HDCAM offers dual benefits for Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Acclaimed director Tim Burton (Edward Scissorhands, Batman Returns, Big Fish) has created a new blockbuster version of Roald Dahl’s classic story, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, starring Johnny Depp as the eccentric chocolate-maker Willy Wonka. The feature was shot at Pinewood Studios in the UK and edited by Burton’s long-term collaborator Chris Lebenzon – who is also famous for Pearl Harbour, Top Gun and Crimson Tide (the last two earning him Oscar nominations for best editing, in 1987 and 1996, respectively).

For Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Burton and Lebenzon chose the versatile HDW-F500 HDCAM recorder to act as recording device for the film’s rushes/dailies, as well as providing a time and cost saving use as a feeder for the Avid editing system.

UK hire firm Hyperactive Broadcast supplied the HDW-F500, Avid systems and an additional JH-3 HDCAM viewer to the production. According Hyperactive's deputy managing director, Lawrie Read, the HDW-F500 is ideal for this task.

“Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was shot on 35mm and, in telecine, they were taking a copy onto the HDCAM VTR and then two things were happening: the High Definition copy was sent to the viewing theatre to play back the dailies, while a Standard Definition output from the HDW-F500 was fed to the Avid for the editing," explains Read.

“In the past, productions who were editing in SD but needed an HD tape to show the dailies had to make two copies from the telecine: one on HDCAM and another on Digital Betacam. Because the HDW-F500 VTR has a downconvertor built-in, it can take RGB YUV output connected directly to the Avid.

“People are realising they do not have to be paying for an extra SD copy for the Avid edit, they can take the SD output directly from the HDCAM recorder and still have the HD tape for viewing the dailies.”

Joseph “JC” Bond, first assistant editor on Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, says the principal reason for recording an HDCAM copy off the telecine for the dailies is the cost saving it offers compared to film. But, he says, the projector used must be high quality. “We had HD dailies instead of a film print and it worked very, very well,” Bond says. “What makes it really acceptable is the projector. When we first started our show, we received several HD projectors and the results from all of them were unacceptable. Eventually, we were given a 2k projector and that we were happy with. If you’re trying to use anything other than a 2k projector, forget it.”

The HDW-F500 VTR is the digital high definition recorder for production, post production, mastering and archiving. Pictures can be recorded at the industry agreed Common Image Format (CIF) at 24 progressive frames per second (24P) to exactly match film production, and can also be acquired at a number of different frame rates, including 25P, 30P, 50 interlaced (50i) or 60i. The optional HKDV-501A board provides the recorder with line based down-conversion capability from HD to SD.

Additional information
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is a Warner Bros. Pictures presentation, in association with Village Roadshow Pictures, of a Zanuck Company / Plan B Production of a Tim Burton Film. Alongside Depp, the feature stars Freddie Highmore, David Kelly, Helena Bonham Carter, Noah Taylor, Missi Pyle, James Fox, Deep Roy and Christopher Lee.