Richard Woolfe Sky One controller

Working with HDV,XDCAM HD, HDCAM and HDCAM SR

Hotel BabylonThe future of British TV drama

Prod u c e rTM

THEthe digital production magazine autumn 2006 £5

2 The Producer autumn 2006

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Sony United Kingdom offers an extensive range ofcommunications technology solutions, incorporating leading edgetechnology, service and support packages for broadcast,videoconferencing, surveillance, medical and digital imaging andpresentation applications.

More information on specific formats and solutions is available at:HDCAM SR, HDCAM and HDV www.sonybiz.net/hdDVCAM www.sonybiz.net/dvcamMPEG IMX www.sonybiz.net/imxDigital Betacam www. s o n y b i z . n e t/d i g i ta l b e tac a mBetacam SX www.sonybiz.net/sxProfessional Audio www.sonybiz.net/proaudioXDCAM Professional Disc www.sonybiz.net/xdcamXpri non-linear editor www.sonybiz.net/xpriAnycast Station www.sonybiz.net/anycast

Editor Chris Dickinson

Contributors Louise Bishop,Maggie Brown, PippaConsidine, Douglas Kitson,Abigail Pears, AdrianPennington

Art Editor Karen Painter

Executive Editor Carl Pring

Circulation DevelopmentManager Steve Klapiscak

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Published by Small WorldPublishing Limited for SonyUnited Kingdom Limited.

Contents copyright 2006Sony Corporation.Reproduction in whole orpart is strictly prohibited.Permission may be grantedby application to Sony UnitedKingdom Limited, BroadcastDivision. No responsibilityfor loss occasioned to anyperson acting or refrainingfrom action as a result of thematerial in this publicationcan be accepted by theauthors or publishers. Whilstinformation given is true at the time of printing,small production changes in the course of our company’spolicy of improvementthrough research and designmight not be indicated in anyspecifications. Please checkwith Sony to ensure thatcurrent specification andfeatures match yourrequirements.

Digital Betacam, DVCAM, Betacam SX, MPEG IMX,XDCAM, XDCAM HD,HDCAM, CineAlta and Sonyare all trademarks of theSony Corporation, Japan.

Tomorrow’s worldWith Casualty now 20 years old and The Bill still goingstrong, in this issue we look at the future of British TVdrama (page 8). At the same time, Hotel Babylon,hailed for pioneering a new American-style of Britishdrama series, has just finished shooting its secondseries on HDCAM (page 9), while Mersey Televisioncontinues to work with the latest productiontechniques, using XDCAM HD Professional Disc on aspectacular stunt (page 10) for Hollyoaks: in the City.Veteran DoP Peter Eveson also reveals how he workswith HDCAM on new Capriol Films’ dramas (page 24).

Sky is also leading HD production, with its Ryder Cupcoverage utilising a record-breaking 73 HDC-1500 HDcameras and for the first time taking advantage of thenew 3x SuperMotion HD slow motion system (pages 12& 13). Sky One controller Richard Woolfe spells out howhe is redirecting his channel with new HDprogramming (page 14) , one of which, MissionImplausible, we look at in depth (page 17).

HDV is also in widespread use (page 21), XDCAM HDis being used to capture spectacular footage (page 11)and HDCAM SR was used to record top end Nikepromos (page 18). We also look at the benefits of usingSony Specialist Dealers to purchase kit (pages 6 & 7),with a full contact list on page 27.

Chris Dickinson

Comedy short shoots on HDV The Horrors promo on DVCAM

King of Kommunication, a nineminute short comedy, is awindow into the world of theodd couple of Vince (StewCastledine) and Peggy(Chantal Brown), two hopelessromantic Elvis Presley fans.

Whilst arranging a lovetryst over web-cams the pairexperience an electric shockthat propels them on a surrealjourney of self discovery.

Director Perry Stevens,who co-wrote the script withMatteo Scumaci, says theshort was shot with an HVR-Z1E HDV camcorder. Hisproduction company is ImpFilm Co.

“The sets were veryimportant and although weused close-ups greatly in thisshoot, there are lots of itemson the set (if you look hardenough) that prove how muchthe two central characterslove Elvis. The detail in thebackground is astounding andwe found that HD gave it greatdepth without unnecessarylighting.

“We also experimentedwith a wide angle lens on thelast shot of the film. Again,this was fun to use and got agreat result. The hardest partwas using it just the once.”

The actors worked fromthree scripts simultaneously,English, foreign language andphonetic. An interactive DVDwas also produced with all thetranslations for the actors.This included Spanish, Italian,Japanese, Dutch, Swedish,Hungarian, German, Frenchand Sign.

The two lead actors nevermet on this project and werefilmed a month apart in Sohoand Brick Lane respectively.

News

White is the new black in ChrisCunningham’s promo forintrusive rock ‘n’ roll band TheHorrors. In it, Cunningham’sfemale protagonist SamanthaMorton (Enduring Love, InAmerica, Code 46, TheMinority Report, etc), donnedin an innocent-looking slipdress, begins to pulsate to theguitar intro in a dark space.

As a fast drumbeat kicksin, Morton shakes her headviolently from side to side andexplosions of light first shootout from underneath her dressand then transform herfeatures with images of “theparasite within”.

Producer James Wilsonsays the promo was shot onDVCAM, with Golden Square’sRachel Mills working on Flameand Inferno to create thetransitions between thewoman and the parasite.

“A huge amount of postwas required to give theeffects the integrity Chrisseeks, but this was a ‘DIY’production with tinyresources. Golden Squarecame to the rescue, wecouldn’t have done it withoutthem,” Wilson says.

>>Contents

page 4Artists access HD kit

page 5 Green Green Grass shoots HD

page 6Benefits of Specialist Dealers

page 7Ideal Shopping Channel

page 8Future of big UK drama series

page 9 cover storyHotel Babylon shoots HD

page 10Hollyoaks spin-off on XDCAM

page 11Shooting with XDCAM HD

page 12Ryder Cup breaks HD records

page 14Richard Woolfe, Sky One

page 17Sky series Mission Implausible

page 18Nike promos on HDCAM SR

page 19Channel TV mixes on Anycast

page 21Shooting with HDV

page 23Red Arrows footage on HD

page 24DoP Peter Eveson

page 26Digital production directory

page 27Sony Specialist Dealers

Volvo Ocean Race captured onDVCAM

The 2005-2006 Volvo OceanRace involved seven boatsracing round the world overnine months and was capturedwith over 70 DVCAMcamcorders.

The 10 DVCAM camcordersinstalled on each boatrecorded life on board everyday with the footagetransmitted back to Volvo HQvia satellite. “We made 32weekly shows,” explains GilesBracher of Volvo. DVCAM waschosen because of its size.“Weight on board the boatswas an absolute premium,”says Bracher, “At one point wewere literally cuttingtoothbrushes in half to reducethe weight.”

In the UK, the shows wereaired on ITV4 and Eurosport.

The Long road to success

Dragon Songs – Lang Lang inChina is a high definitiondocumentary produced jointlyby Loft Music and German-based company Nightfrog. Itfollows acclaimed pianist LangLang on his tour of China,where he performs in eightmajor cities, including Beijing,Shezen and Shanghai.

The shoot consists of 2 x50-minute programmes – onethat documents Lang Lang’swork and the other his lifeaway from the press andconcert stages.

Both documentaries wereshot using four HDW-F900HDCAM camcorders shootingin 59.94 interlaced. “Thesecameras were pretty perfectfor us. At times a little heavy,for instance after the LCDscreens were fitted on thefront, but the picture qualitywas tremendous,” explainsBenedict Mirow, producer anddirector of Nightfrog.

“We’re looking to invest inHDW-750P camcorders in thefuture.”

Handbags and gladrags

The Queen’s handbag has beenstolen and it’s up to charactersfrom all over children’sliterature to get it back. Thislive event from the grounds ofBuckingham Palace, aired onBBC1 in HD, marked the climaxof the Queen’s 80th Birthdaycelebrations.

VT inserts of Harry Potter,Postman Pat, Cruella de Ville,and many other elementsimpossible to replicate onstage, were pre-filmed byLondon-based CreationCompany, using twoHDW-750P camcordersshooting at 25P.

Creation’s Panther Pixiecrane was used to shoot theBFG in the Buckingham Palaceballroom, where RonnieCorbett and Meera Syal playedthe queen’s butler and maid,alongside a 14 foot robot, andagain in the studio for theMary Poppins flying sequence,where the star of the West Endstage musical was mattedagainst HDCAM aerial viewsof London.

The Harry Potter sequencewhere Harry and friends areasked for help by the PrimeMinister, was shot during ashort break in filming on theWarner Bros set. Director BenWarwick wanted a film look, soDoP Pete James lit for f2.8 onthe Canon lenses, andSteadicam was usedthroughout, enabling thescenes to be shot in four hours.

BBC executive producerwas Lorna Dickinson.

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New pieces of video art by internationally acclaimedartists are amongst the first pieces of work to be shotusing the Foundation for Art and Creative Technology’snew HD equipment. Obscure Moorings and A Day in theOffice are featuring in the Liverpool Biennial, being heldat FACT’s buildings in the centre of the city until the endof November.

Matthew Buckingham’s 25 minute video installation,Obscure Moorings, is a modern day version of HermanMelville’s short story, Daniel Orme, written in 1891. Ormeis an old sailor retiring to dry land at a time of greateconomic and geopolitical change. American artistBuckingham’s work is shot entirely in Liverpool andfocuses on local characters whose working lives haverevolved around the sea.

The artist used the new high definition equipmentrecently acquired by the Moving Image Touring ExhibitionService (MITES) – a service offered by FACT and funded byArts Council England to support artists, filmmakers andprofessionals across the creative industries. “This is thebest video image I’ve ever seen,” says Buckingham.

MITES can now offer artists the chance to produce inHD right through from shoot to post production, makingit the first dedicated place in the UK where artists haveaccess to HD technology. Simon Bradshaw, the head of

structural programme at FACT, is convinced that itsinvestment in cutting-edge technology is an importantmove for FACT and the artists that it supports: “We’reoffering one of the highest specification HD camcordersavailable – the Sony HDW-750P,” Bradshaw says.

MITES’ HD kit includes the HDW-750P, together with anadditional tripod, wide angle lens, glidecam camerastabiliser system, field monitor and backup batteries.There are also a number of HVR-Z1E and HVR-A1Ecameras, together with the HDW-M2000P HDCAMrecorder and the HVR-M10E HDV recorder.

Face facts

“We’re offering one of thehighest specification HDcamcorders available”Simon Bradshaw, FACT

Arts

Liverpool arts foundationFACT is making HDavailable to artists. PippaConsidine reports

Artist MatthewBuckingham’s ObscureMoorings shot in HD

“The project has been very successful” Andrew Murray, Presteigne

Green Green Grass wasrecorded on HDCAM

This summer, Presteigne Broadcast Hire wascommissioned by The Pinewood Studios Group to providea full HD solution at Teddington Studios for BBC sitcomGreen Green Grass. Presteigne’s HD De-rig systems allowTeddington to upgrade their existing facilities to HD forspecific productions.

The series, produced by Shazam Productions for theBBC, runs for 12 weeks, making six shows, including aChristmas special. The full solution provided byPresteigne includes five HDC-1500 camera channels, atwo ME Sony MVS-8000 mixer, 16 x 16 multi formatmatrix, down converters, all infrastructures, fibres andmonitors. The project was managed by Mark Tomlin,Presteigne’s head of systems.

Green Green Grass is a spin-off of one of Britain’sfavourite sitcoms, Only Fools and Horses, and gives OnlyFools writer John Sullivan the chance to explore one of theshows favourite secondary couples, Marleen and Boycie,in more depth. It follows the characters as they flee fromPeckham to escape the Driscoll brothers and start a newlife in the country, attempting to become landed gentry ina rambling country manor.

Andrew Murray at Presteigne says “the project has beenvery successful for all involved, with the HD picturesimpressing Teddington and the Pinewood Studios Group”.Presteigne have now been appointed to provide solutionsfor two further BBC sitcoms being shot at Teddington, NotGoing Out, written by Bafta Award winning comic LeeMack and Sony Award winning Andrew Collins, and AfterYou’ve Gone, starring another one of Britain’s favouritefaces from Only Fools and Horses, Nicholas Lyndhurst,written by My Family writer Fred Barron.

HD studio

Presteigne supplied acomplete HD rig toTeddington for GreenGreen Grass

Life is greener

Sony has recently reorganised its dealer network to makeit easier for the production community to get hold of theright high definition solutions for the jobs they are doing.

Adam Fry, director of European Channel at Sony Europe,says the Sony Specialist Dealers are able to offer keyadvice to end users about all the HD products andsystems in the market and supply full back-up for anythingthey supply.

“There are a number of manufacturers with differentHD propositions and it can be confusing for the end user,”Fry says. “The Specialist Dealer needs to understand thetechnology and products to be able to give advice to theend user, The general point is we want people to move toSony HD, but rather than just looking at the cost benefitsof different formats, we want to deliver the right solutionfor a particular job at the right cost. It is important that theSpecialist Dealers know why different HD technology isneeded for different shooting environments.”

To this end, Specialist Dealers from 18 countries aroundEurope recently gathered for a two day hands-onproduction workshop in Dublin, where the sales staff whoare working day-to-day with end users were able to gothrough the basics of creating content using HDV,XDCAM HD, HDCAM and HDCAM SR equipment.Supporting manufacturers, including Apple and Avid,were also on hand, allowing those present to shoot andedit short productions.

The event was put together with the help of BHPProductions, which earlier this year shot the Land RoverG4 Challenge with a mix of HDCAM, HDV and XDCAMHD. A G4 Land Rover was in Dublin and crew from the G4Challenge advised on the productions.

Fry says the Specialist Dealers came away with a betterunderstanding of the different HD formats and the sort ofwork they are best suited for. For the Specialist Dealers,the results of integrating more closely with Sony is goodfor them and their customers.

“Being a Sony Specialist Dealer lends credibility to theoperation,” says Derek Morgan, managing director of PECin London. “Although the customer could have access toSony products anywhere, as a Specialist Dealer we havemore direct support available and the associate brandingmeans the customer can be confident in this support.”

PEC serves a broad spectrum of customers, fromvideographers through to commissioned programmemakers. “Buying from a specialist gives the customerconfidence in the service they will receive and thisconfidence is very important,” Morgan says.

Ben Murphy, sales manager at Gearhouse Broadcast,comments: “As a Sony Specialist Dealer, we get directcommunication with Sony, we find out about new modelsand promotions much sooner, and this is a definiteadvantage. There’s also the technical support and trainingsessions, which mean our salesmen are better preparedthan non specialists to help.

“When our customers deal with us as Sony SpecialistDealers, they can know that we have the latestinformation to hand, and that as official UK dealers wehave 100 percent backup from Sony UK.”

WTS, based in London, is one of the latest companies tojoin the network. Sales manager, Mike Lippert, says thebenefits are clear.

“It gives us access to a greater depth of Sony, morecontacts within the Sony organisation. We get more6 The Producer autumn 2006

Dealers

Sony Specialist Dealersmake it easier forprogramme makers tochoose the right HD kitfor their job. ChrisDickinson and DouglasKitson report

BHP’s crews from the Land Rover G4 Challengecame to Dublin for thedealer event

Plain dealingGearbox purchases more HD

Equipment hire companyGearBox (Sound and Vision)has bought a large amount ofHDCAM and HDCAM SRequipment.

“HDCAM and HDCAMSR are very good formats,and I believe them to be anatural progression fromwhat has come before,”explains managing directorRichard Eastwood. “WhileOB footage used to involve alot of Digital Betacam, theHDCAM side of the market isgrowing fast and we have acommitment to keep up.”

Eastwood says thepurchase is client based. “Weare market led, although westill stock other products,Sony is a market leader andwe must give people whatthey wants.”

With three offices, two inLondon, including onefocusing on an expressservice, and another in Leedssupplying Northern Englandand Scotland, and all keepingthese products immediatelyavailable, this is a good timefor stock increases. “We arecurrently handling footagefor Casino Royale, the newBond film. We also work withmusic production on promos,but it’s on OBs for companieslike the BBC, CTV andTelegenic.

information on new products and have much easier accessto information, things we would only eventually find outabout are presented to us straight away.

“Obviously, the more we know, the more we can pass onto our customers. Being in better contact with Sony issomething we can pass onto our customers, keeping themin contact as well.”

John Preston, manager of Preston Media in Malvern,Worcestershire, says key benefits are the two yearwarranties and backup from Sony.

“The customers benefit from the backup, the warranty,also the service,” Preston says. “There’s more trust,obviously. With the internet around there are a lot moreunauthorised dealers about, but when you deal with aSpecialist Dealer you can be confident of the backup fromthe dealer and from Sony.”

Specialist Dealer Visual Impact, meanwhile, has justplaced a huge order for 50 Sony HDW-750P HDCAMcamcorders to add to its already substantial hire fleet.

“This investment is a direct result of the increaseddemand for our HDCAM camcorders on productions suchas Hotel Babylon, New Street Law and Judge John Deed,”comments Tim Sparrock, UK director of Visual Impact.

“It’s our belief that Sony’s recent introduction of theHDCAM HDW-1800 Series VTRs and the CineAltaHDW-F900R further cements the HDW-750Ps position asthe workhorse camcorder for the European productionmarket.”

This is one of the largest single orders for Sony HDCAMcamcorders to date and reflects Visual Impact’s expandingportfolio, which now includes 20 branches across the UK,Europe and Southern Africa.

“When you deal with aSpecialist Dealer you canbe confident of thebackup from the dealerand from Sony” John Preston, Prestons

“We looked at all the otheroptions in the LCD ranges… Sony was the best.”Alan Wells, IdealShopping Direct

Broadcast

Studio equipmentupgrades for IdealShopping Direct. PippaConsidine reports

Ideal Shopping Direct, Britain’s leading independentTV shopping business, has upgraded its studioequipment, choosing to install state-of-the art LMDdisplays supplied by Sony Specialist Dealer Top-Teks.

The company’s 24-hour digital Ideal World channelputs its studio one through the mill. It is used to shootlive footage, demonstrating and presentingmerchandise, for broadcast 16 hours a day – from ninein the morning until one am. Then it’s also used tocreate additional programming to air on this corechannel and two of the company’s sister channels.

Ideal Shopping Direct, based in Peterborough,broadcasts its shopping channel across all the UK’sdigital platforms. As well as 14 presenters frontingsuch slots as Glitzy Fashion and The OrientalCollection, there are 60 production staff.

Ideal World has two sister channels, Create andCraft, a specialist craft and hobby channel, and IdealVitality, a health, beauty and fitness channel. Both runlargely pre-recorded shows, with a small amount oflive programming.

Ideal Shopping Direct’s technical director, AlanWells, explains that with such continuous use, thestudio equipment has to be entirely reliable. Althoughthe previous kit had been robust, the team did theirresearch to ensure that they had the right solution.“We looked at all the other options in the LCD rangesand came to the conclusion that for value for money,resolution and reliability, Sony was the best.”

The upgrade of studio one has seen the installationof 24 x 14-inch Sony monitors, the LMD-1410s and twoof the Sony 20-inch LCD monitors, the LMD-2020s,together with Sony’s BKM-320D SDI boards.

Ideal world

Long-running drama series such as Casualty and The Billare no strangers to our television sets. In September,Casualty celebrated its 20th anniversary; but in an evermore competitive market, what does the future hold forsuch programmes?

“We’re always looking for fresh challenges”, says AlisonDavies, series producer for The Bill. “Nobody ever tooktheir audiences for granted, but now more than ever weare conscious of the need to come up with excitingstorylines to keep our audience captive.” She continues,“the biggest challenge we face today is multi-channel TV,rather than international competitors – it’s just a differentworld [now]. With any show you have to keep it fresh –we’ve just finished shooting a two-part special inRomania”. The story follows two members of the forcewho travel to Bucharest in search of a missing womanand, in doing so, uncover a people trafficking scheme.

“Romania was exciting for us because the police outthere are armed, so that gave us the opportunity to playabout with gun fights and so on.”

The location was chosen because of the topicality of theissues that are addressed. “We are always trying to pushthe boundaries of controversy and topicality,” says Davies.“We’re looking to do another two part special in the nearfuture – the episode will be set in London and will look atlife following 7/7.”

In making it to 20, Bristol-based drama series Casualtyhas shown a dogged determination to hold onto theSaturday evening audience. Series producer, JaneDauncey, says the show’s format is the key to its success.

“I think that Casualty owes its continuing success to itsbrilliant basic formula. You’re in an A & E room, so thecharacters face genuine life or death situations every day,”

Dauncey says. “In soaps, they have to contrive divorce,drama, abortion, etc, but this is different – the bad, mad,peculiar world comes through the doors every day,bleeding to death!”

Casualty, like The Bill, is perpetually challenged to comeup with topical and controversial storylines. “It’s funny,”says Dauncey, “the truth is often stranger than fiction.”

The special 20th anniversary two-part special, calledDifferent Worlds, was shot partly in Cambodia. “Going onlocation is always exciting – some stories fall apart whenyou take them outside their usual environment, but I thinkthis works.”

And what of the future?” What we’re constantly lookingto do is keep reflecting the real modern world. I’ve made itmy personal mission to make the storylines moreplausible and true to life, and I think that Casualtyoccupies a reality ground – its not better or worse than itscompetitors, just something different. We have shabbysets, and ‘normal’ people that wouldn’t look out of place inan aisle of Asda. It makes it a fantastic real show.”

Both Casualty and The Bill are looking to upgrade tohigh definition in the future. “It’s definitely somethingwe’re looking at,” says Davies. “We’ve done screen tests,but right now HD is such a changing process – when itbecomes standard, we’ll want to be there too.”

“It looks fantastic”, says Dauncey, “HD is the way thatthe BBC has to go, will go – quite exciting really. The onlychallenge we’ll face here at Casualty is in regard to themedical prosthetics, because the cameras will pick updetail so much more.”

In an increasingly competitive industry, UK drama seriesall face the same challenges in order to maintain theirplaces on the screen. “The fight is on,” concludes Dauncey.

Drama

Casualty and The Bill areboth looking to thefuture. Abigail Pearsreports

“HD is the way that the BBC has to go, will go”Jane Dauncey, Casualty

Casualty (right) and TheBill (below) have both hadto adapt to survive

www.sonybiz.net/hdfor more news and informationabout how you can benefitfrom HD production

• • •

Future drama

8 The Producer autumn 2006

HDW-F900R HDCAMcamcorder

Sony has replaced theextremely successful HDW-F900 HDCAMcamcorder with the HDW-F900R. This new camcorderrepresents the flagshipmodel within the HDCAMline-up and has beendesigned for productionssuch as drama, commercialsand feature films where aprestige 24P look is required.

The HDW-F900Rcombines the imagingperformance of the originalHDW-F900 in a smaller,lighter chassis. Powerconsumption has beenreduced, new features havebeen added.

The HDW-F900R features12-bit A/D conversion, canrecord four channels ofdigital audio and providesHD-SDI output as standard.

9 The Producer autumn 2006

The second series of BBC One’s glossy drama HotelBabylon completed shooting in the summer, repeating theAmerican style production values that made it so popularwith the 16-24 market as much as older audiences. It isdue to air in January 2007.

Production company Carnival Films has againassembled a strong crew and cast and has created alleight episodes of the new series in high definition. HDW-750P camcorders have been supplied by dramaspecialist outfit, 24/7, part of the Visual Impact group.

Hotel Babylon is shot on a set in a former supermarketwarehouse in Buckinghamshire, which was specially builtto allow Carnival to shoot scenes quickly and costeffectively. “The look is fast, simple and sexy,” saysproducer, Christopher Aird. “We treat HD almostidentically to film. The only significant difference is thatwe have rushes immediately. The assistant editor doesovernight dailies on Avid and it is there for the editorwhen he comes in in the morning.”

The first series of Hotel Babylon was hailed for bringingAmerican style story-telling to British drama. The secondseries builds on that. “Hotel Babylon was received verywell,” Aird says. “It was incredibly successful and once theaudience worked out it was American style comedyentertainment, they loved it.

“I think Hotel Babylon is a new breed of shows that areunashamedly entertaining. The Americans have beendoing this for years, but in the UK there’s a legacy ofsocial realism: if it isn’t good for you, it isn’t good. Actually,there’s quite a lot of social comment in Hotel Babylon, butit’s also funny, entertaining and enjoyable. It’s also got ahuge youth audience.”

Aird says the move to go to HDCAM was first andforemost an aesthetic decision by him and executiveproducer, Gareth Neame, managing director of Carnivaland former head of drama commissioning at the BBC.Financial considerations also played a part, as creating thesame look with film would have been prohibitive.

“It was a no-brainer in the end,” Aird says. “As soon aswe were thinking HD, if we’d gone back to film, we wouldhave had to go to 35mm.”

Aird and Neame also choose their director ofphotography carefully; Sean Van Hales is one of theleading experts on shooting with HD in the country,

having pioneered the BBC’s first outing with HDCAM inRockface, and being responsible for several features andTV projects shot with the format.

“I’m trying to go for a really clean, glossy look,” VanHales says. “Hotel Babylon is not naturalistic lighting, wewanted sexy pictures. In terms of TV drama andSteadicam, an HDW-750P is perfect for the job.”

Van Hales says he does not use an HD monitor on set. “Ilight through the viewfinder and that’s good enough forme. I think with HD, stand by the camera and look withyour eye and if it looks bad with the eye, it will look badwith HD.” He also praises the support provided by 24/7.“24/7 is a fantastic service. Claire Wiles and GrahamHawkins are old film people. Graham can take an HDcamera to bits and put it back together. And, because theyare film trained, they know what film crews are used to.”

Aird sums up: “From the producer’s point of view, thegood thing about using these cameras is they allow us todo the job quickly and shoot on schedule, as well asgetting great looking results. It’s been a great eye openerand the one thing everyone said about this show is howgood it looks.”

Drama

Carnival Films has nowshot two series of HotelBabylon on HDCAM.Chris Dickinson reports

DoP Sean Van Hales (left)is responsible for creatingthe look of Hotel Babylon

Hotel sw e e t

“HDW-750P is perfect forthe job” Sean Van Hales,Director of Photography

BBC Resources upgradesStudio One to HD

BBC Resources hascompleted of the upgrade tohigh definition of StudioOne, its 10,000 square footstudio in West London.Studio One is now open forbusiness in both standardand high definition with thelatest vision technology tosupport full HD production,as well as 5.1 surround soundproduction.

The new Studio One iscabled to support up to 16HDC-1500 high definitioncameras, with 4 HD fibreoptic feeds from the galleryto the studio floor. It is alsoequipped with a fully digitalsound desk and 5.1 soundmonitoring. Incomingstandard definition sourceswill be up-converted to HDand output can be convertedto standard definition ifrequired.

When it came to shooting a dramatic fire for Hollyoaks: Inthe City – a new 20 x 60-minutes spin-off series on E4 –Mersey TV technical director Graham Deavesrecommended that the production use the PDW-F350 XDCAM HD camcorder.

Part of the camcorder’s appeal was its ability to recordto disc, rather than tape. “We’ve followed thedevelopment of XDCAM,” says Deaves. “It offers a realalternative to tape recording. Obviously, a tape out in thefield is something that can cause problems in terms ofdamaging the media, especially when working in adverseenvironments. So the disc-based camera has theadvantage there.”

Director of photography, Chris Royle, agrees. But hewas also pleased with the choice of camcorder becausethe XDCAM HD is high definition and the same [1080-lines] resolution as HDCAM, which is what the series isbeing shot on. “It sits in beautifully with the rest of thestuff that we’ve got with the other cameras,” he says. “Toget the best shots from stunts or explosions you oftentend to get a smaller and cheaper camera that you can putas close as is possible to the action. Obviously you don’twant to end up putting a £40,000 camera in a place whereyou can put a smaller camera.”

The stunt was required for a storyline that sees twocharacters set fire to a warehouse, but it’s just one of thememorable scenes in a new drama created, written andproduced by Coronation Street writer Daran Little.

Given the popularity of Hollyoaks and the expectationthat the spin-off will draw a similar audience, it wasimperative that In the City had high production values.“It’s shot on HD on HDCAM,” says Deaves, “but at themoment it’s being post produced in SD because thedelivery requirement is SD.”

Within this context, the production team decided thatthe explosion should be shot in slow motion, a specialeffect that XDCAM HD is ideal at capturing. “What weoften do is record explosions or stunts with a high speedfilm or video camera – in order to slow them down in postproduction,” says Deaves. “Because it makes them look abit more spectacular.”

On location, Royle found that the camcorder offered anumber of practical benefits. “I was pleased with thesensitivity of it,” he says. “One of my concerns was that Iwould be lighting to a certain stop with the other camerasand then I’d have to boost all the levels for this camera.But I didn’t have to do that. I was also pleasantly surprisedby the size of it, because it’s quite small. And it’s lighterthan a usual camcorder.” The camera also gave him moretime for shooting. “You get an hour on the disc, whereason the cassettes on a camcorder you get 40 minutes.

And he likes the advantages of its non-linear disc. “Youcan select a scene file on this side of the camera on theLCD monitor, find out which one you want and then clickon it, and it’s instantly there, which I found very useful.Plus there was a safety feature. There was no way it wouldlet you over-record anything unless you deliberately wentand deleted a file.”

Although the camcorder was only used to film the fire inthis production, Deaves thinks it will be a useful tool forthe future of Mersey TV.

“Our post production system here is basically tapeless.So we’re looking to a future where we don’t use tape. Onsite, we record wherever possible straight into a server, sothere’s no tape involved at that point. On location, wehave to use tape and then we have to ingest the tape.

“Now using a disc based system, which is a file basedsystem, it’s easy just to transfer files. So we would bedirectly taking the files off the XDCAM HD into our postproduction system.”

Apart from it’s good quality footage, Deaves thinks thesize of the camcorder will also be a major selling point.

“With Hollyoaks we’re often shooting things on boats,cars, trains, planes and goodness knows what, so there’salways the need for a neat and compact camcorder. TheXDCAM HD certainly fits very well into that mould.”

“Now using a disc based system, which is a file based system, it’s easy just to transfer files” Graham Deaves, Mersey TV

FX in the cityXDCAM HD works withApple and Avid

With its growing list ofinteroperability partners andcontinuing product evolutionand development, XDCAM isthe fastest growing disc-based format with over14,000 combined worldwidesales to-date.

Key to the success ofXDCAM and XDCAM HD hasbeen the support of over 30different interoperabilitypartners, including Apple,Avid, Omneon and Canopus.

The new Sony XDCAMHD Transfer Tool for AppleFinal Cut Pro brings XDCAMHD interoperability to anediting platform that alreadyboasts more than 500,000users and a prominentposition in the market.

XDCAM HD also supportsfull interoperability with arange of Avid productsincluding Xpress Pro, Liquid,Media Composer and NewsCutter.

XDCAM HD was used onHollyoaks: in the City

XDCAM HD

Hollyoaks: In the City wasshot with XDCAM HD.David Collins reports

A crew and camera risked life and lens to capture extremedocumentary footage this summer and selected the latesthigh definition XDCAM HD Professional Disc-basedsystem for quality, resilience and cost.

Alister Chapman‘s business is acquiring real-time andtime-lapse footage of tornados and intense storms as theychurn and brew. There is currently enormous demand forHD pictures of extreme weather, as Alister explains: “HDstorm images are attracting a high premium because theynot only demonstrate what’s possible, there are also veryfew crews in the business of storm acquisition that cancapture in HD.”

While the rewards are high, chasing storms putsChapman’s equipment at the business end of someincredibly dangerous working conditions. He relies on hiscamcorder’s resilience and its ability to cope with extremeenvironmental conditions. “Even though I was jumping inand out of air conditioned cars and vans into almost 100per cent humidity and blowing dust, the XDCAM HDcamcorder performed flawlessly,” he explains. “Thecamcorder’s low light performance and balance isexcellent and allowed me to get remarkably steady shotsin extremely windy conditions.”

XDCAM HD’s time-lapse function has provedparticularly valuable to Chapman’s work. “Being able tocapture the second-by-second evolution of a tumultuousstorm as the skies darken, the atmosphere shifts and theclouds billow upwards is remarkable, but when you watchthe images played back in HD, they enter a differentrealm. Few people will get to see a storm up close, but theimages from the XDCAM HD system are as close to realityas you can imagine.”

Chapman also benefits from XDCAM HD’s support for a

file-based workflow. Instead of transferring in real-time aswas the case with tape, material can be moved off hiscamcorder and into his editor much faster, while stillhaving the security of physical media should the processbe interrupted or electronic copies of his images becorrupted.

As well as speeding-up ingestion, using XDCAM HD hasalso changed his way of working. To maximise sales offootage to global broadcasters – including NationalGeographic, the Discovery Channel and the WeatherChannel – the ability to send images to different outletsfor review is of paramount importance.

XDCAM records two sets of video clips – the main HDor SD video file, plus a small MPEG4 proxy file that can bedownloaded via computer. Using Avid Media Composersoftware, the proxies can be ingested, edited and thenfinally replaced with the matching high-resolution clips.“Editing the proxies, in the field, on my laptop, is bothconvenient and greatly speeds up the ingest andproduction cycle.”

The file-based workflow also enables Chapman tocatalogue footage more efficiently. As a freelancecameraman, half of his revenues come from stock footage,so it is vital that he can quickly access clips. With XDCAMHD, he can mark key scenes and review them by selectingthumbnail images on the colour fold-out screen.

“The ability to review rushes and instantly switch torecord without worrying about cueing tape or recordingover a crucial shot is incredibly valuable. The time-lapsefunction is superb and the ability to over crank makes thissystem incredibly versatile. I’ve owned many cameras inmy 20 years as a cameraman, but the XDCAM HDcamcorder has to be my favourite.”

XDCAM HD

Alister Chapman tookthe new XDCAM HDcamcorder inside atornado

Stormchaser

“Few people will get to see a storm up close, but theimages from the XDCAM HD system are as close toreality as you can imagine” Alister Chapman

11 The Producer autumn 2006

New pre-school drama onDVCAM

Following the worldwidesuccess of Balamory (forCBeebies), new Glasgowbased independentproduction companyTattiemoon has created abrand new 150 episode dramaseries for pre-school childrenentitled Me Too! shot onDVCAM.

Helen Doherty, producerof Me Too! says: “This is anincredibly exciting project tobring to the world of pre-school children. Me Too!presents a city to our pre-school audience that isfriendly, accessible and fullof adventure. A place whereanything can happen andoften does! The charactersare recognisable across manycultures as the backbone tothe workings of any modernday society.”

Capturing dramaticfootage on XDCAM HD

A billion viewers watched the transatlantic battle for golf’sRyder Cup between US and European teams onSeptember 22-24 at the K Club, 20km outside Dublin. Alucky few, including some 100,000 Sky subscribers, hadthe opportunity to view the event for the first time in highdefinition largely thanks to a decision by the broadcaster,which owns live UK rights, to produce coverage entirely inHD 1080i.

Although the US Masters has been produced in HD forthe last couple of years and NBC, joint holder of the USPGA broadcast rights (with CBS), begun HD production oftournaments in May, the Ryder Cup dwarfs all other golfchampionships – as well as most other events on thesporting calendar – in sheer scale of public interest. EvenHBS’ groundbreaking production for the FIFA World Cuponly featured 25 HD cameras per game, whereas the 2006Ryder Cup can claim to be the biggest single-event HDproduction yet, featuring 73 HDC-1500 camera channelstrained on the course at any one time.

The responsibility for making it happen lay with outsidebroadcast supplier CTV, which has over 15 yearsexperience televising the European PGA tour forEuropean Tour Productions, including two previous RyderCups at Valderrama and The Belfry. A typical golftournament for CTV requires 15 cameras and 20 trucks,but at the K Club its host broadcast operation involvedover 35 vehicles to produce a world feed for dozens ofmultilateral broadcasters.

“When we got the HD nod from Sky we were

determined that we would stage our coverage with Sony,”said CTV managing director Barry Johnstone. “We felt thatif we were going to have matching coverage and a qualitybroadcast we needed to get hold of as many HDC-1500s aswe could.”

CTV began with 16 of their own and rented 40 morefrom Presteigne, Cork’s Television Mobiles and Finepoint.Underlining the fact that the HDC-1500 has become thede facto technology for live events, Telegenic brought 14units for its bespoke Sky presentation and Dublin’sObserve supplied a similar service with six cameras forRTÉ in what was the Irish broadcaster’s first live HDproduction (transmitted in standard definition). Observerecently invested £1 million in a switchable SD/HD truckwith 25-channel capability and found this the perfectopportunity to showcase its ability to produce at thehighest level.

“This is the first fully integrated HD truck in Ireland,designed to be as good as anything in the UK,” reportsObserve managing director, Alan Burns. “All our truckshouse Sony cameras so it was easy for us to migrate fromSD. It was also easier for RTÉ to plug into the HD worldfeed and down convert than add SD cameras to the mix.”

All 56 CTV channels were routed to a technical outsidesource signal area and on to six EVS XT2 servers for bothHD and SD transmissions.

“Golf is rare in that 60 per cent of coverage is recorded,so we have to ensure every shot, anywhere, is recorded,logged and made available,” says Hamish Greig, CTV’s

12 The Producer autumn 2006

Ryder Cup

A record breaking 73HDC-1500 cameras andthe new HDC-3300 HDSuperMotion recordedthe Ryder Cup in HD.Adrian Penningtonreports

“A 3x full HD camera looks so much better than anup-converted one” Darren Long, Sky Sports

Fairway to heavenHDC-3300 HD Supermotioncamera

Cutting-edge technologyenables the HDC-3300SuperMotion slow-motioncamera system to capturefull-resolution 1920 x 1080high definition images atthree times the normal framerate. The CCU connects tothe camera via optical fibrewith digital data for perfectHD images over runs of up to2500 metres.

The HDC-3300 camera isbased on the HDC-1500 HDmulti-format camera, andtherefore offers the samefunctionality, includingoutstanding reliability, aswell as its slow-motioncapability.

In addition to its high-quality, slow-motion images,the HDC-3300 camera alsoprovides real-time, normal-speed images.

The European win at theRyder Cup was captured infull HD

technical director. Footage is backed-up to two HDCAMSR decks, “to ensure maximum flexibility,” he adds.

Until recently, RF camera technology could not supportwireless HD transmission without unworkable delays orpicture loss, but Greig felt he could deploy seven HDC-1500s rigged with Link HD transmitters withconfidence. “The RFs worked exceptionally well,” hereports. “I’m thrilled. The delay is literally 1.5 frames, thesame as SD.”

The other significant hole in the HD OB arsenal up untilrecently has been the lack of a slow-motion cameracapable of equalling the three times speed of existing SDdevices. The new HDC-3300 HD SuperMotion does justthat and received its first practical outing (a model wasused by CTV and Telegenic) at the Ryder Cup, ahead of itsofficial launch in October.

“I’m really intrigued to see the ‘money’ shots from thiscamera,” says Sky Sports head of operations Darren Long.“SD and HD super slo-mos are totally different beastsvisually. A 3x full HD camera looks so much better than anup-converted one.”

The Cup’s matchplay format is unusual in that, insteadof being certain to finish on the 18th green, matches couldend at a number of earlier holes. To cover the possibleoutcomes, a SuperMotion was placed along the 15th, 16thand 17th holes and tested successfully at its optimumrange of 2.5km. “We’re not looking at swing analysis orbunker shots. It’s purely for close-ups and reaction shotsof the crowd and players,” says Long.

According to Johnstone, “There’s not a lot of slowmotion used in golf currently but it will be intriguing tosee how we use this and what future uses it can have. Thisevent will show how good golf can look in HD and it willset a benchmark for everything that follows.”

“The bad weather is a real test for these cameras,”concludes Long. “We’re positive that if we can produce anevent like this in HD it will look impressive. From alogistical point of view, if we can do this successfully, wecan do most things.”

Ryder Cup

Aerial Camera Systemssupplied the HD blimp atthe Ryder Cup. DavidCollins reports

High jinksAmong the many high definition cameras covering thefamous event at County Kildare’s K Club, there wasone attached to the O2 sponsored blimp 500 ft in theair. Known as the tethered blimp system, it has beendeveloped by Aerial Camera Systems.

“We own and operate the tethered blimp system,”says sales and marketing manager Matt Coyde. “Itprovides very stable imagery from the blimp itself.”

The camera system is made up of a Cineflex V14stabilised camera mount, which is built round the SonyHDW-T950 camera and a Fujinon 42x lens.

“The first time we developed the blimp with an HDcamera on it was at Torino in February this year for the2006 winter games,” says Coyde. But before theintroduction of the HD camera, the blimp system hadbeen used to cover many sporting events, aftermaking its debut at the 2000 Games in Sydney.

“The tethered blimp looks like an airship, but youhave a cable that runs from the airship to the groundto a base trailer. That’s what holds it in position. Sothere’s no engine and no noise, which is an importantfactor for golf. With a traditional airship you can hearthe engines – which can be distracting to golfers.

“It’s paid for by a sponsor and a broadcaster caneffectively use those shots for free provided they giveshots of the brand on air. The stabilised camera cradlemeans that you get absolutely steady images, you canshow fantastic wide shots of the golf course, but youcan also zoom in very tight to cover players.”

Aerial Camera System’sCineflex V14 cameramount captured HDpictures of the Ryder Cup

Sky One Controller, Richard Woolfe is the nearest to ashowman the British television industry has, and that’sexactly what Sky One needs. “My job in this first year isabout getting people to rethink what they think about SkyOne,” he trumpets, seconds into the interview.

“One of the things that struck me about Sky One beforeI joined is that it has The Simpsons, 24, Nip Tuck, Bones,Cold Case, Brainiac, great shows – but it was not verygood at shouting about it. That’s part of the appeal ofhaving me about.”

The extrovert former BBC underling on That’s Life, nowaged 44, was hired by Dawn Airey earlier this year, inrecognition of his skill in driving up ratings for Living TVfor Flextech, which has now become the fourteenth mostwatched digital channel.

He did this on a tiny budget with defining shows aimedat women and teenagers, ranging from Extreme Makeoverand Most Haunted, to America’s (and Britain’s) Next TopModel.

His understanding of PR and the multi channelenvironment appealed to the equally brash Airey: “In herfour years heading Sky Networks, despite changingcontrollers three times, she’s not managed to find theright person to crack Sky One,” he says.

Woolfe heads a dedicated team of sevencommissioning editors and an acquisitions team of four,handling a boosted annual budget of around £120 million.

One of his first acts was to move his desk into the mainoffice. He’s totally hands on.

“You have to shout in multi channel, there’s too muchchoice, hundreds and hundreds of channels. In order topull my fifteen year old son, you must shout and shoutand shout, if you don’t you can bet your bottom dollaryour competitor will.”

But the real strategy, after better cross promotion andsmoother scheduling to keep people watching longer, is toboost Sky One’s entertainment, led by reality shows.Woolfe wrote a gushing defence of Big Brother 7 in TheIndependent in August and that’s where his heart is. Hehas also written a mission statement about the channel’sintention to have entertainment at its heart.

“2007 is reality year for Sky One, stripped shows,broadcast in high definition. I want to build returnablebrands,” he says, and so bring stability to the schedule,and mix up the American imported drama.

The problem is this, three years ago, Sky One’s share indigital homes was 2.6 per cent. Now its around 1.5 per cent.It has been hit by E4 moving to Freeview and by ITV2,which has overtaken it in the pecking order.

Within the Sky segment of viewing, its position hasfallen since 2001, from 29 per cent of Sky channel viewingto 19 per cent. Yet, on the plus side, it has a first pageposition in the EPG (electronic program guide)entertainment segment, as the oldest established satellite14 The Producer autumn 2006

Richard Woolfe

Richard Woolfe,controller of Sky One,talks to Maggie Brownabout where he’s takingthe channel

“We are planning our own high profile reality show, itis in development, and it will be very exciting. It willalso be in HD” Richard Woolfe, Sky One

Back to realitySony builds HD trucks forArqiva

Sony has built two new HDOB vehicle for ArqivaOutside Broadcasts. Themain vehicle features 20HDC-1500 HD cameras, twoHDC-3300 HD Super-Motioncameras, four HDCAM HDW-D2000/20 VTRs, oneHDCAM SR SRW-5500 VTR,one MVS-8000A multi-format switcher and a rangeof LMD and BVMA-series displays. Both trucksare being used by Arqiva tocover the Coca ColaChampionship footballmatches in the UK fromAugust 2006.

“From the moment thedesign team created itsvision for the trucks to thetime when the last cable andscrew were fitted, wecouldn’t have hoped for asmoother execution in whatis inherently a technical andcomplex project,” says MickBass, managing director ofArqiva Outside Broadcasts.

Richard Woolfe (above)

entertainment brand (compared with Living, which is onthe second page). And it has access to BSkyB’s advancedapplication, and understanding of, new media. Woolfesays: “We are planning our own high profile reality show,it is in development, and it will be very exciting. We areworking with a production company, not Endemol. It’s amassive project and it will use all of Sky’s technology,mobisodes, web site, all the power behind the Sky brandto make it a truly 24/7 event. It will also be in HD.” This willinvolve celebrities.

“ Timing wise, it will be next year, but we’ll not go head tohead with Big Brother (as ITV with Love Island tried). Bi gB rother is pa rt of life at the mom e n t. But there are alwaysh o l es in the schedules, ro om for a great reality event.”

Big Brother appeals more to women than men.“Sky One has been a around for a long time. It is a

somewhat male skewed channel, it has a male sensibility,52 per cent male, to 48 per cent female. My aim is tocreate a wonderful schedule appealing to a broad sectionof viewers. But the big reality show will have a maleflavour. From the moment I walked in, we were developingthis. I said to the team, ‘give the audience what they want,don’t beat yourself up here, it’s not rocket science’.

“Kevin Lygo [Channel 4 programme director], when heextends Big Brother from eight, to ten, to 12, to 13 weeks,he’s thinking, there’s a huge appetite for these shows, andthere is nothing wrong with that.”

This autumn sees another new strand, The Race,stripped across the week, in which David Coulthard andEddie Irvine oversee five girls and five boys, over a week atSilverstone.

Sky is also developing another reality show for noncelebrities. “It doesn’t really matter, the point of a realityshow is it’s a journey putting ordinary people through anexperience, putting a number of people in a closedenvironment and watching what happens.” The key hesays, is “the ‘do you care’ moment”, which in his opinionLove Island lacked. “There’s a lot to be learnt from it.”

This October also saw the start of a ten week liveSunday night strand, Cirque de Celebrite, presented byRuby Wax, in which celebrities train for circus tricks. It is

scheduled to run directly after The Simpsons and appealto a family audience.

“Your favourite celebrity, in lycra, in glorious HD is on atight rope and could fall. If you know it is recorded, halfthe excitement goes. You need to know when they do thetrapeze or get thrown around on a rope a hundred feetabove the ring, it’s now. When Ruby Wax says who do youwant to stay, you make decision on what you have seen.”He hopes it will be another returning strand, as is TheMatch, which for the third year running pits celebritiesagainst veteran soccer stars.

The problem for Woolfe is that ITV ran an imitation,Celebrity Soccer Aid, last summer. It was even made bythe same company, Endemol. He was not amused.

“ITV copied it very badly, rubbish, it was shocking, soblatant, done by the same people, Endemol. Endemolknow The Match is a very big show for Sky One, there ispressure on them to perform. I have very highexpectations, I hope they will deliver, if they don’tdeliver... well, we have been inundated with ideas fromsavvy producers.”

The focus on entertainment means Sky One will not bedoing one off documentaries unless they are of massiveappeal and make news. The interview with Kylie Minogue,which attracted 615,000 viewers on first transmission, butover one million with repeats, and was a news item, wasan exception that proved the rule. “I am more than happywith that.”

Woolfe will also want to follow up Robbie Williams Live,(broadcast this September) the first live HD concert to bescreened.

“He has also been tweaking the second outing of a SkyOne strand, Project Cat Walk, ready for the New Year.Hosted by Kelly Osbourne, its been turned from a showabout fashion designers into a reality show with fashiondesign - or at least, that’s the hope.

“People have got out of the habit of watching Sky Oneand if I can create that habit again, people looking at SkyOne when wanting to be entertained, if I do that, I’ll havedone a great job. Because they will then be surprised atthe quality of what we offer.” 15 The Producer autumn 2006

Richard Woolfe

Sky One shows range fromThe Match (opposite page)to Cirque de Celebrite,Robbie Williams Live andProject Catwalk

Archive footage converts to HD

Rare 35mm footage of PinkFloyd in the Englishcountryside had beenunearthed by ITN Source.The footage is part of theBritish Pathe collectionwhich ITN Source represents.The company is transferringthe 35mm version ontoHDCAM later this year.Previously it was onlyavailable in 16mm film.

The footage featuresshots of the originalmembers of Pink Floyd -Nick Mason, Roger Waters,Syd Barratt and RichardWright, wandering throughcornfields, looking atscarecrows and swappinghats with them to theaccompaniment of the PinkFloyd song, The Scarecrow.

ITN Source, (formerlyITN Archive) recentlypurchased HDCAMcamcorders and editingequipment for ITV News andChannel 4 News crews tocapture footage in originalHDCAM.

As Sky One develops its HD schedule a nail biting newprogramme is being shot in the UK. This is MissionImplausible – a 10-part contest pitting Australianstuntwoman Tania Zaetta against British racing driverJason Plato in a series of stunts, or as the programmeprefers to call them ‘missions’. The series is being made byIWC Media, part of the RDF group.

The competitive element between the two leads, whoeach have teams, is intended to be an important part ofthe ongoing appeal of the show. Each one-hourprogramme features three separate stunts and each takesone day to shoot on location.

The vast majority of the show is shot in HDCAM andHDV using two HDW-F900 HDCAM camcorders andseveral HVR-Z1E HDV cameras. There are also fiveminicams which take specialist shots, for instance placedinside the variety of vehicles used by the show, or withinsomething about to be smashed - in one case a gardenshed due to be demolished by a car being dropped on it.These minicams are all DVCAM quality.

“At any one time we can have eight cameras running,”comments Tim Riding, production manager at IWC Media.“The show is shot in HD because it is an originalproduction for Sky One and we have to deliver a minimumpercentage of footage in high definition – between 70-75per cent. The producer and editor have to be mindful ofthis and the result is that we make full use of the HDcameras whenever we can. The titles are especially glossyshots: the two presenters race towards a hangar on adisused airfield, one in a Lamborghini and the other on aDucati motorbike. It is all very slick and sexy, lots ofpolished black. “

HD means that the series can have the look of an actionfilm about it: “We made the decision to shoot interlacebecause there is a lot of fast moving action in the show,although a film effect will be added in post,” says Riding.

The show is currently mid way through shooting and willcontain 30 stunts in total. So far there have been water-based missions involving power boats, a stunt where theteams had to flip a car over in order to see how long theycould skid on the car roof and an underwater missionwhere three layers of plastic in a pool, each separated witha small hole, simulated the horrors of swimming underthick ice. Another mission involved contestants lying on askateboard with a rocket attached.

A show based on danger and variables is a tricky one toshoot. “We use one HD camera as a safety wide shot, tomake sure we capture everything we need and another forthe closer more varied shots of the event,” explainsGraham Maunder of London-based Awfully Nice Video,

which supplied the crews, cameras, sound and lighting forMission Implausible. “The smaller and more mobile HVR-Z1Es tend to be with the team mates, doingbackground filming and reaction shots, or being used tofilm diary-style pieces to camera. The combination workswell for this kind of large outdoor shoot and gives securityas well as a variety of shots.”

Given that one stunt is shot six times a day, there is a lotto do on each shoot, which begins with the teams beinggiven their mission, followed by expert training, practiseand then, after lunch, taking part in the missionimplausible itself. The crew shot at 17 locations over twomonths with a unit of 40 people. One recent location wasa chalk quarry in the south of England during the hottestJuly ever. “The chalk surrounded us like a furnace. Becauseit was white every surface was hot and blinding,”comments Riding. He adds that the saving grace of theshoot is that however complicated the mission might be itdoesn’t take long time-wise – “riding a motorbike over acliff only takes a few seconds – even though you might notwant to do it in the first place,” he says.

The show is scheduled for Sky One at 8 pm in theautumn schedule – a peak time family audience. “Thepersonalities of the team captains are very muchinvolved,” adds Riding,” it’s not only action. It is not justthe mission – there is also a lot of dialogue betweenteams and rivals and the trainers.”

Maunder feels the two HD formats will cut togetherwell. “Although HDCAM is obviously a higher quality thanHDV, with our many years experience working on HD, thefact that we have set the HVR-Z1E camcorders up verycarefully and the knowledge that the HDV shots will notbe cut directly with the HDCAM stunts, I’m confident theresults will look great.”

Entertainment

Mission Implausible is areality programme in HDfor Sky. Louise Bishopreports on its making

Mission implaus i b l e

“I’m confident the results will look great” Graham Maunder, Awfully Nice Video

17 The Producer autumn 2006

New HVR-V1E supports 25PHDV recordings

Sony has expanded itsprofessional HDV line-upwith the launch of the HVR-V1E camcorder,featuring progressive scan(25p) capability and full HDVresolution.

The 25p progressive scanfeature is ideal for producersthat want a more film-likequality to their work andlends itself well to film-makers on a smaller budget.The HVR-V1E‘s “3 ClearVid CMOS Sensor”system natively capturesprogressive scan imageswhile maintaining full HDVresolution.

Moreover, footage shotusing the progressive scanfeature can be played back onany Sony HDV professionalcamcorder or VTR and can beedited with major currentnon-linear editing systems,including Sony, Adobe,Apple, Avid and Canopus.

B ags and Cases now avai l able for:

Sony DSR-400 / 450Sony HDC-1500 / 1550

C anon XLRSony HVR-Z1E

Sony AW S - G 5 0 0Sony LMD-9020

www.cpcases.com

The best protection for yourcamera equipment

Time is always tight on location, but that’s especially thecase when your stars are world-class footballers withextremely busy schedules. So when it came to shootingplayers including Wayne Rooney, Thierry Henry andRonaldinho for three in-store Nike commercials, PostPanicand director of photography Ruurd Fenenga realised thatthey could maximise their ten to thirty minutes with eachplayer by using HDCAM and HDCAM SR equipment.

“We couldn’t shoot on film because most film rolls last12 minutes,” says Fenenga, “and we wanted to make surethat we didn’t have to reload – or have a jam with thecamera. That’s why we chose HD.”

“It enabled a really fast turnaround between scenes andshots,” adds PostPanic producer, Ania Markham, “and fastplay back, which is really important. We were alsotravelling around, and we didn’t need to have stuffdeveloped on location. And of course, it’s digital, so itgoes really easily into our system for post production.Even more importantly, we wanted a very high qualityimage for successful chromakeying and post production,which can normally only be attained by formats such as35mm. In this case, 35mm was not an option because of

time, but we knew that HDCAM would provide us withthe level of image we needed for perfect post.”

They were shooting three commercials, collectivelyknown as The Power of 3, and each lasting approximatelyone and a half minutes. Made by the Amsterdam-basedcreative team PostPanic, the ads promote new Nikefootball boots, with Rooney wearing the Total 90 shoe;Henry the Mercurial shoe; and Ronaldinho the Tiemposhoe. PostPanic also captured footage of Ronaldo andCristiano Ronaldo for the ads, and both those players,along with Ruud van Nistelrooy, feature in another in-store promotion called Nike Federation Colours.

This was the first time PostPanic had shot on HD. So itemployed Fenenga, a well-regarded DoP (his website iswww.highdef.nl). Fenenga shot on the HDW-F900 andrecorded onto the SRW-1. “The main benefits of shootingwith the Sony HDW-F900 is the good processor it has,” hesays, “and we used the SRW-1 recorder in order to end upwith a 10-bit rate instead of 8-bit. That was necessarybecause the director wanted to have the shots full ofcontrasts and I did not want the post production people tolimit themselves to not zooming in on certain shots.”

“We couldn’t shoot on film”Ruurd Fenenga

HDCAM SR

DoP Ruurd Fenega shotNike promos forPostPanic

The Nike Power of 3promos shot on the HDW-F900 and recordedonto HDCAM SR

Ultimate goal

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Although it’s only three years old, Jersey Live has areputation for being a great indie music festival. At thebeginning of September, it featured an impressive line-upthat included Snow Patrol, The Zutons and The Editors.

Channel TV, the ITV regional broadcaster, was at theevent at the Royal Jersey Showground, and engineeringmanager Graham Tidy says that the AWS-G500 AnycastStation video and audio mixer played an essential role inthe coverage.

This piece of kit helped to capture footage that wasmade into two local programmes, as well as a DVDavailable in Jersey and two programmes for ITV2.

Anycast was also used to supply video feeds of thebands to two big screens. “It was thought that adding in acouple of big LCD screens at the side of the stage wouldbe an added bonus to the festival so we actually arrangedfor that to happen,” says Tidy.

It’s a relatively new purchase for the channel, and Tidysays this was the first time it was used for a majorbroadcast. “It did very well,” he says. “It doesn’t pretend tobe a full blown studio mixer, but thanks to its portabilityand built-in monitors, we had no problems.”

Considering that the mixer is small and weighs around8kg, it’s not surprising that Tidy thinks that one of its mainbenefits is its compactness.

“Because the location was quite small and tight, therewasn’t a lot of room for moving in a big OB truck or

anything like that,” he says. “So we had to set up aportable and temporary control room in one of theportacabins at the back of the stage.”

Eight cameras were used, and six of them wereconnected to the mixer. “Most of them were ENGcameras, recording their own output as well,” he explains.“So we had two on the front of the stage – with anotherhand-held one on the stage. We hired a 30-metre jib withan operator, and we had two other cameras: one by thesound desk and another one on a hydraulic hoist, on alorry parked off the festival site.”

But Tidy says that the mixer could have provided theproduction team with even more features on the day. “It’sgot six inputs and we had six cameras, but we didn’t usethe live streaming part or – in this particular instance – wedidn’t use the audio, although we could have done. But theaudio was mixed by the PA people on site.”

Due to its size, Anycast was remarkably easy to install atthe festival. “The set up was easy, there wasn’t much pre-wiring before we got there,” says Tidy.

Considering its time-saving advantages, Tidy believes itcould be used in the coverage of news reports. “We have acouple of small ENG microwave links, so in the past newsreporters have gone out to a location to do a live report.This would give an added look to those news reports.” Andhe sums up its appeal – including its built-in monitors – bysaying, “This is everything in one box.”

“This is everything in one box” Graham Tidy, Channel TV

Jersey cream

Anycast

The Jersey Live musicfestival was covered byChannel TV with theAWS-G500 AnycastStation. David Collinsreports

ITV Local to launchnationwide

ITV plc is about to launch aseries of regional internetnews and information sitesacross the UK. Following thesuccess of a trial service inthe Meridian region, ITVLocal is rolling out across thecountry.

Lindsay Charlton, formermanaging director ofMeridian and now ITV Localproject director, says theservice will compete withlocal newspapers, offering aspectrum of services.

“As many people aremoving from local papers tothe internet, there is noreason we can’t provideanother option,” Charltonsays.

“There are several veryimportant areas. Classifiedbusiness search, local sportand local property. The otherarea is to learn from the webat the moment, where a lot ofcontent is provided by thepublic. There are hundreds ofhours of programming fromcommunity groups. We willhave user generated contentalongside professionalmaterial.”

Charlton says the roll outwill take in Tyne Tees regionfirst, followed by London,Central and the rest of thecountry. ITV Local will sitalongside ITV.com and ITVBroadband as an importantpart of ITV plc’s internetstrategy.

19 The Producer autumn 2006

Channel TV’s coverage ofJersey Live was mixed onan AWS-G500 AnycastStation

HDV

HDV proves its worth intight corners. DouglasKitson reports

There are many advantages to the HVR-Z1E, it’s size makesit useful for shooting in enclosed spaces, and for shootingwithout the hassle of a large unit where this would bedistracting. Shooting in HDV mode allows the smaller unitto record high definition footage and all of these featuresare needed when your crew is filming Jarvis Cocker, angryteens and the lions of Blackpool Zoo.

The HVR-Z1E has recently been used to shoot a shortfilm to promote a forthcoming album entitled Songs ForThe Young at Heart. Both the film and the album featureJarvis Cocker, former front man with chart topping Pulp.Cocker brings the Common People touch to The Lion andAlbert, the story of a family day out in Blackpool, whichdoesn’t go quite as planned. And to add a touch of spiceto his rendition, Cocker relates his version from inside thelion’s enclosure at Blackpool zoo.

“The HVR-Z1E was great,” says producer/director MartinWallace, “because we were shooting in a real lion’s cagewith less than a metre between the glass and the bars, alarge set up wouldn’t of worked.

“We filmed with a brand new HVR-Z1E supplied by SonySpecialist Dealer, Mitcorp. Though we had access to otherHD equipment, I’m glad we chose the HVR-Z1E.”

The Channel 4 show, Don’t Make Me Angry, is TV’s firstanger management programme which gives on screenclinical psychological help. It returned for a new series inOctober and is tackling some of the UK ‘s angriest teens,shot using the HVR-Z1E.

Series producer/director, John Walsh, says: “For thisseries I shot for the first time on an HVR-Z1E and theresults have been pretty remarkable. The HVR-Z1E wassmaller and far more versatile than what I used previously.We were shooting in people’s houses, not just for keyevents but at times like lunch and breakfast and, with theanger management nature of the show it was importantfor the cameras not be intrusive.”

Chunkypunch Productions, meanwhile, used the HVR-Z1E on Snaparazzi, recording in DVCAM mode.

Chunkypunch Productions’ joint managing directorsand executive producers on the project, Leigh McSwanand Davide Scalenghe, explain more: “Snaparazzi is a TVformat we’ve developed for AXN, the global Sony PicturesTelevision International channel. Snaparazzi is a 12-episode European reality series searching for the nextgeneration of TV producers and directors.”

Snaparazzi offers the winner the chance to become atelevision producer and produce a full pilot episode oftheir idea. Six hopefuls complete weekly challengessponsored by Sony Ericsson, Sony BMG, Sony PSP andAXN to develop, shoot, produce, direct and edit musicvideos, promos, commercials, short films and mobilecontent, all of which are judged by industry veterans,celebrities and well known personalities . The winnerreceives an HVR-Z1E camera kit, the production andtransmission of their pilot show and the budget toproduce idents for AXN.

21 The Producer autumn 2005

“I shot for the first time on an HVR-Z1E and the resultshave been pretty remarkable” John Walsh

Tight spotHDV on mountain project

Martin Danneels of Ireland’sRed Pepper Production isproducing and directing adocumentary film about aworld record attempt onclimbing the seven summits.

The project is in its earlystages and charity fundraiserand mountaineer IanMcKeever undertook apreliminary climb of MontBlanc in the summer. Theteam took the HVR- Z1E HDVcamcorder to Mont Blanc andhave their eyes on the evensmaller HVR-A1E for furtherclimbs.

The seven peaks, each ina separate continent, are:Mount Everest in Asia;Aconcagua in South America;Mount McKinley in NorthAmerica; Mount Kilimanjaroin Africa; Mount Elbrus inEurope; Puncak Jaya inAustralia/Oceania andVinson Massif in Antarctica.

“We want to shoot inHDV because of the picturequality and the size of thecamera,” McKeever says.“This is a genuine concern: at7,000 feet you do not needany extra ballast, anythingbigger than a Handicam isgoing to be a disadvantage.

The HVR-Z1E has beensupplied by Dublin-basedDigirent Ireland, part of theVisual Impact group ofcompanies.

Don’t Make Me Angry(left), Jarvis Cocker in TheLion and Albert (above)and Snaparazzi (bottom)all shot with HDV

“The equipment experienced G forces of 2.5G to 8.5G with no problems whatsoever” Bob Hayes, Impact Image

HDCAM

HDCAM kit wassubjected to huge G forces on a shoot forthe Red Arrows

The BBC has commissioned IWC Media to produce adocumentary following the selection process for newpilots into the world’s premier aerobatic team, thespectacular Red Arrows.

This selection process is unique within the RAF as thenew pilots are chosen by the team itself, unlike anynormal RAF posting.

The Red Arrows are famous for their colourful andexciting aerial displays and during the documentary,Impact Image will be providing high definition aerialphotography of the team. It was the Red Arrowsthemselves who recommended that Impact Imageundertake the aerial sequences as they are acknowledgedleaders in filming military fast-jet action sequences, andhad worked with the company on previous projects.

Bob Hayes, production director at Impact Imageexplains, “The decision to shoot in HD was taken early on,using an ultra-compact camera with a Fujinon 4.8mm HDprime lens to record onto an HDW-S280 portable HDCAMrecorder. Camera mounts were engineered to fit either inthe cockpit looking at the pilot or in a specially modifiedpod positioned under the aircraft, which gave aspectacular rear facing view of the formation.”

“We flew approximately 40 times in two weeks and theequipment experienced G forces of 2.5G to 8.5G with noproblems whatsoever. We were really impressed with theperformance of the HDW-S280 deck which withstoodthese unusually extreme conditions,” adds Hayes.

Set up and operation for each flight itself had to behandled with military precision. Hayes and Steve Case,technical operator for the BBC, worked with the team’sengineers to prepare the camera before each flight. “Theyclosed up the panels and started the system just as thepilot was getting into the aeroplane. “All exposures had to

be made manually before take off and any cameraposition change made between flights meant we had torecalibrate the new cable from the CCU Unit. It all had torun like clockwork as the turn around between flights isvery tight during training and the team can’t afford towait for you,” explains Hayes.

In spite of having no time to pre-test the installation,Martin Williams, producer/director of the documentary,says of the results “We were gobsmacked at the clarity ofthe footage. In an HD wide shot you can see the pilotturning his head and the ripples in the ocean hundreds offeet below, at the same time. This technology meant wecould put the camera in positions where a film camerawould never have fit, so it’s truly ground-breaking. We setup a monitor on location to review the rushes each dayand without fail a small mob would cluster around andsimply gawp. Stunning.”

High flyersImpact Image shoots BMIpromo in HD

Impact Image was selected tocreate a film to promotebmi’s long haul routes.

bmi is the UK’s secondlargest airline, it operatesaround 1,700 flights a weekto destinations such as LasVegas, the Caribbean, Indiaand Saudi Arabia.

To capture the air-to-airfootage for the film, ImpactImage utilised a periscopeoptics system containing aSony HDW-750P camcorder,mounted in the belly of theaircraft, affording 360degree vision with over 45degrees of tilt, with thecamera operator being ableto control everything from aconsole at the back of theaircraft.

“Successful and safe air-to-air shooting is always theproduct of good planning andpreparation” says Bob Hayes,production director.

In order to future proofthis high cost resource bmiwere advised to shoot in highdefinition format.

The short broadcastquality film will be used innews and travel programmesas well as key eventsattended by bmi such astravel fairs. For larger events,it can be played from theoriginal HD files on to largescreens to an exhibitionaudience.

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Two 90-minute dramas have been produced by Norfolk-based Capriol Films using the HDW-750P camcorder.

Falstaff, a contemporary version of Verdi’s opera set in amodern golf club, was shot on location using the HDW-750P with BBC 35mm film specifications in thecamcorder’s settings.

This project and the other Capriol drama, Peter Warlock– Some Little Joy, a period drama set in the 1920’s aboutthe life and loves of the eponymous composer, were shotwith the same spec at 25P.

With a limited budget for both shoots, it was decided tobring in TV cameraman Peter Eveson as director ofphotography and camera operator.

“Without the TV camera mode of operation and thecomplexity of the scenes, we would not have had such afast shooting rate. The two films were shot in six five-dayweeks,” Eveson says.

A veteran of BBC and ITV drama (Onedin Line,Doomwatch, Lotus Eaters, Tales of the Unexpected and PDJames dramas), Eveson was hired because of the need foran operator who could also pull focus and undertakecamera movement himself without additional crew.

“In an ideal world, it would have been great to have hadthe benefit of grips and tracks, but if the budget is tightthen high-end HD is still possible using these tried andtested techniques”, says Tony Britten, executive producerof Capriol Films and director of both shoots.

“Many of the shots, considering how they were

achieved, were equal to shots obtained by heavily staffedfilm-style crews operating HD, but at remarkable value,with thousands of pounds saved”, states Britten.

Focal lengths were quickly set using a Canon zoomdemand, and only two lenses were hired for the shoots – aCanon HJ 21x tele and a Canon HJ 11x wide, (both lenses inTV mode with x2 extenders).

“Those lenses were chosen because of their range, sizeand quality at wide apertures,” says Eveson. “In order togive the projects a filmic quality, apart from the settings,most shots were obtained with the lenses wide open toget the maximum differential focus. There were longtelephoto shots with large focus pulls throughout.”

A back-end acrylic filter, developed at Anglia, was alsoused on the period piece for all interior scenes.

“Peter Warlock’s main interests were women and beer,”says Eveson, “so smoke-filled, gas and candle-lit pubs gavean added visual flavour to the pictures which the filterreally picked up.

“I also used a softened camera-top light on everything,to gently add in ‘eye-lights’, which I remember worked sowell on 70’s BBC dramas when every camera in the studiohad a set of ‘headlights’ that were controlled by thelighting director.”

All camera movement and tracking shots were achievedusing a long, Vinten dolphin arm, which made one manoperation possible. Other shots were tripod or Steadicam,again operated by Eveson.

Drama

Two new dramas havebeen shot in HD by DoPPeter Eveson

“If the budget is tight then high-end HD is stillpossible using these tried and tested techniques”Tony Britton, Capriol Films

Last of the Summer Wine

One of Britain’s most famousBBC television dramas, Lastof the Summer Wine 06 hasbeen recorded in highdefinition on an SRW-1HDCAM SR recorder as partof an HD package providedand executed by RogueElement Films.

“Portability is a big issuefor shooting on location fordramas. That’s why we chosethe SRW-1. It records on thesuperior HDCAM SR tapeformat, which has such mildcompression as to bevirtually non-existent, andthe results were justamazing,” explains directorof photography, DanMulligan.

Te c h n i c a l ly co r r e ct

Peter Warlock (right) andFalstaff (below)

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26 The Producer autumn 2006

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