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www DANCING WITH THE DEVIL
Jon Blair put the PDW-700 and PMW-EX3 to the test
when filming gangs and police in Rio de Janeiro
Documentary feature Dancing with
the Devil follows the world of gangs, drugs and even in low light,” says Blair. “This was vital as most of
frontline police in Rio de Janeiro. Award winning the drug traffickers’ world takes place at night.” Blair also
producer and director Jon Blair chose the XDCAM HD highlights that the IT-based acquisition, which allows
PDW-700 as a primary camera and the XDCAM instant access to a day’s rushes, meant an editor could
PMW-EX3 as a second unit to shoot the project, with be brought on location and make the first cut as they
both set at 25p to give the documentary a filmic look. went along. “This was a real benefit in terms of efficiency
The crew needed kit that would allow them to react as it allowed me to identify what was left to shoot whilst
quickly in tough environments while capturing high on location rather than waiting until we returned home.”
quality images. Blair chose to use Sony’s tapeless One incident highlighted the importance of instantly
formats after talking to Sony directly and Sony reviewable footage. During an interview a drug
Specialist Dealer Visual Impact. At the time of the shoot trafficker’s name was accidentally mentioned by the
Visual Impact was able to buy one of the first PDW-700 translator during filming and the team was asked to
camcorders to rent to Blair. destroy all the footage. Using both cameras’ review
“The PDW-700 integrated seamlessly with the vignette facility, the crew could identify and delete the
smaller PMW-EX3. This meant we could use an particular footage containing the name and prove it no
unobtrusive lightweight camcorder when necessary at longer existed. If using a tape based format the entire
the same time as producing really high quality images, tape would have had to be destroyed.
26 theproducer Summer 2009
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