e. gustavo petersen | cinematographer

6 May – Mid-term elections are coming and with that, comes political spots.  Saturday, we shot a spot for Measure G. 

Brent set’s up our last shot.

My “jenky” rig – it was a last minute request, so we didn’t have all the right stuff, but we did have enough to make it work.  It’s made from four C-stand arms, three Cardellini clamps, a couple of mini Cardellini clamps, some Card-a-links and some ratchet straps.  It’s a great shot. 

Our actor looks on during rehearsal. 

Justin directs.

Our client and the farm owner look at some photos of old tractors.

Staci, our production coordinator, takes a ride on a Model T.

The other location from our shoot.  Custa College – the farmer’s daughter learns engine mechanics. 

Last shot of the day – Justin directs the tractor driver.

Just before this shoot, I purchased a new digital still camera.  I wanted something smaller and lighter than what I was using.  I found the Panasonic Lumix LZ2 at Costco for $150!  The price is right, but the best part is that it can shoot a photo in 16×9 aspect ratio.  Some of the photos above were shot in that mode.  Great for location scouts.

Today I had a chance to shoot a small commercial project and the shoot also served as a test of the new Panasonic HVX200.  And the verdict on the camera is… you’ll have to read the following first.

I shot the commercial for my friend and director, Justin Viar at Next Movement Entertainment, for – of all things – a termite company located in the Central Coast of California.  It was a small shoot – the director, me, a helper and the production coordinator.  The spot’s premise is that of a horror movie trailer – a little kitschy , a little real.  It was one day of shooting with various lighting situations and frame rate changes. In all, it seemed like a good way to put the camera through its paces.

So what did we have.  We rented from Moviola in downtown Hollywood, California.  We took out a Panasonic HVX200, 2x 4 GB P2 cards, Sony Trinitron high-resolution field monitor (standard definition), Cartoni fluid head and tripod and about five batteries and one charger.  (I would suggest that if you rent, order two chargers.  Both chargers can be used at night and on set one can charge a battery while the other can be used to power the camera.)  We used the internal 720p to 480i downconverter to view the footage on the Sony monitor.

So what did I like
I’m not gonna review the camera’s many technical specifics – enough of that information can be found on the Panasonic website and on numerous forums.  But right off the bat, I like the fact that it shoots real HD and not HDV.  I think this’ll make a huge difference in editorial and with any effects work that might have to be done.  We used my laptop computer (a PowerBook G4 1.25 Mhz) to download the clips using Final Cut Pro to an external, FireWire hard drive.

I generally like the menu structure.  More often than not it was very easy to navigate.  In fact, I figured out most of the camera without reading the manual.  It’s a good cross between the DVX100 and to a lesser degree, the VariCam.  (I appreciate Panasonic for making their manuals available as PDF files.)

One of the functions that the director especially liked and found useful is that of being able to playback the footage on the camera and view the HD footage on a standard definition monitor (.  Takes can be reviewed, speed changes can be evaluated and it’s non-linear so you can review any take on the card(s).  The best part is that there’s no issues when reviewing takes.  (Reviewing takes can cause all sorts of problems with tape systems like breaks in timecode and wear on the tape.)

Two features that I really like are focus assist and clip marking.  Focus assist is a feature that creates a picture-in-picture zoom of the middle of the frame.  It’s like a feature available on the VariCam.  I used it all the time to check focus – a little piece of mind.  Clip marking also proved helpful when reviewing previously shot clips by marking the ones you like best.

Being able to shoot in either 1080, 720 or 480 as well as various off speed and interval shooting is possible with this camera.  I can’t wait to shoot an intervalometer shot.

One of the biggest advantages that came with the DVX100 is having numerical values for focus distance.  This camera went one step further.  It gives you a numerical value but it also gives you feet and inches.  It also gives you shutter speeds in degrees as well as the traditional video value of fractions.

We took out two, 4 GB P2 cards which work out to about 20 minutes in 720p/24.  I actually like this size of footage capacity.  We worked more efficient knowing there was only a limited amount of space.  It was a film shoot type of efficiency.

So what didn’t I like
I hate to say it but the camera isn’t perfect (nothing ever is).  So here are some of my beefs with the camera.  As of now, there’s no way of downloading the footage from the P2 card straight into my laptop’s PCMCI card slot.  I understand that it’s in the works but it doesn’t work right now.

I always wish the lens was wider.  But with 3rd party products available, this is a minor issue.

I do however wish frame line markers were customizable.  We shot 16:9 with the intention of only using 2.35:1.

And finally, I wish the camera was a 2/3″ chip (or larger, of course).  While at Movieola, the prep tech mentioned that the next generation of the camera would be a 2/3″ chip.  I’ll believe it when I see it and I hope I see it at this year’s NAB.

The verdict is…
And so, when all is said and done, the verdict is… good but not great.  I do love the camera, I can’t wait to use it again and again (any takers, anybody, anybody?).  But, I can’t wait for the 2nd generation of the camera.  Panasonic has been a good listener of its customers and I have no reason to doubt that they won’t continue this tradition.

(I broke out the scarf and the Jimi Hendrix t-shirt)

(My 2.35:1 frame line markers)

(Opps!)

(Pre-scored the “wall explosion”)

(Our first shot of the day – sans the actors)

(Zen shot as we drove to the location – it’s “Zen” because I was sicking the camera out the window and just firing off shots.  Lucky!)

More fun in the sun, this time it’s in Surf City USA – Huntington Beach.  We took our MTV2 VJ to do some more 30 second spots.

The morning started out overcast and a bit foggy.  It didn’t take long to clear up nicely.  Mostly the same shooting style.  High shutter angle (often 1/2000) and the polarizer again.  The sky was amazing again – dark blue.

Tony did a great job of directing his talent and keeping her calm and confident (minus one little slip that went something like, “if you screw-up, stop yourself”).  Still, a great job considering she’s never had any professional experience in front of the camera.  He always seem to have the right thing to say to her and keep her calm even after numerous takes.  And despite the number of takes, you’d hardly know she was an amature.  Great energy, she took direction well, and really put herself into the role.  Great stuff!

Lighting was simple enough.  Mostly it boiled down to picking the right angles so that she either faced the low-lying winter sun or the sun was at her back and a large 4×4 foam bounce filled her face. Most of the time though, the sand worked wonders as a natural bounce/fill.

No major changes to the camera settings also other than switching the black stretch to on.  This helped us see her dark top better and lessened the darkness under the chin.

(From our LCD monitor)

(Tony directs our talent)

(I got short hair again)

Spent the most gorgeous day today in the San Fernando Valley city of Northridge.  MTV2 and Time Warner Cable teamed up for a cross promotion campaign where a locally selected youth gets to VJ thirty-second segments that’ll air on MTV2.

For this group of segments, we when to Cal State Northridge.  It was windy and very hot for what is suppose to be winter.  And it was dry.  So dry that the sky was an almost unnatural blue.  Add to that a polarizer on the lens and you get a blue that’s almost black.  Looks great, though.  Looks like a music video.

We shot on a Canon XL2 on fairly neural settings, 24Pn, and 4:3 aspect ratio.  We used the wide-angle Canon lens with the camera often below her eye-line to give it a “rap video” look.  We asked her to gesticulate  with her hands close to the camera to add to the effect and often increased the shutter angle to add to the look but also for practical reason of cutting down the light and shooting at a lower ƒ-stop.

I’ll have frame-grabs of the footage later this week.

Tony (director) watches a rehearsal and Joe (grip) helps with a little bounce.)

(It’s me, enjoying the hot, dry sun.)

(Our VJ Vanessa waits for the next shot.)