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MillimeterScourge Shot in HD with JVC ProHD GY-HD250
Oct 9, 2007 12:00 PM
Director Jonas Quastel and DP Corey Robson of PhD Productions chose JVC's lightweight GY-HD250 to shoot horror film, Scourge because of the cameras ergonomics, 60p capability, and HD-SDI output compatibility with Wafian's direct-to-disk HD video recorder.
Using technology from the present and past, which initially set the stage to shoot horror film Scourge, PHD Productions achieved a 35mm depth of field look with the combination of the GY-HD250, manual focus Nikon lenses and Redrock Micro M2 lens adapter.
Robson, who has filmed extensively with his GY-HD100, is very familiar with JVC's camera and knew that the GY-HD250 was the right choice to shoot Scourge because most of the film was shot handheld.
Questel also favored the GY-HD250 because of its ability to flip the image on the fly and output 4:2:2 HD-SDI into Wafian's HR-1. "We used the Wafian to preserve the best master image quality possible as well as bypass HD decks and tapes," Questel says. The camera performed flawlessly. I always had a clear signal to the monitor. There was no down time when it came to JVC's camera."
According to Robson, the camera's compatibility with the HR-1's 24fps reverse pulldown convinced him that this workflow would be the most cost-effective and efficient way to maintain the GY-HD250's image quality from set to post. "The on-set workflow was simple and worked incredibly well. We connected our sound into the camera's XLRs where the audio became embedded into the HD-SDI stream, along with the camera-generated timecode and image. The HD-SDI cable from the camera fed the Wafian back at the director's monitor. This ensured that we had audio on both our HDV backups and on the HR-1, which avoided double-system post expenses," Robson says.
Quastel says the GY-HD250 captured beautiful highlight detail during the mostly white hockey rink sequences in the film. "Humidity and cold were never an issue for the camera. We shot a majority of the film at night—complete with rain showers and very tight schedules, making things less than ideal for treating a camera gently. The camera was thrown around a lot," Quastel says.
Robson praises the camera's versatility and custom menu functions. "I think a very often over-looked consideration when choosing a camera is ergonomics. And this was a big deal to me working on Scourge. With regard to image setup, the GY-HD250 has completely adjustable matrix, shading, and gamma options. In-camera ‘looks’ are easily dialed in. The adjustable focus-assist feature came in handy especially for insert work and the camera's true 1280x720 imagers were another reason to go with the HD250. No scaling and cross-sampling pixels with the JVC cameras."
Robson also discussed the camera's battery life. "The built-in Anton-Bauer gold mount was another great feature of JVC's camera. With a power tap and a Dionic 90, we were often running an on-camera Panel-Lite, Bartec unit, and additional 7in. monitor all at once."
