Filming the 'Hottest place on Earth'

Cameraman Richard Farish and producer Rupert Smith of Expedition Media worked in Ethiopia to produce The Hottest Place on Earth for BBCTV.

PMW-EX1 is put to the test

Richard Farish has worked in a variety of countries on the African continent including Morocco, Egypt, Libya, Uganda, Mozambique, Ethiopia and South Africa. In total he has filmed in over 60 countries around the world, including the jungles of British Guyana, both ends of the Sahara and the mountains of Nepal. Both he and his business partner Paul Mungeam are freelance cameramen with extensive experience in adventure television making. This adventurous double-act recently established the Expedition Media online database www.expeditionmedia.co.uk in an effort to bring together like-minded and like-skilled people who are committed to pushing the expedition boundaries even further. “If you have the right people and the right kit, all you should be up against is getting your production filmed whilst coping with the environment you are in,” says Richard. This principle was really put to the test on shoot with the Sony PMW-EX1 in the hottest place on earth.

PMW-EX1

The steady flow of new formats

“Having been a cameraman for over 12 years, I have moved along with the steady flow of new formats and technology,” explains Richard. “Cameras have become smaller and more affordable, while picture quality is increasing all the time. But my advice is to use the right camera for the job. Too many cameramen are swayed by manufacturer spec-sheets. The fact that your colleagues are using a particular brand or model doesn’t make it the best camera for every application. You can’t film on a cliff face with an HDW-F900 and the new range of light-weight cameras has helped camera operators gain access to more extreme locations without losing too much quality.

In the past, the compromise was that you were using a fixed lens but nowadays the new Sony HVR-Z7E is eliminating even that problem. I am still amazed at what you can get for your money these days. However, be under no illusion. Just because it’s high-def or has a US$40 thousand wide-angle lens, doesn’t mean you’ll get good results. Every camera still requires human control and experience to get the best out of it.”

On location with the PMW-EX1

To hell and back

Given that Ethiopia has both dry and cold equatorial highlands, and damp, hot and dusty lowlands Richards’ selection of kit was mission critical. Their location was the Danakil depression; the lowest and hottest location on earth; on average 45 degrees Celsius day and night. Their film was to culminate at the Erte Ale volcano with its active lava lake. Richard explains his choice of kit; “Our main cameras supplied by HotCam UK, were Sony HDW-790P camcorders which performed well and provided amazing visuals, thanks to their high quality lenses. But when we reached the volcano we wanted to film close to the lava. We needed to lower ourselves into the crater filming on a smaller camera that could handle the heat and still match the quality of the 790. We decided to experiment with the solid state camera which Sony was just delivering to the UK. They kindly agreed to allow us to take the new PMW-EX1 to hell and back!”

PMW-EX1 in extreme conditions

Extreme environments

Richard explained that on the Ethiopia shoot, access to particular locations and resistance to extreme heat were the key factors in choosing the PMW-EX1. “I’ve experienced a few problems with tape stretching in high-heat and figured that our descent into a live volcano would require something special,” says Richard. “We designed special reflective covers for the HDW-790 camcorders to help with the heat and these also helped seal the cameras off from the relentless dust and sand in the air. The beauty of the EX-1 solid state camera is obvious, no moving parts or large openings such as tape entry to let the environment invade.

It’s a compact high definition camera that’s able to get into places where the larger cameras will not fit. The picture quality on the PMW-EX1 is superb and the controls on the lens have been improved compared to the earlier model HVR-Z1E.”

Pushed to the limits

“One of the new features that turned out to be really useful was that each clip is recorded as a separate file so it was quick and easy to recall and view,” says Richard. “Despite its high quality of picture reproduction the lens couldn’t match up to that on the HDW-790P so the PMW-EX1 was used mostly as a back-up to the main camera. These coped fairly well with the extreme environment but still suffered in the heat and often needed to be allowed to cool down to avoid tape slacking during recording. This was really pushing the cameras to their limits but we are still thrilled with the results.”

Dual recording card slots

The Sony PMW-EX1 has two memory card slots allowing hot-swapping. “This feature turned out to be very useful to know that there is no break in recording when the cards swap over,” explains Richard. “They are still expensive but when costs do come down I would recommend having 6 in your day pack, so you can keep filming and download at the end of the day instead of on the move. We did a lot of trekking on the shoot in Ethiopia and whilst none of the crew was concerned about walking with the larger cameras, the smaller PMW-EX1 was an easy alternative when walking for 5 to 8 hours in the desert.”

This article was produced by AV Specialist Magazine

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