Digital Video - November 2007 - (Page 32) Funny GIRL HIRO FUKADA A-cam operator Ron Veto (left) and director of photography Rhet Bear discuss a setup. Below, Bear frames up a shot. RON VETO something that he frequently did with film and correctly expected would be done for some parts of the series (when it references music video style, or in set pieces like the one last season, in which Posehn’s character practices kung fu on a ghost). Series co-creator Rob Schrab, who also works as a writer, executive producer and director of most of the episodes, says he specifically didn’t want the show to be like Seinfeld. Instead of Silverman’s character being a stand-up comic, they created a very self-centered, child-like character “who has a tremendous amount of free time and gets in everyone’s hair—and in the end, everything always works out for her.” Schrab is used to digital filmmaking. He had spent about a decade as a writer, primarily, he says, of “a lot of pilots that didn’t get picked up,” so at one point he grabbed some consumergrade DV cameras and started making his own shows for Internet “network” Channel 101. “It was just as YouTube started opening up, and it was great experience,” he says. “I’d worked in the business for 10 years and had been so close with some pilots, but never saw them picked up. So I said, ‘I’m going to shoot a show and put it on the Internet—at least then it exists.’ I made my mistakes over those two years on my own time and money.” Aside from the variable frame rate, the selection of the VariCam F (the newer H with an expanded dynamic range replaced the F model for this current season), Bear says, was an aesthetic one. “We looked at the Sony F900, the Genesis—which was about to come out—and even the ARRI D20,” he says. “We just liked the look of the VariCam. It had a softness that looked to all of us like film.” He admits that this is likely true in part because of the lower resolution its chip offers over those of the 32 dv november 2007 other cameras the crew tested but that wasn’t an issue and Bear found the picture most desirable. “I’ve become a fan of the Panasonic line,” says Bear. “The DVX and the SVX are amazing cameras, too. Our sound man owns an HVX 200 [P2] camera, and that has become our C camera a lot of the time. We shoot in the native 720p and convert it like the other footage, and it looks great. I wouldn’t use a 1/3-in. chip camera on faces—too much depth of field—but it’s perfect for inserts of feet tripping over cords or a doorknob opening. And the P2 cards are great for post even though it makes producers a little worried to have no tape to work with. We’re very interested in the HVX500, Panasonic’s new 2/3-in. camera that uses P2 cards. In two years, I think everything will be all be hard drive- or card-based, and I’d love to be one of the first scripted shows to be in that format.” The Silverman production shoots each half-hour episode in five days, generally spending three at Hollywood Center Stages— www.dv.com http://www.dv.com
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