“It captures a great image,” says DP Mark Benjamin of the Sony PD-150 camera. |
High Definition, Digital Betacam, DV Cam, Mini DV, NTSC, PAL--for an independent moviemaker considering the digital video route on his or her next feature, short or music video, there is a dizzying number of choices and considerations to sort through. What look am I after and which camera can best bring me there?
How much do I gain if I jump from one format to another, and what will it cost? Do I want to go Hi Def (fortune's child, in many eyes) or can I still do justice to the story I'm telling another way?
More often than not, it's the person behind the camera who makes all the difference. To sort through some of this, MM talked to several moviemakers and suppliers to see what's working out in the field.
The Hi Def Road
World Wide Broadcast Services in Los Angeles started renting the Sony HDW-F900 (24p) last year. Says veteran cameraman Don Shapiro, who owns the shop, "They've been busy since the day we got them. We end up shipping these cameras all over the world. People are using them for everything from shorts to features to TV pilots."
Cinematographer Osvaldo Silvera shot the feature Sparkling Sea, directed by Rummel Mor, on one of World Wide's Sony HDW-F900 cameras. The picture was shot on a remote island in the Philippines. Several plane trips were required just to get close to the island itself; the film crew's sea plane touched just off the coast and they waded ashore with their gear. Though heavier than a DV Cam or Mini DV, the relative portability of HD--no film cans, and no off-site processing--was an asset.
Silvera was also impressed by how the equipment responded to the rugged conditions. "The camera held up incredibly well under extreme humidity," Silvera points out, "something I was very concerned about. It could be one in the morning and still be 94 to 96 degrees--with 100 percent humidity--but we never had a problem."
The image quality produced by HD is well known, but the system's built-in tool kit has a litany of other tricks. "One thing I like about the HDW-F900," says Silvera, "is that you can basically color correct and light on the set. If something is not red enough and you don't have a filter to enhance the reds, you can go into the menu and change them to your specifications. You can also save your settings on the Sony Memory Stick. You can then name what you saved. For instance, 'Outdoor Market, Scene 24.' If you go back to that scene or do a re-shoot, you just put your card in, push a button and all your settings are back to where they were."
Sony’s HDW-F900 camera “held up incredibly well,” says cinematographer Osvaldo Silvera, on the set of Rummel Mor’s Sparkling Sea (2001). |
Adds Ryan Sheridan of Birns and Sawyer in Los Angeles, "You can create an old movie look or desaturate the colors to get a dark, bleached bypass, Saving Private Ryan quality, and save your choices on the Memory Stick. Later, you can walk up to any camera of that kind, drop that Memory Stick in and automatically reproduce the exact look you recorded." However, Sheridan warns about locking yourself into an extremely stylized "look," because it's very hard if not impossible to undo later, in post.
Panasonic's HD 24p system, the AJ-HDC27 720p Varicam, also comes with the memory cards and color correction system. Sheridan adds, "The Sony and the Panasonic both have the same kind of color correction, with the multi matrix, that allows filmmakers to go into the camera and create a certain look without spending costly time in a telecine bay. You can accurately pinpoint certain colors and enhance them, or change certain colors as required."
Jim Jacks, Rental Manager at Birns and Sawyer, points out that interest in the Panasonic HD is growing. "The Sony HD cameras have tended to be more popular than the Panasonic HD camera. But people who at first were shooting with the Panasonic because it's cost-effective have now realized that, not only is it neck and neck with the Sony, it has some advantages: it has 24 percent more luminance and more color information and a variable frame rate. People are using the camera more and more for independent features.
"While the Sony is sharper," Jacks adds, "the debate is whether or not you want that crispness, or are you going to try and lose that anyway by diffusing the image."
Sheridan has shot three projects with the Panasonic AJ-HDC27, and liked the results. "I lensed a Project Greenlight piece for Marco Gueraro with the Panasonic HD; it was a Samuel Adams commercial. The idea of the contest was to prove that we could shoot an extremely good-looking commercial, with a good concept, in three days. We went to Sundance with it and won, which enabled us to shoot another project on 35mm. But we would not have won if we didn't use that camera, because it looked like film."
But even with the built-in tools, lighting is lighting. "I rate the Sony HD at 320 ASA," says Silvera, "and light exactly as if I was shooting 320 ASA film. I light the set with my meter, and only later go back to the camera and monitor and see what they are seeing."
Director Steve Weiss (l) and DP Jens Bogehegn (r) with a fully tricked out DSR-500 DV Cam 16x9 camera package. |
Though choosing to work at the higher end of the digital food chain, Silvera's budget only allowed for one lens. "We used the Fujinon 7.5 - 150mm HD lens. It has a 2X doubler which, when you flip down, will add a two time extender at the rear of the lens. There is some light loss, maybe a whole stop, but if you zoom in at 150mm, and the subject isn't big enough in the frame, you can--provided you have enough light--flip down the extender and essentially have a 15 - 300mm lens." Also handy, of course, if you want to reduce the depth of field.
Panavision has made lenses for the 'Panavised' CineAlta--their tricked out version of the Sony HDW-F900--to a higher standard than their film lenses because the target is smaller. Their intention is to optimize the quality getting onto those 2/3" CCD sensors, so they've made lenses that resolve more lines to make up for the smaller target.
The Middle Way
The debate over what to sacrifice for budgetary considerations will never yield a pat set of answers, but you want to be aware of how your choice of shooting format will affect your costs in post. Editing on a system like Final Cut Pro is inexpensive, but requires Fire Wire. If you are not shooting with a Sony PD-150, Canon XL-1 or one of the DV Cams, you will incur another layer of costs getting your data into the Mac. You'd have to convert, or downgrade to Mini DV or DV Cam to do your edit. (There is a Final Cut version that handles HD, but it's not cheap.)
| Who's Offering the Technology? Birns
and Sawyer Boston
Camera BVR, Ltd. Gear Samy's Camera SIM Video Video Equipment
Rentals Video M.T.L. World Wide Broadcast Services, Inc. Zacuto
Films |
Some moviemakers see Panasonic's AJ-PD900WA 480p Progressive camera as a high-quality compromise between HD and standard DV. "I really think that this camera is the big secret in independent filmmaking," says moviemaker Ramin Niami, whose digital feature Paris was shot on a Panasonic AJ-PD900WA from Birns and Sawyer. "It's not really High Definition, but the quality is a lot better than other DVs," says Niami. "I didn't want to shoot Hi Def because it's a lot more expensive: the camera is more expensive and the tape is more expensive. Post is also going to cost more. The Panasonic HD camera is also lighter than an HD camera, though it takes HD lenses. My film is a road movie--all shot handheld--so that mobility was great.
"Also with this camera, I was able to shoot 60 frames so that, even though on a one-hour tape you only get 30 minutes at that frame rate, the quality of the image is enhanced." Though originally concerned about using DV in exterior daylight, the camera performed well. "The tests I saw for the Progressive at Film Out Express in Los Angeles satisfied me that it works well under very low light and under bright sunlight. We shot exterior night on this picture--in Las Vegas and Los Angeles--and it looks fabulous."
Cinematographer Mark Benjamin, who lensed director Marc Levin's 1998 film Slam, recently shot a segment of Martin Scorsese's The Blues project for Levin. "On The Blues series we shot Digi Beta PAL, 16x9 native," says Benjamin. The reason being that the producers knew they were going to transfer the project to film. "They are thinking that at least this will give us something very close to the top of the capture food chain. Film is at the top of the food chain, then HD, Digi Beta PAL, etc."
Benjamin generally likes to work with several cameras on hand. He is currently DP on the documentary Prison Ball, featuring basketball great Allen Iverson, now shooting in prisons around the country. "I always shoot four cameras: a PD-150 PAL; Digi Beta PAL (with a couple of lenses), a Super16 and an 8mm," Benjamin says. "I use a PD-150 PAL almost as a note-taker, to move around and get things quickly as a B camera. It captures a great image. When you are doing montage, you are not going to dwell on the reticulation issue: seeing more grain than you see on the previous shot. I also bring film cameras in case I want slow motion. I generally use an Anton Prod or an Arriflex High Speed. I will also bring a Super 8mm camera if I want a lot of grain. But my A-camera is Digi Beta PAL if it's going to be a film out project."
Cameras for The Blues came from Broadcast Video Rentals, Bob Zahn's rental facility in New York. While Digi Beta is a great format to use if you intend to go to film, the Sony DSR-500--a DV Cam--continues to be a trusted workhorse in the midrange between HD and Mini DV. The work of cinematographer John Bailey, who used the PAL Sony DSR-500WS on The Anniversary Party, is one example. Zahn is currently providing DSR-500WSP (PAL) gear to Michael Apted on his digital project Married In America; and Barbara Kopple used his DSR-500WS (NTSC) gear for her multi-part TV special The Hamptons. Not only is the DSR cheaper to rent, but it consumes less juice than a Digi Beta.
"It runs for hours on batteries," says Mark Benjamin. "Not only are you getting the 40-minute tape runs, but you don't have to be concerned with changing the battery every time you turn around. The smaller size of the camera is also an advantage, particularly if it's an all-handheld situation; you don't get as fatigued." The camera also has a B-4 mount--the same mount as the Digi Beta and Hi Def--which allows moviemakers to use the entire range of High Definition lenses. "They are all tape lenses," Benjamin points out, "but at this point the distance between them and film lenses is blurring because tape lenses are now being made for Hi Def at standards higher than film lenses."
DP Mark Woods has brought his own brand of know-how to his work with the DSR-500. "I've worked out techniques over the years with white balancing to get a look that is more suitable to what I want to portray at any given time. I do the white balance with a colored filter on the lens. You put the complementary color in front of the lens in order to white balance the camera--to shift it--in the direction that you want it to go. If you want a cool look, you use a warm filter; if you want a warm look, you use a cool filter. You do your white balance that way then pull the filter off and shoot normally."
Woods, a technical writer for the National Camera Guild, also put the Canon XL-1 Mini DV camera to good use on Elvis Restaino's short See Dick Die. "The key to working with the Canon XL-1," he shares, "is to deal with the contrast ratios and to have enough light, believe it or not, so that the chips will record at high-quality levels. You want to use more light; it's the exact opposite of what they tell you. The lights I used were large soft sources with not very much fill; I positioned the lights in such a way that it would light and wrap the actors. I then cut it on the walls and put negative fill in. You can get a good picture; you just have to give it care."
Sweet & Lowdown
The Canon XL -1 continues to win admirers. "It's a great little camera in that it's modular and you can change any piece out that you don't want; even the old models." offers Jim Jacks. "At Birns and Sawyer, we even manufacture our own parts for the camera." It can't compete with the Digital Betacam or Betacam for image quality, but it's popular with moviemakers shooting on low budgets or looking to experiment. And the new P + S Technik Mini 35 Digital Adapter, made especially for the XL-1, allows the camera to take 35mm film lenses. Adds Craig Chartier, rental manager at Gear, a full-service camera and lighting house in Austin: "The P + S adapter is incredibly hot right now."
"There are now portable jibs for these cameras," adds Richard Wurman of Boston Camera. "Glidecam makes a wonderful product called the Glidecam V-8 which is a 'Steadicam' for Mini DV Cameras." Panasonic is also hitting the trade shows with a prototype DV Cam that records in NTSC at 24 frames progressive that they hope to retail for under $4,000. The gap between the rich and the poor seems to be narrowing.
Steve Weiss of Zacuto Films in Chicago advises it is preferable, when shooting for 16x9 format using the Sony PD150 or the Cannon XL1, that you stay in the camera's native 4x3 format and mask off the 16x9 area on the monitor and in post. This is preferred because if these cameras are used in their 16x9 modes, the image is digitally manipulated and degraded in quality. Sony's DSR-500 however, has a native 16x9 imaging chip and therefore doesn't suffer from that kind of degradation.
DP Jack Cockran (l) with director Ramin Niami (r) with the Panasonic 720p Progressive on the Las Vegas set of Niami’s Paris (2002). |
Content is King
Whichever format you choose, the perennial wisdom remains the same: content is king. "I stress that saving money should not be the main reason people choose to work in a digital medium," says BVR's Bob Zahn. "To date, savings has been emphasized by many as a reason to film digitally, and while I am not denying that may be true, the real reason why people should choose to film digitally is that it works best for their project. Digital is just a new brush in the filmmaker's palette."
Steve Weiss, thinking in particular of first-time moviemakers, stresses story over technology. "For people who are shooting on digital video, my opinion is that if you are a young filmmaker with limited experience you are better off shooting with the lesser grade cameras and putting all the money into hiring a script doctor. They're better off making their script better, getting better actors and more rehearsal time and having more shooting days. If they have $200,000 they could work with the DSR-500; if they have $80,000 then I would say then go with the PD-100 or an XL-1."
Weiss concludes, "The bottom line is, no executive is going to look at your movie and say, 'Wow, that movie was great. If the picture quality was just a bit better, I'd buy it.' If you look at a movie like The Celebration, they had a $1 million budget and they put all of it into the actors and script development. It looks like shit, but it doesn't matter. Good is good." MM