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MillimeterNew Stock
Apr 1, 2008 12:00 PM, By Darroch Greer
Bennett-Watt HD Productions has been shooting HD footage from all around the world since 2000. The company’s Discoveries series includes more than 65 hours of footage.
Bennett-Watt HD Productions
Bennett-Watt HD Productions is a production house that was founded by Jim and Kelly Watt in 1978. They've been shooting in HD since 2000, when they began production on Discoveries…Ireland, a 3-hour travelogue. Next, they made a 7-hour Discoveries…Spain, then the 4-hour Discoveries…Argentina. After the tragedy of Sept. 11, the duo turned their cameras on America. The result was Discoveries…America, 51 hour-long shows on every state, including Washington, D.C. They just finished late last year, after shooting 1,800 hours of footage.
“Basically, we just traveled around and did stories about people and places — and, of course, the obvious tourist things that give the state its personality,” Jim Watt says. “We tried to let the people tell their own stories so you could hear what they sounded like, which is interesting across the country. And you get a feel for their passion of what they did. I mean, we have everything — from NASCAR racing schools in North Carolina to oystermen in Alabama and shrimpers. Anything and everything — sculptors and artists. And we did a few national parks, a lot of history and monuments, but also neighborhoods and markets. It was really a kick.”
The Watts crossed the country pulling a trailer with an Apple Power Mac G5 HD editing system equipped with AJA Kona 2 and Kona LH cards and running Final Cut Pro 5. They spent three weeks in each state. Jim would screen the material, pull the shots, and write the script, while Kelly would set up the shoot for the next state.
“We only shoot and sell HD, and we've been shooting 1080i since 2000,” Jim says. “Plus, we have a 720p Varicam that we bought two years go. It's the newest Varicam model out, the H model. We bought the very first HD camera Panasonic sold in the world. It was a 1080i camera — and it was before they ever thought of the Varicam — and it still takes spectacular pictures that I would put up against any 1080i camera around. It's an AJ-HDC20A. … Then we have some Sony HDV cameras. Once Sony brought out the SXR, the small, consumer-looking camera that was little and not terribly expensive, it just gives you the opportunity to take a camera to a lot of places you couldn't take the big camera — and also maybe risk it in a few places you wouldn't want to risk the bigger cameras.”
The series is available on DVD at www.discoveriesamerica.com. When pressed for his favorite shots, Jim says: “POV shots in a NASCAR racecar going around Lowe's Motor Speedway at 170mph just takes your breath away. Yet, some of the spectacular sunrises and sunsets you see in various parts of the world are equally so. Windsurfing or kiteboarding in Hawaii — we just have such a vast variety of material. Alaska — just getting out in the middle of Denali Park and seeing the animals, the grizzlies, the caribou — just spectacular life.”
