removable hard drives and works with both NTSC and PAL.

-www.para-vision.com

New ARRI cameras debut in Toronto

The Toronto set of the Hollywood film Chicago witnessed the North American premiere of the ARRICAM Studio and Lite movie cameras from ARRI, the venerable manufacturer based in Munich, Germany.

Chicago, from Miramax Films, is an adaptation of the Bob Fosse/John Kander/Fred Ebb mid-1970s musical that recently enjoyed a popular revival. Directed by Rob Marshall and starring Renee Zellweger, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Richard Gere in a tale of murder and fame among chorus girls in the Jazz Age of the 1920s, the film was shot largely in converted warehouse space in Toronto.

The crew, headed by U.S. director of photography Dion Beebe (Equilibrium, Charlotte Gray), felt that to properly capture the choreography and numerous characters, several lightweight, mobile cameras would be required. In addition to these attributes, the Studio and Lite cameras boast adaptability and ‘plug-and-play’ design, and a particularly bright viewfinder in the case of the Studio model.

The production’s camera package also consisted of the tried-and-true ARRIFLEX 535B and an ARRIFLEX 435ES for dailies. The new Studio and Lite cameras, the first used this side of the pond, were provided by local supplier William F. White International. Graeme Weston of ARRI Canada delivered the cameras to WFW, which had only three days to test them, under the guidance of senior camera technician Mike Thompson, before presenting them to the production’s camera crew. The crew, in turn, had less than three weeks to prepare the cameras for principal photography.

Chicago shot from December 2001 to March 2002. Toronto-based Peter Rosenfeld (K-19: The Widowmaker, John Q) was the ‘A’ camera and Steadicam operator on the production, budgeted at a reported US$30 million. The film is slated for a Christmas 2002 release.

-www.arri.com

-www.whites.com