Projects XDCAM
a budget. Cameras such as the PMW-500, PDW-700 and PDW-F800 are fulfilling the need for high quality file-based production at acquisition rates of 50Mb/s, while models such as the PMW-EX1 (and the updated model, the EX1R) and EX3 offer a more compact solution, shooting to SxS Pro memory cards. Here we profile three productions that have used XDCAMto good effect. Cinema doc Trashed demonstrates the eco-benefits of file-based production on the PMW-500, while Decode’s 3d streetdancing film shows the versatility and quality of the EX3. We also travel to the Gulf of Arabia to put the EX1R through its paces on Desert Seas, a Nat Geo documentary that underlined the camera’s performance in low light with its underwater scenes.
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DCAM is becoming an increasingly popular solution for producers tasked with bringing quality to the screen on
A camera for all occasions
From cinema documentary to music and natural history, Sony’s XDCAM range has a camera for every situation
Eco shootiNG Blenheim’s Titus Ogilvy reveals why the PMW-500 ticked all the right boxes on cinema doc Trashed
In Blenheim Films’ latest cinema doc Trashed, actor Jeremy Irons tackles the wasteful and unsustainable basis of our consumer society and offers some possible solutions for reducing our impact on the environment. Fitting then that the film’s own carbon footprint
came under close scrutiny. Co-producer and DoP Titus Ogilvy explains: “On Trashed we wanted to make the production’s carbon footprint as small as possible, which was one reason we went for a tapeless shoot.” Ogilvy, who uses the PMW-500 on Talkback’s Escape to the Country, says that deciding on the 500 for Trashed wasn’t difficult because of its 50Mb/s file-based capabilities. He teamed up the camera with a Canon HJ14 wide angle and HJ18 long lens to give different shooting options. With the aim of travelling as light as possible on the globe-trotting production, the rest of the kit
24 theproducer Summer 2011
was pared down to SxS memory cards, a 17” Mac Book Pro with Final Cut and two RAID 1 storage devices. “The SxS cards can be slotted straight into the Mac so we don’t even need a card reader. So far we have done two and half circumnavigations of the globe, covering different environments from Iceland to Vietnam, from freezing cold to high humidity and the camera has behaved impeccably,” reports Ogilvy, who shared DoP duties with Sean Bobbitt. Shooting at XDCAM 4:2:2 50Mb/s, Ogilvy
underlines that the PMW-500 is a different beast from others in the XDCAM range. “In terms of sensitivity to light you have to keep your wits about you, which is a good thing. It’s much more light sensitive than other similar models. I find it gives me an extra two stops, which is good for situations where I don’t have much light nor kit to light it.”
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