Spectacular rise of HDCAM and HDCAM SR in Hollywood

When you visit Hollywood, what strikes you most is that for all the money and fame, it is a remarkably small community. They work together, fight for the same jobs, even marry each other (often several times over). Part of this village mentality is that everyone watches what you’re doing. If it works, someone else will try it.

Top equipment provider Band Pro is one company that has been trying to lead the production community in Hollywood towards high definition. First it was HDCAM, in the shape of the HDW-F900 camcorder. Lately, it has been HDCAM SR. “We are now shifting our firm to 4:4:4,” says Amnon Band, president and CEO of Band Pro. “We like to think we’re pioneers in HD. We like to think we’re not just along for the ride – we are the ride.”

Other innovations include bringing Carl Zeiss lenses to the market. Band Pro supplies two of the most important camera hire companies in Hollywood, Plus8 Digital and Clairmont Camera, both of which are big users of HDCAM and HDCAM SR equipment.

Jeff Cree, Band Pro’s HD market development manager, says HD is being widely used for everything from commercials production to features to episodic TV. “The basis of the change is technology. Using two-thirds inch imagers capable of 1920 x 1080 line resolution and low cost camcorders made it a mainstream product. The other big change is that we got a consensus for a worldwide interchange standard,” Cree says.

Push button moviemaking

Almost everyone now agrees that high definition production has moved from the preserve of the pioneers to the mainstream.

“Since Sony introduced the HDW-F900, there’s been a cultural change in Hollywood. In five years, maybe 100 movies have been shot with the F900. And major features, not just Star Wars,” says John Galt, senior vice president advanced digital imaging at Panavision, the world’s largest camera rental company and supplier to something like 80 percent of the movie market.

Marker Karahadian, president of Plus8 Digital, which supplied the HDC-F950 HD cameras for Star Wars Episode III, agrees.

“The early adopter phase is over,” says Karahadian. “The George Lucas’s of this world brought us to where we are today, but they come from a culture hugely adapted to change. Now we have the data gatherers. We still need to keep changing, but we have to reduce the risk – they just want to do it. The fact is HD is more efficient, less labour intensive and more transparent. Film-makers want to push one button to make a movie and we are going to make that happen.”

Rocky VI in HD

Plus8 Digital has been at the forefront of high definition production in Hollywood.

Like many hire companies and facilities in Hollywood, Plus8 Digital takes standard kit and adapts it for its customers. The tradition goes back years, with post houses inventing bespoke effects packages and camera hire companies re-engineering camera controls. So a Plus8 Digital HDW-F900 looks and feels different to a Clairmont Camera HDW-F900.

Michael Condon, HD manager at Clairmont Camera, confirms this. “At Clairmont, we’ve re-engineered the front and lens mount of the F900 to eliminate back focus errors due to temperature shifts and make it user friendly to film cinematographers,” he says. “It also has a new handle and we’ve relocated the controls.”

Clairmont Camera recently supplied HD cameras to Sylvester Stallone for the fight sequences for his new feature, Rocky Balboa (or Rocky VI). Clairmont had six of their HDW-F900s and an HDW-F950 at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas shooting the crowd at the Jermain Taylor v Bernard Hopkins title fight last December and, when the stadium was empty, the fight sequences for the movie with 3,000 blow-up dolls in the seats.

All six HDW-F900 camcorders were connected via an easy-to-set-up fibre system.

“With digital, we’ve really been able to start shooting quickly and make it look good,” Condon says. “It’s fun but it’s like learning film all over again.”

Clairmont also supplied three HDW-F900 camcorders to Robert Altman for his new movie, A Prairie Home Companion. “The cinematographer, Ed Lachman, recorded in-camera to HDCAM and, at the same time, externally to HDCAM SR,” Condon says. “The HDCAM was used for editing and the HDCAM SR was used for when they went to film only.” Other recent HD work includes supplying one of Clairmont’s HDW-F900s to Doug Liman directed Mr & Mrs Smith, starring Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, and two HDW-F900s for the new WB Television Network series, Related.