March / 2001

THE VIDEO FILE
Panavision and Stringer Presentations Bring Out Big Crowd; Panasonic Announces New 24P Camera for April NAB Show

THE STRINGER TEST CREW: (From left, standing) Richard Stringer csc, Steve Tsushima, Jasper Vrakking and Lori Longstaff; (bottom) Jaclyn Young, Michelle Vena. Missing from photo, Aaron Szimanski.

There was standing room only when Richard Stringer csc and Panavision Canada presented a special HD-versus-film screening for a large turnout of CSC members and guests at the new Sheridan Centre for Animation and Emerging Technologies in Oakville, Ont., on Jan. 22. What the packed house of over 200 saw from Scott MacDonald of Panavision Toronto — in a screening facility designed to seat 150 students — was a 35mm print transferred from tape originated on Panavision’s Sony 24P HDTV system, as well as the same shots from 35mm negative.

Unfortunately, MacDonald’s presentation material was not available for publicaton, although it was, of course, primarily visual. We can report that it did include the definitive thumbs-up from George Lucas on the success of shooting Star Wars: Episode II in 24P HD on Sony’s Panavision-modified CineAlta cameras.

Last October, director Lucas and producer Rick McCallum placed an ad in the Hollywood Reporter magazine to publicly thank the teams at Sony and Panavision who created the digital 24-frame progressive high-definition system used in the production of Episode II. The message read:

“We shot Star Wars: Episode II in 61 days in five countries in the rain and desert heat averaging 36 setups per day without a single camera problem. We have found the picture quality of the 24P Digital HD system to be indistinguishable from film. Thank you Sony and Panavision for helping us meet our goal of making an entirely digital motion picture.”

MacDonald, national manager of digital systems, and Stuart Hurst, who recently moved from Sony of Canada to digital systems marketing at Panavision Canada, fielded a battery of questions from cinematographers after the presentation. In the lobby outside the theatre, new Pana/Sony cameras were available for inspection.

Stringer, vice-president of the CSC who has produced previous film-versus-video tests, said MacDonald had offered the CSC the opportunity to shoot some of its own tests on HD video and have it transferred to film. He said his Sheridan presentation included only Panavision HD and unedited 35mm film, but he actually shot with eight formats/cameras. He told CSC News he would be working with Command Post/Toybox to get all formats to film soon.

Scott MacDonald of Panavision Canada. Photo: Don Angus

In addition to Panavision, Stringer acknowledged the cooperation of Rob Sim of Sim Video, Gordon Stephens of Panasonic Canada, and Ted Michener at Precision Camera. Fuji Photo Film Canada provided the tape stock and Kodak Canada supplied the 5274 film stock. Processing and printing was at deluxe toronto. The film crew was Lori Longstaff, who acted as camera assistant as well as on-camera model, assistants Steve Tsushima and Aaron Szimanski, and IATSE trainees Michelle Vena and Jaclyn Young. Without Japser Vrakking of David J. Woods “it would have taken forever to get though all the video cameras.” He used DSC Lab’s Camalign charts to help match cameras. He thanked Sheridan instructor Richard Leiterman for offering the college’s screening facilities.

Panasonic Intros 24P Camera

Panasonic Broadcast has announced that its new AJ-HDC24A HD “Cinema Camera” will be officially unveiled at NAB April 23-26 in Las Vegas. The AJ-HDC24A is a multi-frame rate, progressive-scan, digital high definition camera designed for commercials, music videos, documentaries, TV episodics and theatrical release film production.

The AJ-HDC24A shoots at 24 frames progressively (24P) — as well as 60, 12, and numerous other frame speed choices. This multi-frame switchability allows digital cinematographers to “overcrank” or “undercrank” to alter the recorded speed of the action.

The Cinema Camera’s 24P images can be directly converted to film while at the same time avoiding unnecessary frame rate conversions which may affect image quality or introduce artifacts. Additionally, since the camera can shoot in 25P, it is suitable for PAL production and broadcasting environments.

The new camera records 46 minutes of 24-frame, 720P HD images on to a single DVCPRO HD compact cassette. From a physical viewpoint, the AJ-HDC24A provides flexibility in either studio or field environments. With a full running weight of 15 pounds and a compact shoulder-mount size, it makes for easy handling with a SteadiCam or a jib arm of any length. Sturdy construction allows for use in mobile configurations such as helicopter mount rigs and specialized car mounts.

The camera offers 12 assignable scene file set-ups. Four files can be stored inside the camcorder, while eight files can be stored on a removable Secure Digital (SD) or multi-media memory card. It offers a maximum 36dB gain and a user can allocate three levels (high/mid/low) from among 10 gain selector settings extending from -6dB to +30dB. Even at +36dB, high-quality images are achievable in low lighting conditions all the way to 0.7 lux.

THE HAPPY NEW YEAR TEST: In one of Richard Stringer’s test set-ups, model/assistant Lori Longstaff vies with the blackboard for attention.

The AJ-HDC24A also offers menu browsing and setup via viewfinder or external monitor character readouts. To deliver the “film look,” the AJ-HDC24A’s advanced colour correction scheme utilizes a 12-pole colour matrix that allows specific colours to be set, especially when critical colour matching is vital.

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