Projects
Production
HDV flexibility
Sony’s HDV cameras pack cutting-edge picture quality, hybrid
recording and interchangeable lenses into a compact body
M
any production teams requiring high
definition cameras that can assist in
shooting in difficult or restricting
conditions or remote locations are choosing
cameras from the HDV range, but they are
adaptable to a far wider range of applications.
Sony’s newer HDV cameras such as the HVR-
Z7E and the shoulder mount HVR-S270E
combine quality images, the flexibility of an
interchangeable lens system and hybrid recording,
meaning users can record onto CompactFlash or
tape, separately or simultaneously. The Z7E’s low
light capabilities, interchangeable lens system and
memory recording unit made Farcical Vérité use
it to shoot documentary film Dude, Where’s My
Music? Meanwhile, it was the sharpness of image
of the HVR-Z5E camcorder that made Walker
George Films use it to shoot documentary Alex CONDUCTING THE SHOOT
Stobbs and the St Matthew Passion. Walker George Films made use of the Z5E’s sharp images
when filming Alex Stobbs and the St Matthew Passion
Following last year’s Cutting Edge
documentary A Boy Called Alex, which focused on the Stobbs and the St Matthew Passion, will be shown on
talents of Eton music scholar and cystic fibrosis More4. This concert film, also produced by Walker
sufferer Alex Stobbs, Walker George Films was George Films, features highlights from the production
reunited with him in The Continuing Adventures of A of the concert at Cadogan Hall with commentary from
Boy Called Alex. The film follows Stobbs in his first Stobbs and former music teacher Ralph Allwood.
year at Cambridge University where he is studying When Walker George used the HVR-Z5E for
music and preparing for his next big challenge – to filming the St Matthew Passion concert it didn’t know
conduct the epic choral work by Bach, the St Matthew that it would be making an additional concert film for
Passion in London’s Cadogan Concert Hall. More4. “It's only when we saw the footage that we
“We were advised by Procam Television that the Sony realised that we had approximately 50 minutes of
HDV Z5 would be a good choice for filming in a large excellent unused concert rushes which it seemed such
concert hall with low light,” says producer Stephen Walker. a shame to waste,” says producer Sally George. Director
“We had already filmed the rest of the documentary on Paddy Wivell also found that the HVR-Z5E produced
a Z1 and needed to use tape so that we could keep all a sharp image and a “vast amount of information and
of the footage on the same system for post.” detail was available in the picture, which was particularly
Following on from the documentary, which will be useful in the audience shots where the light available
broadcast later this year on Channel 4, another film, Alex was quite low”.
28 theproducer Autumn 2009
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