Digital Video - March 2008 - (Page 6)

DV UPDATE Setting up a car rig with the HVX200 while shooting Anywhere U.S.A. TAKING THE P2 ROUTE TO SUNDANCE hen choosing a camera for his debut feature Anywhere, U.S.A., filmmaker Anthony “Chusy” Haney-Jardine selected Panasonic’s AG-HVX200, reasoning that “the project just might be seen somewhere.” That “somewhere” for Anywhere turned out to be one of the film industry’s most coveted stages, the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah (held January 17-27), where the feature had its world premiere in the 2008 Dramatic Competition. Told in three segments, Anywhere, U.S.A. examines American manners, prejudices and family dynamics. The movie was directed and written by Haney-Jardine, who shares the screenwriting credit with his wife, producer Jennifer MacDonald. The director of photography was Patrick Rousseau, an operator on such TV series as Mad Men, Six Feet Under and Arrested Development. Haney-Jardine purchased two HVX200s for the U.S.A. production (one used solely for backup). The project was shot on location in Asheville, North Carolina, in “fits and bursts” throughout 2006 and 2007 to accommodate Rousseau’s busy schedule. The director emphasized that, despite its independent film pedigree, Anywhere, U.S.A was shot classically, with a tripod (Cartoni Focus Fluid Head System), formal lighting (HMIs and Kino Flos), and a full complement of jibs (Glidecam Camcrane 200) and dollies. A Panasonic BT-LH1700W LCD monitor was used for on-set monitoring and shot framing. “One would expect an HD camera to respond well to under6 dv march 2008 W exposure, but I was afraid of shooting exteriors, which we had a lot of,” says Rousseau. “I really wanted to use the sun as a backlight, and it turned out that the camera handled the hot backlight beautifully, keeping detail where I expected there to be none. “The default color rendition was a little too saturated for the look of this movie, but we were able to dial it down easily in the menus,” he continues. “The ability to manipulate the look in the menus is an incredible feature. We were able to come up with a look that was perfect through the use of the film gamma settings and taking down the color saturation. “As with dynamic range, I was initially skeptical of the HVX200’s off-speed feature, but after shooting tests, I saw how beautiful it was and we used it several times,” Rousseau continued. “The variable frame rates are a great asset. I was also a little anxious about the tapeless P2 system, thinking that it would be too delicate for shooting in extreme weather conditions in the mountains of North Carolina, but this also performed flawlessly.” Rousseau shot at 720p/24pN direct to P2 cards. “When one card became full, we would eject it and start ingesting to our AJPCS060G P2 store,” Haney-Jardine says. “After ingesting, we would connect the P2 store via USB to a laptop and use the import P2 feature within Final Cut Pro. “Our backup disk was always a 250GB OWC FW-800 external hard drive. We would repeat this process throughout the day, formatting cards after importing their contents.” www.dv.com http://www.dv.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Digital Video - March 2008

Digital Video - March 2008 Contents DV Update Q&A Fest Circuit Instant Expert LP-Micro Light Fusion F2 Drive PPFP-3N Bag Ego Digital Imaging Light KE-79CC Boom & Fuzzy Close-Up: Honoring George Spiro Dibie, ASC Food Fight Key Thoughts on Chroma key DV101 Dynamic Duos First Look: A Big Serve Cameras & Courtrooms Ad Index Production Diary

Digital Video - March 2008

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