Projects
HOME ON THE RANGE
The new NXCAM has come through a tough feature doc shoot on the pampas of Argentina with flying colours
Gaucho, a documentary about Argentine cowboys, is one of the first professional projects to be shot on Sony’s new NXCAM AVCHD camcorder. Directed by Emily Cue, the film tells the story of how the traditional lifestyle of the gaucho is adapting to the combined pressures of industrialisation, tourism and climate change.
As a self-shooting director, Cue needed a light, easily transportable camera that could withstand the dusty environment and rough treatment that life on the pampas involved – but one also capable of producing high quality HD images for film distribution. A self-confessed fan of Sony’s ever-popular Z1
camcorder, Cue took a look at the new HXR-NX5E NXCAM on the recommendation of specialist dealer Prokit. One feature that immediately appealed was the ability to view rushes using thumbnail images, which speeded up logging and editing work, as well as making
it easier to review footage while on a shoot. Speaking on location, north west of Buenos Aires, Cue confirms: “I wanted to be able to stick the cards straight into my laptop and view rushes as I went along.” After a full briefing on the camera from Prokit’s Sebastian Kanabar, Cue was able to experiment with the NXCAM before making a decision. “I decided it was right for the job – light enough for me to transport and handle easily on a project where I would be self shooting for much of the time,” she recalls.
File-based recording had big advantages over tape for Cue, who needed a camera which could endure being knocked about without resulting in lots of drop outs. Shooting at 1920x1080 at 24Mb/s 25p onto 32GB memory cards, Cue reports she has acquired high quality images she can work with easily: “So far, am very happy with the results.”
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Spring 2010 theproducer 29
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