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Clint Eastwood uses Sony HVR-Z1U Cameras in new flick...Posted by grafixjoe
This is a piece of a great article. Old school Director Clint Eastwood using more & more digital tools. His follow-up to "Flags of Our Fathers" coming soon called "Letters from Iwo Jima" used Sony HVR-Z1U cameras for wild field B-roll. Check out this excerpt from the article:
To those that think HDV looks & handles like a$$ = The great part is they really wanted the HVX200 P2 but the 8 GB cards were too small and there was no firestore yet so they went with the Sonys. Hollywood dictates the trends, folks...always. Enjoy - Joey When life gives you dilemmas...make dilemmanade.
Absolutely Mike, tell her how nice we all are
I would really be interested in the post workflow for minimising the artifacts and to read how well it works and how long it takes to achieve. It is something that a lot of us are going to have to deal with as more and more people shoot HDV. Ben For instant answers to more than one hundred common FCP questions, check out the LAFCPUG FAQ Wiki here : [www.lafcpug.org]
Allways great to see good comments about the HDV format even if it is the low end of HD.
MPEG 2 or MPEG of any kind are a new trend in the HD world with HDV and XDCAM HD. This is about getting HD formats and medias who meet recording time at moderate cost. PRODUCTION D. GOYETTE TOURNAGE / MONTAGE VIDÉO CORPORATIF DISTRIBUTION DVD / BLU-RAY / WEB [www.productiondgoyette.com]
Very interesting!!!
If Liz Radley comments here, apart from workflow details, I am curious about how they closed/sealed off the box, while leaving the lens able to "see." Was there just a little glass window? And DID any of the extras actually drop the cases in the H2O??? Marla PS-Mike did you mean you'd ask her to write in, or to attend a meeting?
Hi. Dinner was fun, everyone was cool, and Michael has encouraged me to respond, so here goes.
Shooting: We used the newly-released Sony Z-1s as the cameras built into the ammunition cases. Shot the first test on the front lawn at Panavision where Clint made the runs with the camera himself to see how it was balanced and what kind of images he could expect in comparison with 35mm film (and some standard def PAL cameras including 2 PAL images stitched together as we did on Ali with Michael Mann). The cameras were enclosed in tight-fitting EwaMarine soft waterproof housings with glass fronts, found and purchased from Germany by our Special Effects Coordinator Steve Riley. We used two inch Velcro to hold them down on the bottom of the case, and bubble wrap and foam for additional cushioning and padding in case they were dropped. It was so cold & damp in Iceland we used lots of Sorb-It gel packages to control condensation inside the cases as the cameras warmed up in use. Alex Nicksay worked with me to coordinate these cameras and the hours of resulting footage, as I was also shooting the behind-the-scenes footage the remainder of the time. The cameras worked great -- extras made the runs with them out of the boats, over rocks, into foxholes etc. Stuntmen made a few runs over the more challenging terrain with jumps etc. In the very cold sea, they also dipped the cameras in and out, floating them etc, under the supervision of Clint's long time stunt coordinator, Buddy van Horn. It all happened very fast and instinctively, in keeping with Clint's shooting style. We started the cameras well in advance with the remote controls from outside the housings, and then let the action happen naturally. Clint was very enthusiastic -- this was his idea and he was an active participant throughout, including shooting some of the footage himself in Iceland, out on the boats as they came in for the beach landing. Some cameras were also half-buried in the sand or left lying around like debris to catch experimental shots without being a problem for the film camera operators. We also tried throwing the cameras over the berm of deep black sand, but that footage was too wild! The running shots where the cameras are carried worked best as the motion and blur tend to obscure the lack of resolution compared to the 35mm anamorphic film. These 'serendipity shots' were intended only to flavor the action sequences. Clint and Joel Cox, his editor, looked through all the selects and picked what they wanted to put in both "Flags Of Our Fathers". We did the same thing on upcoming Japanese-language companion piece "Letters From Iwo Jima".
Hi Liz,
Thank you so much for taking the time out of your busy schedule to post your experiences!! If I may ask a few questions... I finally got the chance to get my hands on an HVX200 last night at a local Orlando reseller event (what a gorgeous piece of gear - nice weight to it). Is it true that Clint & you guys actually picked this camera for it's Photography but the P2 cards were too small & the FireStore wasn't ready yet (I was told that the 16 GB cards are coming Q1 2007)? Also...what software / techniques were used to treat the Z1U ftg to make it mingle with the film footage (remove artifacts / color correct / etc)? Your insights are priceless. Thank you so much for your time. Joe Morelli Motion Graphics & Visual FX Designer / Editor www.DigiDojo.net When life gives you dilemmas...make dilemmanade.
Hi Liz
I'd like to echo the thanks for your time taken to add to the thread. Its really great to read about experimental techniques and then see them used effectively. I am looking forward to watching the film in the cinema and to see how everything turned out. Ben King For instant answers to more than one hundred common FCP questions, check out the LAFCPUG FAQ Wiki here : [www.lafcpug.org]
If you're still around, Liz, I would love to hear about the post-production side of it -- the overall process, changes to the editing approach, the time it takes to go through all that footage, how you guys presented the footage to Clint Eastwood and Joel Cox, experiences during the process of maximizing the quality of the footage. It'd be greatly appreciated.
Cameras in ammunition cases...killer idea. Thanks so much for doing this for us. www.derekmok.com
Just a quick update regarding cameras:
The HVX-200 was not available when we shot Flags in 2005 (Iceland, Washington DC, Chicago, LA). In March 2006, we started Letters From Iwo Jima, and I was able to acquire a single HVX-200 (thank you, Doug Leighton and Birns & Sawyer). The 8 gig cards were barely available (thank you, Video Equipment Rentals). Even the rare 8 gig P2s were too small for the long run time needed. 16 gigs -- well, that would change the equation! We started those cameras running long before the film cameras, so as to be invisible in use as directed by Clint. They were sometimes recording before we handed them to the extras. If the film cameras were in front, the ammunition cases were faced backwards and vice versa. It was important that it didn't impact or slow down the production. Most people didn't even know there were cameras rolling in the cases. The FireStore wasn't available for DVCProHD, but even if it had been, I would have kept some Z-1's working -- the all-in-one solution would be more practical for the extras running with the cameras with gunfire and explosions around them. Nothing to get disconnected if it was dropped, and only one battery to watch out for. The Sony's were extremely robust and well-sealed, and we had no problems with them despite the grit and sand that seemed to be everywhere all the time. In Iceland, the black sand (like Iwo Jima) is volcanic ash, and scratches everything. Plus the wind and rain travel horizontally! In testing for Letters, we liked the image quality from the DVCProHD over Sony's Z-1 HDV with its long GOP, because we were using this for action imagery and thus testing the compression codecs to their limit. I used the HVX-200 for the extensive behind-the-scenes shooting, and occasionally used it for image capture intended for the movie, and some of those shots are in the final cut of Letters From Iwo Jima. Fortunately it fit into the same ammunition cases without modification, when needed. We required small cameras, so the at-the-time brand new JVC and Canon models, with their interchangeable lenses, were just too big for this specific use. The even smaller mini cameras (only the Sony was available) lacked the picture quality needed, especially as this was an 35mm anamorphic film. Post info to follow...
Wow (drool)...excellent info, Liz. Thank you so much.
Not using the firestore & going with a camcorder makes a lot more sense to me now. Those HVX200's are pretty heavy as compared to the Z1U's (a bit thicker all around too) so I can also see it there. I cannot wait for your Post Production info (double-drool). The main portions of my current job are Color Correcting edits (treating DVCProHD / HDV / HDCAM for Broadcast Air) & Designing / Compositing. I use Magic Bullet Suite a lot and get spectacular results even from HDV. I also got some awesome tips about digitizing HDV as DVCProHD with my Kona card and working with the ftg that way (awesome tip). I would be forever grateful to hear any Colorist "Tips & Tricks" in relation to treating HDV / DVCProHD / HDCAM to match your film stock & beyond. This is so great, I can't say it enough...like a guest speaker back in film school Thanks so much, Liz & thank you Mike Horton for arranging this. Joe Morelli Motion Graphics & Visual FX Designer / Editor www.DigiDojo.net When life gives you dilemmas...make dilemmanade.
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