Crew from Australian HDV Feature Film Gene-X

write about their experiences with the format

VINCENT MONTON ACS [ Cinematographer ]

Article: HDV on the set of Gene-X

My eyes were opened to the possibility of digital movie making when I did a test program last year comparing film to the best high definition cameras available. I was stunned by how close high definition digital came to 35mm film when a 35mm release print was made.

But shooting high end digital with gear like the Panavision Genesis can be expensive - up to $30K per week for a camera outfit.

At the other end of the spectrum the success of Danny Boyle's "28 Days Later", which was shot with only regular Mini DV digital cameras, shook up our ideas of what is technically acceptable to an audience in a mainstream genre movie.

With the introduction of high definition mini DV, buying a complete high definition camera outfit for well under ten thousand bucks and recording an hour of crisp image and sound for the cost of a six pack, what was a wet dream for independent movie makers a few years ago is for real. So stories that aren't obviously commercial or could have limited appeal or even just too controversial to attract start up finance can be kick started now with very little cash.

And with cheap powerful computers such as Mac G5 now a one stop shop, the real freedom is in pricey technology barriers melting away. Digital material can be poured in, edited, colour graded,sound mixed, special effected, titled then burnt onto DVD disks or plugged into a digital projector for cinema screenings.

Having done my share of 35mm features, for me the excitement of working on “GENE-X” was in shooting a drama project on small and unobtrusive HDV digital cameras needing minimal light (if you're shooting a movie with a two kilo camera the same way as a twenty kilo camera you're missing the plot - chaining it to a tripod will only make it grumpy). The French New Wave of the 1950’s was propelled by portable filming gear that released directors from the studio into the real world - and their style and subject matter reflected this.

Although I didn’t push the sensitivity of the Sony HDR Zip camera past the default setting - which was no more than regular 400 ASA filmstock -I found that I did use fewer lights and takes.

Shooting digital encourages risk with lighting and coverage. The best stuff is always on the edge of being unusable and it's good to know the shot is "in the can" or when you've pushed the envelope too far without a nail-biting wait for film to be processed.

But this, on set, “what you see is what you get”, advantage only works if the output from the camera is screened on a high definition monitor at full resolution - otherwise there may be nasty surprises down the track.

You can never forget that HDV is stretching the digital technology by  compression and technical compromises, so knowing the limits is my recommendation. Remembering there is an hour of material squeezed onto a ridiculously tiny cassette, we stuck to only running the tape twice over a camera head – once to record and once to download - and not falling into the temptation of replays on set. Result- not one drop out in over 30 hours of material.

To give you an idea of the image quality you can squeeze out of this HDV format; we needed to do some slow motion work at night and shot with a Super 16 film camera alongside the HDV handicams. When we scanned the film at 2K resolution (industry standard) and intercut it with the HDV digital, even on high resolution monitors most of us thought the digital looked better.

The introduction of a new generation of compact digital cameras such as the Panasonic HVX with solid state recording and variable speed in the same budget range, promises to bring a rush of moviemakers onboard.

The upside of HDV is - anyone can grab a digital camera and make a movie at exhibition image resolution - but this democratisation is a two edged sword. Hey, who wants to be chained to a keyboard sweating on a screenplay when you could be out there waving a camera in the streets with cool people and actors that amazingly...make up their own dialogue.

Too much digital stuff out there looks more like an acting workshop from a first draft screenplay shot by whoever could borrow a camera - and it is giving low end digital production a bad rep. When it is done right, with discipline and thought, it can be a breath of fresh air.

We could output Gene-X in HD right now from our computer to a digital projector, but for now there isn’t a critical mass of cinemas in the world with 2K digital projection to show a general release movie, although the situation is changing rapidly.  So our next step on Gene-X will be the digital to film printout - not cheap, and quality control tricky. Best results come from colour grading the movie with the laser printer setup in mind, so planning ahead and choosing a post-production company is important.

The annoying cost and frustration of transferring a digital movie to film for theatrical release is only a temporary stage as the economics are overwhelming for digital cinema release.

The next few years will see expensive film prints as a delivery item disappear, to be replaced by digital output, first from tape, then computer file, and finally online download, even in cinemas. By around the end of the decade, the process of making movies and putting moving images in front of an audience will getting close to 100% digital from beginning to end.