special report pirelli calendar
without having to pump gain intoangle lens can prove invaluable.
the camera and without any lensStuart Chapman and cameramen
distortion. Justin Savage and Brad Hogan gave
“Canon seem to have seriouslyus their verdict on Canon’s brand
tackled all the tricky issuesnew lens.
associated with the production of a“For a shoot like this year’s Pirelli
new ENG broadcast lens and haveCalendar, when we are constantly
somehow managed to produce achanging locations and everything is
higher resolution lens than itsquite spontaneous and chaotic, the
predecessor while at the same timenew HJ14 lens performed
minimising flare, distortion andspectacularly,” said Savage. “In
ghosting. terms of flexibility and quality it
“The new HJ14 maintains highersurpassed our expectations. A top
resolution at both the centre of thefashion photographer on the Pirelli
picture and the extremities of theshoot often has a particular way of
16:9 image plane. Canon hasworking and this is usually very
successfully enhanced its contrastdifferent to the way we would shoot
range, minimised the opticala drama or a commercial, for
artifacts usually associated withinstance. Spontaneity is normally the
strong light sources and reducedkey to their creativity which means
“For a shoot like
increasing demands of the shoots, I
focus breathing. This was particularlythat things happen very fast and the
this year’s Pirelli
felt I had to try and experiment with
Calendar, when we
apparent to us when we foundatmosphere can be tense and often
are constantlythe HD medium. Using my film
ourselves on an open Brazilianquite erratic.
changing locations
background I could really work the
and everything is
beach in high contrast bright“A lot of our material is captured
depth of field on the road in my shot
quite spontaneous sunshine. The lens appears capablehand held for speed and in order to
and chaotic, the
composition and employ the same
of delivering virtually distortion freemaintain a sense of urgency. The
new Canon HJ14
grading and film effects in post
lens performed
HDTV video images and must nowphotographer does not want his or
production that I had previously used spectacularly.”
be leading the way in the 2/3 inchher creative flow interrupted while
in telecine.”
class.we position him in our frame and
The success of the first HD Pirelli
“For studio shoots and for a lot ofdouble check focus and composition
‘Making of’ video defined the choice
location work the 2 x extenderetc - it just doesn’t work like that in
for the future and since 2004 all the
covers you for your zoom lenshigh fashion.
Pirelli Calendar videos have been
requirements and the quality at the“There is a lot of pressure on us to
shot in HD and more specifically on
long end of the lens is trulyshoot and deliver the best material
Sony’s F900 HDCAM camera.
stunning. Since we were alsowe can and expectations for the
For this year’s Calendar shoot the
shooting on beaches and in exteriorvideo are high but essentially we
production team returned to Brazil
locations where we could put someare shooting gorilla style - almost
but this time to Bahia in the north
considerable distance between ourlike a news crew capturing the story
and once again they turned to Canon
camera and the subject, it wasas it unfolds before us...the main
for its impressive range of high
necessary to have a dedicateddifference is that our material has to
quality optics.
There is no
longer zoom lens and for this webe very artistic.
Traditionally the Canon HJ11 has
doubt that
once again employed the Canon“Obviously the photographer has a
been used on the Pirelli shoots for
the HJ14’s
HJ21. However, it is definitely fair torelatively small stills camera to work
all wide angle composition and
say that the HJ14 has the biggestwith while we have large shoulder
new digital
helicopter shots supported by
zoom ratio in its class and thereforemounted HD cameras with big
Canon’s HJ21 zoom lens for the pin drive unit is
can be used in a wide range oflenses so we need to be flexible. In
sharp close ups and long lens
beautifully
shooting scenarios.the past the HJ11 has been an
acquisition. However, with the
designed
“The lens has a compact andinvaluable addition to our
recent introduction of Canon’s brand
and it is
streamlined design and a reallyphotographic armoury but Canon’s
new HJ14ex4.3 wide angle lens just
possible to
quiet drive unit although we didn’tnew wide angle - the HJ14 - is
in time for this year’s Calendar
really put the drive unit through itssomething else...something even
digitallyshoot, it was the perfect opportunity
paces. There is no doubt that thebetter!
to put the new lens through its
programme HJ14’s new digital drive unit is“It must be the widest angle ENG
paces.
precise and
beautifully designed and it islens in the world to date. It has a
The light in Brazil in May is always
repeatable
possible to digitally programmefocal length of 4.3-60mm which can
changing and being at the end of
settings for
precise and repeatable settings forbe doubled to 120mm using the 2 x
the ‘wet season’ the climate is very
speed, focus and iris as well asextender. On this year’s Calendar
speed, focus
tropical. Torrential rain can pass and
zoom positions.”shoot we were working in some
make way for bright high contrast and iris as
It is clear that Utopia’s videopretty confined spaces like the dark
sunshine within moments so
well as
production team have always strivedBrazilian mangrove swamp on our
exposure is critical in such
zoom
for optical excellence andfirst day of filming. Although it was
conditions. The crew were also faced
positions.
outstanding picture quality on thea really tight space and very difficult
with a range of locations from
Pirelli Calendar shoots and this yearfor us to change position it was
confined mangrove swamps to
it seems that Canon’s new HJ14amazing to be able to frame the
single rooms in small traditional
wide angle lens has helped themmodel, the photographer and all his
Brazilian houses and it is in these
push the boundaries of HD ENGcrew into the same shot with an
situations that a top quality wide
photography even further.exposure level of 1.7 fully open
78 l ibe l september/october 2009 l www.ibeweb.com
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