By Elina Shatkin, April 1, 2004
Writer/director Randel Cole’s comedy, "2BPerfectlyHonest," shot in New York City with Panasonic’s AJ-HDC27 VariCam HD Cinema cameras, will have its world premiere at the upcoming Tribeca Film Festival, Sunday, May 2 at 8 p.m. The film has a powerhouse cast that includes Adam Trese, Andrew McCarthy, John Turturro, Aida Turturro, Robert Vaughan, Hayley Mills and Vince Curatola. 2B was produced by Jeff Mazzola and John Scaccia, with Chris LaVasseur as Director of Photography.
With Manhattan as a vibrant backdrop, 2B teasingly chronicles the lives of two young Internet entrepreneurs, Frank (Trese) and Josh (McCarthy). Cole likens the playful comedy to a contemporary Arabian tale, with one story folding within another within another. Starting with a bedtime story told to Josh’s young son, the plot goes back to another story (the pair’s search for venture capital funding), and within that story is a dream of a suspicious, sudden business windfall. Many of the actors play two characters, one for each “story.”
The production team rented the VariCams from Abel Cine Tech Inc. (New York, NY)
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Panasonic’s AJ-HDC27 VariCam replicates many of the key features of film-based image acquisition, including 24-frame progressive scan images, time lapse recording, and a wide range of variable frame rates (4-fps to 60-fps in single-frame increments) for “overcranked” and “undercranked” off-speed in-camera effects. The AJ-HDC27 VariCam also features CineGamma™ software that permits Panasonic’s HD Cinema camera systems to more closely match the latitude of film stocks.
DP Chris LaVasseur came up through the ranks as an assistant cameraman (A Bronx Tale, Malcolm X, Single White Female); 2B is the fifth feature on which he’s served as DP, and his first outing with the VariCam.
Cole estimates that shooting 2B in HD saved about $125,000 when compared to shooting 35mm, and approximately $50,000 vs. Super16, taking into consideration a blow-up for 16mm and an Arri Laser transfer for HD24P.
The off-line edit was done on Avid Express at 2B’s production offices. On-line work was done at Rhinoceros Post (New York, NY); picture was conformed using the Avid Nitrous HD system, followed by the Da Vinci 2K for HD color correction with a D5 master. The Dolby Surround Sound Mix was performed at Magno Sound & Video (New York, NY).
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