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MillimeterSony Z1U Has Recurring Role as Secondary Camera in Major Productions
Feb 10, 2007 5:49 PM
In the production of Oscar-nominated film Letters from Iwo Jima, Clint Eastwood wanted DP Tom Stern’s team to capture the “accidental subjectivity” of chaos produced by American soldiers storming the beaches of Iwo Jima in a hail of gunfire, among other intense battle scenes. Eastwood said the best camera for the job would be “one of the little ones,” so Stern’s team began testing several HDV products. Seeking a tool that would meet Eastwood’s requirements — a robust, unobtrusive camera that could run for extended periods of time — he discovered that Sony’s HVR-Z1U HDV camcorder (the Z1) fit the bill perfectly.
The Z1 made its mark as a primary camera in productions such as last year’s HBO documentary Baghdad ER, along with the network’s reality series House Arrest, but more and more filmmakers have also been discovering its value as a secondary camera.
On Letters from Iwo Jima, Stern’s team sealed and stabilized several Z1s inside prop 50-caliber machine-gun ammunition cases. The Z1s were operated with out-of-the-box remote controls that come with the cameras. The machine gun cases were given to several extras acting in the battle scenes, and the resulting footage was mixed into the movie.
This past year, award-winning filmmaker Robin D. Berg found the Z1’s to be the “ideal” choice for the task at hand in the production of a 13-episode HD series now airing on the Outdoor Channel. After testing a number of options, he selected the Z1 for gathering the series’ dramatic underwater footage shot by 47-year veteran freediver, Dr. Terry Maas.
Maas had quit shooting underwater video altogether due his frustration with the 4x3 aspect ratio of standard definition. However, the Z1’s 16x9 format coupled with the 1080i resolution of HDV has led him to discover a system he calls “perfect for the sport.” For the series, Maas shoots with a Z1 encased in a customized Light & Motion Bluefin housing. At a combined 33lbs., he says the encasing balances the camera’s weight perfectly for freediving.
“The quality of the images produced by these tools blew me away. It has completely reignited my interest in shooting underwater video,” Maas said.
Berg converted footage via the Miranda HD Bridge Deck to full bandwidth 1080i and routed it back into the XDCAM F-70 deck and recorded native XDCAM HD footage at 35Mbps. This allowed NLE transfer of all footage — both topside and underwater shot in the XDCAM HD format — creating a very efficient workflow and a “stunning” visual result.
This year, the Z1 will also play a starring role in a movie-within-a-movie plot in the feature film Southland Tales, a fictional story about an action hero Boxer Santaros (played by Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson) who is stricken with amnesia. His life intertwines with Krysta Now (played by Sarah Michelle Geller), an adult film star who is developing her own reality television project. The compact and cost-effective camcorder prominently plays dual roles in the film — in the hands of the actors in a movie-within-a-movie plot and also behind the scenes.
Because the reality footage will be featured in the movie, it needed to be shot in an already high-resolution format that could be bumped up to 35mm with minimal loss of image quality to match the rest of the movie. Once again, the Z1, which retails for under $6,000, more than made the cut.
“We are entering a new paradigm that finally provides alternatives to shooting in film that are not derived from TV news cams or amateur home video cameras,” said Steven Poster, DP of Southland Tales. “The Z1 is an instrument that is truly designed with the filmmakers’ needs in mind.”
Continue the discussion on “Crosstalk” the Millimeter Forum.
