Three of five feature documentaries up for Academy Awards shot using HDV/tape
Posted by DocumentaryTech on February 4, 2010 · 2 Comments
Is HDV dead? There are a lot of people claiming that. Is tape dead? Again, the early-adopter faction would have you think that. But tape still allows for a low-cost, flexible format that you can take anywhere and store afterwards. So, a bit of research seems to reveal the following:
- The top documentary at Sundance 2010 used HDV/tape (‘Restrepo,’ by Sebastian Junger and Tim Hetherington).
Junger says “It was a Sony V1, Tim shot on a Z1. For the most part, I held it at chest-level, autofocus, auto everything. One of the great things Tim told me was, “Hold the camera for ten seconds on everything.” Because we’d get into firefights, and the camera would go everywhere my head did. The footage was totally useless. (Movieline)
- Three of the five 2010 Academy Award-nominated features used HDV/tape (‘The Cove,’ ‘VJ Burma,’ ‘Which Way Home’)
In “The Cove,” according to American Cinematographer, “To stay lightweight, (Louis) Psihoyos and the others worked with Sony’s prosumer HVR-A1U (HDV tape) 1080i camera, which weighs only 3 pounds.” They used other HD cameras for interview footage.
“Burma VJ” lists HDV in its tech specs.
“Which Way Home” director Rebecca Cammisa used DigitalMaster tape, which is an HDV format: “In some of the places where we were shooting in Mexico, we would be in the cold at night and then the next day in 90-plus degrees, and we had no problem with the tape,” Cammisa said. “It’s fulfilled every need I’ve had, with no drop outs. That has been an issue in the past with other tape, but with this tape it’s not that way at all.” (Sony website)
I can’t speak to the other films, but “The Last Campaign” was not shot on HDV, it was shot with an EX1, in XDCAM 1080p format to SxS cards. I expect a number of the other films above were also not shot on HDV.
Thanks. We’ve got links to the films that used HDV tape for all or some of their primary footage (i.e,, not archival). Since we don’t know your connection to “The Last Campaign,” we’ll take your word on the format used. The specs on the shorts category are sketchy, and there are some instances in which HDV is listed as a shooting format, although not necessarily 100 percent. But on the films listed in the post, the emphasis is on how small handheld tape cameras did get some use even on the “top” documentaries. Let us know your name sometime! We’d love to hear more about the making of “The Last Campaign.”