(SECAUCUS, NJ - May 8 2006) According to director/DP Peter Kagan, "When great technology comes along it doesn’t just inform how you shoot something, it affects what you shoot. It creates new opportunities." Kagan, who heads New York-based Streamline Content, believes his new Panasonic AG-HVX200 DVCPRO HD solid-state camcorder has done just that.
Kagan recently used the HVX200 to shoot “Get Inside the Five,” a 30-second national spot for the Subway sandwich chain starring Heisman Trophy winner Reggie Bush, who was one of the NFL’s top draft picks (Bush will play for the New Orleans Saints next season). The commercial, from Source Communications (Hackensack, NJ), finds Bush sitting on a bench waiting for his assignment. With his colors yet to be determined, he’s dressed in a white uniform, bearing his white number 5, and wearing white shoes. Poised on the verge of what everyone expects to be a great career, Bush is “ready to burst onto the scene,” Kagan explains. In the meantime, Kagan captures Bush’s kinetic energy as he encourages viewers to check out Subway’s new www.subwayfreshbuzz.com Web site where they can find his blog...and more.
“Even though this was a national Subway spot starring Reggie Bush that promised to be cool, the minute the NFL draft happened, that’s it,” Kagan notes. “The commercial had a very limited shelf life and, therefore, a limited budget. So I thought it would be a great opportunity to use HD instead of film. And there was definitely a fresh buzz about the HVX200!”
The HVX200 uniquely combines multiple high definition and standard definition formats, multiple recording modes and variable frames rates, and the vast benefits of P2 solid state memory recording in a rugged, compact design. The DVCPRO HD P2 camcorder offers production-quality HD with independent intra-frame encoding, 4:2:2 color sampling, and less compression, making HD content easier and faster to edit and more able to stand up to image compositing versus long GOP MPEG-2 systems.
With a career spanning thousands of spots and music videos, Kagan has “always been an early adopter of all things video and digital,” he says. “But in my world ‘video’ has been a curse word. People really don’t want to look at 60 interlaced frames. So the 24p format really speaks to me.”
Although he owns 35mm and 16mm film gear, Kagan “fell in love” with Panasonic’s DVX100 camera when he borrowed one from Warner Records for one night on a quick turnaround Michael Buble music video. Impressed with the results, he bought a DVX100 for himself and proceeded to use it for another Warner Records project for Lenny Kravitz in Miami.
“I was so comfortable with the camera after using it only once that I bought it for that Lenny Kravitz shoot,” Kagan recalls. “I remember reading the instruction manual with the camera in my lap while on the plane to the shoot. I thought, is this craziness or confidence? As it turned out, the camera was perfect. Not only did it look great but I recorded a spontaneous acoustic audio performance on the roof of Lenny’s house straight into the camera by myself, very intimate, no boom operators or mixers. I’m no audio tech, but everyone was happy with the sound!”
Kagan later made the DVX100 the A camera for a multi-city, concert-style video for Michael Buble which he shot in London and South Africa. “For me, 24p answered the question, ‘How do you bridge the gap between film and video?’” Kagan says. “The DVX100 and 100A have created opportunities, enabling me to shoot projects I otherwise couldn’t have shot on film.”
Kagan was understandably excited when he heard about the HVX200 and went to audition the camera at Abel Cine Tech. He was bidding on the Subway spot and wondered if the HVX200 would fill the bill.
“Since I was comfortable with the DVX100, the learning curve was pretty quick: The HVX200 is like a steroidal version of the DVX100,” Kagan declares. “It was very easy for me to not only get a sense of what the camera could do out of the box, but also to drill down immediately into the menu files and fool around with the shutter capabilities. Right there in the showroom I could see the opportunities the camera offered.”
He teamed with HVX200 owner Evin Grant, a director/DP in his own right, who served as HD technician on the Subway shoot and the production workflow designer. “Evin was indispensable,” says Kagan. “He added a great comfort level for me and showed me how I could squeeze the camera hard.”
Kagan intended to shoot 720pN at multiple frame rates and shutter angles. He needed to output both HD and Digital Betacam versions of his footage, the latter required for post production. Grant’s set-up allowed Kagan to shoot with one HVX200 camera while a second acted as a record/playback head for a Digital Betacam deck. “As soon as Peter was done with a P2 card, we’d download to a RAID array through a laptop, then go into the other HVX200 and play it out with the SD downconverting option on the camera recording into the Digital Betacam deck,” Grant explains.
Kagan used two 8GB and one 4GB P2 cards for the shoot. “When we downloaded the cards we got scratch disks for Evin and myself and downconverted Digital Betacam tapes for the Avid editor just like the tapes he would have gotten from a film-to-tape transfer,” he notes. “The editor began cutting away the next morning, and I was delighted to keep my disk, which was essentially a digital clone of the dailies. Every director wants to do a director’s cut, and I’m always trying to get negative back from the ad agency.”
Kagan kitted the HVX200 out with his ARRI 4x5 matte box and Chrosziel follow focus. “I was pleased to be able to take gear from my Aaton package and apply it to the HVX200,” he says. “With these accessories, the camera looks and feels formidable. It’s truly the digital equivalent of a film camera.”
One of the biggest differences on set concerned what Kagan calls “Video Village” where clients view the video playback. Once again he teamed with Howard Van Emdon, but he told the veteran video playback tech to leave his cart of equipment at home and just supply a 42-inch Panasonic HD plasma display.
“The image of the empty set on the big screen was beautiful,” Kagan recalls. “It was a welcome-to-what’s-about-to-happen moment for the client. And when Reggie sat on the bench, the heroism of his image on the screen was awe-inspiring. Everyone in the room just relaxed; they were looking at what was happening, not an approximation of the shot from the video tap.”
Evin Grant admits to being “blown away” by the large, sharp image, too. “It’s always an eye-opening moment when you see the shot that big,” he says. “Even people who do this for a living ask themselves how a camera that size can produce an amazing image like that.”
Kagan shot mostly at 24pN but shifted to 60fps when Bush “was flying around the frame, running at the camera and dodging and jumping over the camera and lens.” In fact, Kagan notes that the HVX200’s “low profile off the floor looking straight up” offered a safe way to shoot the vaulting Bush whom he wouldn’t have wanted to hurdle big camera gear. Using a Precision Optics .6 wide adapter enabled Kagan to give the jump “a warpy look.”
Kagan was especially pleased with the HVX200’s dynamic range. “We had a white set, a white uniform and an athlete with deep skin tones. But we were able to expose for Reggie and not blow out detail in the highlights. With Evin I made very few adjustments to the camera -- noodling the scene files and adjusting the knee -- and we came up with a really beautiful range of tones.”
Despite a very limited color palette and very controlled lighting, Kagan was also happy with the HVX200’s color rendition. “The image was gleaming and very seductive,” he says. “There was never a moment when I thought, ‘If I’d only shot this on 35mm.”
He also calls the focus assist feature “the camera’s single greatest idea from the point of view of a camera operator.” Kagan, who also shoots film for Getty Images, has told the stock-footage giant that it needs to “get ready” for the HVX200. He will be addressing a conference of the company’s movers and shakers later this month urging them “to open their minds to taking submissions in this format in the spirit of moving forward. Shooting stock with the HVX200 will give us a chance to get glimpses, nuggets and pearls of real-life moments. A camera like this is liberating!”
In an even broader sense, Kagan sees the HVX200 as an opportunity to maximize his company’s name: Streamline Content. “It’s exactly the tool I need for the business model I’ve set,” he affirms. “The HVX200 will enable me to streamline the process, minimize the distance between me and the shoot day, and diminish the obstacles of being in the office and behind the camera shooting cool pictures -- which is what I ultimately want to do.”
The ultra-versatile HVX200 records in 1080i and 720p in production-proven 100 Mbps DVCPRO HD quality, with the ability to capture images in 21 record modes. The DVCPRO HD format offers users cost-effective, intra-frame compression, where each frame stands on its own for editing, and its full 4:2:2 color sampling allows the image to hold up under color correction. The camera records video on a P2 card as IT-friendly MXF files in 1080/60i, 30p and 24p; in 720/60p, 30p and 24p; in 50Mbps DVCPRO50 and in 25Mbps DVCPRO or DV. The HVX200 can capture fast or slow action in 720p at various frame rates--the first time this function is available in a hand-held camera. The shooting frame rate in 720p native mode can be set for any of 11 steps between 12fps and 60fps including 24fps and 30fps. For more information on the AG-HVX200, visit http://www.panasonic.com/hvx200
About Panasonic Broadcast
Panasonic Broadcast & Television Systems Co. is a leading supplier of broadcast and professional video products and systems. Panasonic Broadcast is a unit company of Panasonic Corporation of North America. The company is the North American headquarters of Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. (NYSE: MC) of Japan, and the hub of its U.S. marketing, sales, service and R&D operations For more information on Panasonic Broadcast products, access the company’s web site at www.panasonic.com/broadcast.
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