AWD Panavision Event as observed by Vickie Sampson

On November 18, 2008, about 80 AWD members and guests were invited to Panavision in Woodland Hills for an evening of education, food and a hands-on demonstration with cameras and cranes.

The evening started with freshly popped popcorn in the lobby of the theater where famous Panavision cameras are on display – the underwater housed camera that was used for Jaws; a 65mm camera and the famous original Panaflex camera. Huge George Hurrell photographs of great actors and actresses from the 1940s lined the walls, reminding us of how a beautifully lit and designed image can affect us.

In the theater we were given a formal presentation on a variety of topics: frame size and the advantages and disadvantages between shooting film at 2, 3 or 4 perf; lenses: spherical or anamorphic, prime or zoom; and digital vs. film shooting. What impressed me with all the speakers was their constant referral back to the story. How do we choose between these options to best tell our story? What combination of elements will best realize our vision as filmmakers? And how can we make that work within our budget? Panavision made it clear they were there with a wide array of tools to help us best achieve our vision.

Phil Radin started the evening off introducing everyone and giving us a bit of Panavision history. Al Mayer Jr., whose father Albert Mayer Sr., invented the original Panaflex camera in 1972, and continues the family tradition of camera innovation, spoke about the various cameras, both film and digital and urged us to find the “right tool for the right application.”

With the advent of digital technology, most films today, whether shot on film or digitally, use a DI (Digital Intermediate) process. If originated on film, a DI is made by scanning the motion picture negative into a digital format. At this point, it can be manipulated and color timed digitally prior to outputting back to film, to create an IN (internegative).

Andrew Young talked about Panavision’s prime lenses and their break-through developments in zoom lenses which can match the primes now in ways never before possible. He let us know, however, that they still have thousands of the older lenses in their inventory available for use if one is going for an older look.

Lastly, we learned about the newest high definition digital cameras. Panavision prides itself on keeping the “filmic” aspect in the digital camera world so that a DP who is used to shooting with a film camera (especially a Panavision film camera) can easily shoot with a digital camera because it acts like a film camera. All the lenses have been designed to interchange with both film and digital cameras.

The quality is amazing -- we were shown a film versus Genesis (hi def) comparison shot by Allen Daviau, ASC (ET, Van Helsing) for Mazda in 2007 when Mazda was trying to decide whether to shoot on Hi Def or film, and it was difficult to tell which was which!

Another amazing Panavision development is the Phantom camera which can record 1000 frames per second which means that 4 seconds of real time translates to 2 ½ minutes of screen time! We saw some amazing footage of strawberries dropped into milk and chocolate which made me hungry! Some of us got to try that camera out in the “playpen.” The Phantom would be great for a visual fx heavy show or a shot where you want heightened reality. One of the Panavision guys tested it out by slapping himself in the face. When played back, you could see his lips wiggle back and forth at the point of impact. Another great feature of this camera is that it stays perpetually in record mode, keeping a loop in temporary memory. If you decide to record something that already happened, you can “film the past” – for example if you’re trying to film lightening, you keep the camera pointed at the sky, and when the lightening strikes, you press record. Even though the event has already happened, the camera has recorded it in its temporary memory, so it rewinds and captures that moment permanently by committing it to the larger hard drive.

For remote shooting, having an instant playback of filmed material is a great plus. Not having to wait for dailies to make sure the shots are good is a wonderful aspect of shooting digitally. Josh demonstrated a new piece of equipment Panavision is perfecting. A hot swappable docking station that can prepare shots for either editing or visual fx where frame by frame capture is done lickety split! The workflow all stays in uncompressed video.

We were given some DVDs to take home. “Going Tapeless,” “Product and Technical Information,” “Demystifying Digital Camera Specifications,” and “Allen Daviau’s film versus Hi Def comparisons.” I’m sure Panavision can give you some if you missed the meeting.

We then had a wonderful dinner of meat and meatless lasagna, salad, beer, wine brownies, chocolate chip cookies and coffee. The playroom loomed before us – rows of cameras mounted and ready for us to explore. They even had a 15’ techno crane! AWDers were busy asking questions, trying out the cameras and crane, feeling the weight of the hand-held camera used in Hancock. Nobody wanted to leave! Some were there until almost 11pm.

It was a very informative and friendly environment. Panavision is very open to helping filmmakers achieve their visions. We look forward to having another in-depth event at Panavision to explore some of these areas in more depth.

Kudos to Jacqui Barcos for arranging this event, to the AWD board and members who helped with all the checking in (Jan Reesman in particular!) And big thanks to Suzanne Lezotte, Director or Public Relations of Panavision.

To contact the new filmmaker program at Panavision, Ric Halpern is the one to talk to at 818 316-1600 ext 2202 or email ric_halpern@panavision.com.