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MillimeterFocusing in HD
Jan 23, 2007 8:00 AM, By Craig Erpelding
National Geographic Magazine recently chronicled the activities of World Conservation Society biologist Mike Fay, an individual who many are crediting with helping save a chunk of West African rainforest roughly the size of Colorado in the equatorial nation of Gabon. Through Fay's work (including a 15 month, 2,000 mile walk through the forest), the region was turned into 13 national parks. These parks are the focus of an upcoming National Geographic Society program aptly titled Gabon, (co-produced with broadcasters BBC and NHK) which celebrates the region’s unique features. Cinematographer Bob Poole was hired to capture the spectacular imagery and wildlife habits of creatures that live in the rainforest, utilizing HD technology for the project. HD Focus recently had an opportunity to talk with him about his field production experiences in this remote part of Africa.
Poole is quite familiar with Africa, having spent a lot of his formative years on the continent with his family. As a matter of fact, the first project he sold to National Geographic was a documentary about his sister, Joyce Poole, PhD, and her work in understanding elephant behavior. But Poole’s film experience spans a much larger spectrum of topics—from lensing Warren Miller extreme skiing films and Olympic footage to documenting a Ugandan presidential tour and an Angelina Jolie film on refugees—experiences which have taken him to nearly every corner of the planet. (For a complete profile of Poole’s work, see www.poolefilms.com.)
Having worked mainly in 16mm in his past, to shoot recent projects, Poole switched to HD to capture quality, high-resolution footage in dense forests. Contract work for the Discovery Channel, which requires HD footage to be delivered at 1080i, had already led Poole to version 3 of Sony’s HDW-F900 CineAlta camcorder, and he made it his camera of choice for Gabon.
But Poole says his lens choice for the project was also crucial to achieving the documentary’s goals. That choice—Fujinon’s HA25x16.5BERD HD lens. The lens is specifically designed to compliment 2/3-in. high-definition video cameras, and provides a maximum focal length of 826mm (2x), reduced focus breathing, an f/stop range of f/2.8 to f/4.0, and Fujinon’s exclusive DigiPower servo system for fast, accurate zooming in either widescreen 16:9 or traditional 4:3 formats.
“I’m pretty particular about things. I bought this lens specifically for this job,” says Poole. He adds that the choice was made largely because of the need to capture footage of large, dangerous animals in the extremely dense rainforest setting.
Fujinon has been developing HD lenses since the inception of the HD broadcast paradigm, of course. With the development of new forms of glass made from the choicest materials, HD lenses have a more distinct modulation transfer function (MTF) than a standard-def lens, and they allow for an increased optical boundary. Thus, HD lenses provide the ability to “see” into the shadows of the frame, which is important for imagery shown on today’s HDTVs, and they minimize chromatic aberrations.
Poole’s work on Gabon focuses on two of the more charismatic animals in the forest—elephants and gorillas, which are also some of the more dangerous animals to encounter in close proximity. The Fujinon lens allowed him to get crisp imagery at a safe distance—shooting from a secluded tree shelter at the edge of a clearing known as Langoué Bai, where he holed up for nearly a month while making the documentary.
“Both elephants and gorillas are pretty dangerous animals—you can’t just walk up to them. In fact, they can’t even know you’re there, otherwise they’ll run away,” Poole says. “So, [in such a large clearing], in order to get their behavior, the intimate stuff, you need to be stationary at a distance. You need a long lens.”
Capturing footage from a distance is obviously expected from a long lens, but Poole found that the HA25x16.5BERD HD lens also gave him a new solution for footage requiring closer proximity.
“I’ve worked with macro lenses quite a bit and they’re fantastic,” Poole says. “But they’re also really kind of a pain because the camera needs to be really close to the subject, which doesn’t like that [scenario] and moves away. Or, sometimes it’s a dangerous snake, and you don’t really want to be there yourself.
“This telephoto lens works as a close focus zoom—I think it’s about 8ft. to 10ft., which is not that close, but it magnifies the subject. So even an ant could fill your frame. Suddenly, you don’t need a macro lens—you’ve got this great long lens that has a close focus, and you’re able to capture all these cool insects and snakes and things at a distance and still get the ‘eyeball’ shot of a snake, and not be really anywhere near it. So, that’s an incredibly useful feature.”
The long lens even proved useful for shooting larger animals within the forest’s interior.
“For elephants in the forest, a long lens allows you to be pretty close to the animal and get incredible detail, see their eye lashes or a tear in their eye, or see their expression—details that if you go wide, you sometimes can’t separate the animal from the trees. This long lens allows you to minimize the depth of field so much that you can focus in on exactly what is interesting about that frame,” Poole says.
But the most impressive aspect of the HA25x16.5BERD HD lens for Poole is that Fujinon manufactured it at a paltry 6.5-lbs., about half of what a similar lens would weigh, thus requiring no additional support brackets, or the need to use a tripod whenever the lens is attached. In order to permit the weight difference, Fujinon didn’t bother to take the lens to the wider angle (most similar long lenses are 40x’s), which as Poole notes, isn’t needed anyway, since solving the weight issue was his primary concern.
“I’m carrying this stuff on my back or have help, but it’s all being transported,” Poole says. “And in Gabon, we’re on foot the whole time as there aren’t any roads through the forests. So, you want your equipment to be streamlined—6lbs. makes a big difference. As a result, if you come upon a situation where you need a long lens, you could have it up on your camera in a matter of literally seconds—if you’re quick. In wildlife that’s so important because you only get one chance at things—you have to be able to suddenly capture a piece of behavior. So, that lens proved to be really good for me.”
Poole captured all of the footage on HDCAM cassette tapes at 29.97 4:2:2 and sent the media back to National Geographic headquarters in Washington D.C., where all of the post work was done. Gabon, narrated by Glenn Close, is set to air summer 2007.
Poole continues his globetrotting as he heads off to Thailand for his next cinematic adventure, but not without his newfound lens.
“I carry multiple lenses with me for my shoots and I just find that I use [the HA25x16.5BERD HD lens] all the time now,” he says. “I never go without it—it’s just part of my package.”
