When director George Lucas announced he was going to shoot Star Wars II: Attack of the Clones on the high-definition Sony HDW-F900 24p camera, many predicted HD was going to take a quick, huge bite out of 35mm movie production. But 24p HD origination has actually skewed significantly more toward the TV side.

Nearly the entire season of this year’s Hollywood TV pilots – mostly sitcoms – were captured on Sony 24p HDCAMs, according to Brian Young, marketing group manager, Sony of Canada. He points to a growing number of dramas also shooting in 24p, including the Toronto-based Doc (PAX TV/Pebblehut Productions) and Witchblade (Top Cow/Halsted Pictures/Warner Bros. Television).

Likewise, chief competitor Panasonic is seeing its digital video cameras in greater demand for the small screen. At NAB2001, the company came out with the AJ-HDC27 VariCam, its answer to Sony’s 24p HDCAM, with the added functionality of a variable frame rate for off-speed work.

Acknowledging the varying needs of its clientele, Panasonic has added a recording setting to the VariCam that can be switched to either film or video, depending on a production’s final distribution destination. The film mode provides a warmer image.

‘The perception in the marketplace is that something in a theatre has to have a different look than a made-for-television movie, so those are elements that have to be incorporated into a camera for those applications,’ says Gord Stephen, product manager, broadcast and security systems, Panasonic Canada.

Panasonic did some market research a few weeks ago at a seminar held with Toronto’s IATSE 667, garnering feedback from camera assistants, DOPs and EPK producers. ‘Each one of them brought a different perspective as to what they need,’ Stephen notes.

As for adding a variable frame rate capability to its camera, Sony simply responds, ‘Do it in post’.

‘We can shoot the [HDW-F900] at 60i, 30p or 24p mode – the camera has multiple frame rates,’ says Young. ‘By shooting the camera at 60i mode, you can actually achieve a better under-cranking look in post-production for slo-mo effects.’

Sony will demonstrate a US commercial using the slo-mo effect at NAB2003 in Las Vegas this April.

Theatrical features

SONY maintains that ‘virtually 100%’ of theatrical features that have opted for HD over film stocks have shot with Sony cameras. It’s been hard for Panasonic to make inroads in the film and TV market, but interest is picking up.

One production that committed to the upstart Panasonic HD system is Carrie, a MOW remake of the Stephen King horror flick that shot with five of the cameras in Vancouver for MGM Television and Trilogy Entertainment Group. Although the project was a learning process for all involved, Panasonic feels it was a success.

‘MGM was very happy technically with the camera and the operation,’ Stephen says. ‘They were able to achieve some of the effects that they hadn’t expected to. They were able to explore the variable frame rate capacity, and people continue to explore it.’

Another project that took the VariCam on board is Sharkwater, a doc series by Toronto- and Montreal-based wildlife photographer Rob Stewart. The docs balance coverage of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society’s efforts to halt illegal fishing activities off Costa Rica and the Galapagos Islands with underwater shark footage, for which LA’s Pace Technologies outfitted the VariCam with a modified Digital Betacam housing.

Stewart captured a reported 80 hours of footage, a quantity that would be out of reach to most film shooters due to stock, processing and printing fees. The crew also enjoyed the camera’s flexibility for sped-up sea shots, 24 frames-per-second footage and slow motion underwater scenes.

Although Stephen doesn’t anticipate DV or HD origination dethroning 35mm for feature shooting any time soon, he does see the VariCam offering quality on par with Super 16mm, a traditionally popular format for Canadian MOWs, series and docs with electronic distribution.

Sony has even higher expectations for its cameras, pointing to Ghosts of the Abyss, a forthcoming 3D underwater film produced by James Cameron. The ambitious project is being captured on two Sony 24p HDCAMs placed side-by-side, with the combined image output to a large film format for projection on IMAX screens.

A request Sony has heard repeatedly from DOPs is to devise a color viewfinder for its 24p camera. The current black-and-white viewfinder is one aspect that has led to cinematographers having to do their job away from the camera at a remote color monitor. Sony has heeded the call, and will soon be offering a color 2.7-inch LCD viewfinder as a premium add-on. Customers will have the option as of May 1.

An added feature of the color viewfinder is two-times magnification at the center of the screen or at any of the four corners, to help in focus checking. A mirror adapter allows the DOP to look into the viewfinder from behind the camera, or, with the adapter’s removal, a camera assistant can see the viewfinder from a side-view.

Sony is also offering an upgrade kit that improves contrast range and the number of setups and allows one more T-stop. Models shipped as of February come with these upgrades as standard, otherwise the kit is free to suppliers and individual owners who have purchased the camera since the last NAB. It is available for purchase to those who bought their packages prior to the last NAB.

-www.sony.ca

-www.panasonic.ca