recent press
Thursday, January 03, 2008
HD vendor has high-end doodads
Because I know you like high-end HD – I mean, what self-respecting blog reader doesn't? – I offer these.
Pictured are the Sony F23 CineAlta digital cinema camera system (top) and the Vision Research Phantom HD (bottom). Pretty neat pieces of gear, really. The latter can shoot at 1,000 frames per second. Talk about super slow-mo!
Your semi-intrepid reporter visited with Michael Ciancio of 4:4:4 Camera this morning. He opened the rental shop in downtown Shreveport and hopes to add HD equipment and expertise to the local market. Read my Times story here. Good info for those DPs out there.
I asked Michael some reasonably interesting questions about choosing HD over 35 mm film. He said lower budget features, which are this market's bread and butter, are more inclined to consider using high-end HD than big budget features. Why? Here are a few concise reasons:
Generally speaking, "The more you shoot, the cheaper HD is." 
While shooting, "There is more clarity in what the image is going to look like."
"In editorial, the access to the image is immediate."
In some respects, these snippets suggest that you can accelerate the production process – or at the very least, streamline it – by shooting on HD. For penny-pinching producers and studios, this can translate into saving some coin.
P.S. I shot these photos. Aren't they special? There's nothing more awkward than shooting a picture of a director of photography, which Michael is. Oh, well. At least he didn't have the power to fire me.
