HVX SHootout link

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digitalislandmedia

Member
Hey everybody, It's Steve in South Florida with an interesting real world shootout of sorts where everyone came out alive and well....

A client came in a month ago with a request for a high-end lifestyle shoot set in the Fl Keys. The client wanted HD all the way. Aerials, U/W + land & Marine based shots.

The finished project is to be projected on a big screen in HD at a Theatre.

The client wanted top quality no compromise aerials. We settled on a pkg for aerials that included the Sony f950 shooting 108024p.

I pushed for using an HDX-900 or Varicam on the ground for the bulk of the shots , but didnt get my way.

In the end , the project was shot with three flavors of HD from 3 different cams.

What happened:

The client requested HVX-200 since they would have had to sacrifice the steady cam and crane shots to stay with in their budget zone if we stepped up to the HDX-900/Varicam I offered.

We have 2 HVX's in house and love them as our daily workhorse for news, corporate Indie projects etc. However I didn't purchase them intending to use them for this level of production. But, the client is always right so HVX-200 it was.

The challenge for me was getting the most out of the 1/3 HD format while shooting outdoors in the Tropics .....

The shoot is finished.

7.5 days on ground, 1/2 day in the air. 1/2 day U/W

All for 7 min finished piece.

In the end, all ground and marine shooting (on boats) was dp'd by me with the HVX-200.

All aerials were done with f950 in Cineflex mount on a Camera Copter.

ALL underwater done on SONY HDV ZIU.

All was shot or converted to 24p by us in KW and edited in La by film editor.

We are projecting in HD tonite.

I'll let you all know how it went if you want to know.

Here is a peek at how the cameras look cut together at web resolution.

http://www.digitalislandmedia.com/dim_keyscaribbean.html


Best regards,

Steve Panariello
Director of Photography / Producer
Digital Island Media
 
Quite beautiful! Yes, please tell us whatever you can share about how it went... did you feel, in the end, that you lost a lot using the HVX? At full res, how do they intercut?
 
Really great imagery!
Surely the location helped, but the HVX along with your shooting skills just shines!
Your intro text here seems to somehow blaim the client for "only" using the HVX, aren´t you happy with the results?
Also how many percent would the budget had to be increased, if you´d taken the F950 all along (well minus the underwater shots...)?
And how often do you use your HVXs? Just asking because the pics on your site show ENG cams most of the time - do clients like the ZDF or US Broadcasters accept HVX footage...?
The voice over really was the only little drawback of the piece, reat work nevertheless!
PS Did you shoot 1080 with the HVX? p or i ?
 
Prior to reading any other posts I watched the piece and my first thought was, this woman's voice is really annoying me. Then I read the very next post when I was about to mention the VO is not good. Other than that it has beautiful visuals and is a very good piece that you and your client can be proud of. Sorry if the V.O. woman is your wife:)
 
Additional comments

Additional comments

Thanks for all the great compliments ....thanks very much !

A couple comments to help round it all out: We only had 4 weeks to complete the project from green light on the budget to last nite's premiere show. The first week was solely PREP. We shot in 10 days, Post took 1.5 weeks.


I agree with all of you.......WE ALL HATED THE CHOICE OF VOICE OVER talent. Client had the last say and they didn't mind her.... They listened to the production teams advice on everything but that. Go figure !


We did not POST this project, only shot it. Post was done in LA. The HVX footgae was all shot in 720/24pn. It was dumped to lacie rugged drives (mirrored @100gb ea.) in the field, and then dumped to 320gig drives for shipment to the West coast for post.


Pictures on our website: Not many pix of us shooting with the HVX's for a good reason .... Since we got our first HVX last July, we have been so busy that we have not gone back to add the newest production stills. We are putting 40 new pics up soon, many showing the HVX in action in the air and on the ground.

I can trace a huge uptick in our business due to the expanded abilities of these cams for the price.

Yes , I would have to say that the f950 has a wider dynamic range of course.

Interesting to note that last night at the HD projection / premiere / no one seemed to notice any difference....To the audience it was all seemless.

CHOICE OF HVX: I absolutely love this camera. However, I was apprehensive about using it for two reasons:

First, It was going to be intercut with the f950 footage from the aerial cam. No way around that.

Second, The final product was to be screened in a dark theatre in HD off an HDCAM deck. I thought for sure the difference in resolution / chip size/lens would be very noticable.

I tell you as sure as I sat there, that it was not.

One reason may have been we only had a 5000 lum. HD projector @ 65ft from the screen.

Another reason : The f950 footage was hobbled by the fact that it was a hazy afternoon & evening the day that they reserved for the aerials. There was no going back up to do it again. Given the conditions, the f950 crew did a fantastic job pulling off some great compositions. If it was the typical bright /blue green Keys day, I bet I would have seen more disparity in the images.

BROADCAST ACCEPTANCE: We have had mixed success in shooting for the Networks with the HVX. CBS this morning recently did a shoot down here and we were recommended as local crew. In the end, they went with flying their own guy in because they were unfamiliar with the way we were going to deliver the DVC-PRO 50 footage to them: on a hard drive. They considered and decided to play safe by using their tried and true camera. ( we didnt have time to arrange for a rental camera for them as it was last minute shoot)

GMA was recently here and we shot aerials for them using the HVX in 720pn24. They loved it and used the aerials to tease a package they did about the keys and diving. For that shoot, we rented a Pana 1400 deck that was avail. locally and delivered on DVCPRO HD Tape.

Steve
 
Ya that cine alta stuff is pretty hot. How would the new 2/3 chip "hvx" that's coming out compare in picture?
 
probably be pretty close. maybe not as RAZOR sharp, but lattitude and color will most likely be there.
 
I 've done a few UFC's (Interviews and fighter profiles , usually right before fight nite) as well as a bunch of Poker shows (eng specialty cam) for a crew out of NY /LV. I have connection with them from my days as a freelancer in NY Area '88 - '99.

Steve
 
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