By Elina Shatkin, December 3, 2004
"Sweet William," a coming-of-age feature about a young man’s journey to understand his past, was shot on location in Louisville, KY last summer with Panasonic’s AJ-HDC27 VariCam HD Cinema camera. Writer/actor Bruce Marshall Romans’ debut film, Sweet William stars celebrated screen and stage actor Frank Langella, exciting newcomer Laura Allen (who headlines the new USA series The 4400), and filmmaker and Louisville native Romans in the title role.
The film is one of the first feature-length projects to take advantage of the desktop HD editing capabilities made possible by the Panasonic/Apple implementation of IEEE 1394 FireWire with 100 Mbps DV-HD (the native video compression of Panasonic DVCPRO HD recording systems), bringing unmatched capabilities and cost efficiency to HD post-production and content distribution.
The feature was shot last July and August (a 24-day shoot) with Churchill Downs, the University of Louisville and local bars as backdrops. Produced by Josh Liveright (13 Going On 30, Angels in America, the Hours), Sweet William was directed by J
. Miller Tobin (CSI, OZ, The Agency), edited by Mitch Stanley (In & Out, Just Cause, City By The Sea), and veteran cinematographer Michael Caporale served as Director of Photography.
With Panasonic’s new, compact AJ-HD1200A DVCPRO HD VTR, 24fps or 60fps progressive scan material shot on a VariCam can be transferred via the VTR’s IEEE 1394 interface directly into Apple’s Final Cut Pro HD without generation loss. Once transferred, the material is instantly available for real-time editing operations. All footage maintains its camera-original quality, because the IEEE 1394 FireWire interface transfers the native DV-HD high definition files, as originally recorded on tape in the VTR or Varicam, directly to the Power Mac G4 or Power Mac G5 host computer's internal hard drive. At that point, users can edit camera-original quality HD content on their desktop.
Stanley, whose credits include prime-time episodic television shows (First Years, MDs) as well as theatrical features, said, "There was an AJ-HD1200A deck on set used to clone tapes, which were then sent to me in Los Angeles, where we rented an additional AJ-HD1200A deck to load video.
DP Michael Caporale, principal of production company 24P Digital Cinema, LLP (Cincinnati, OH), provided both the on-set VariCam and the AJ-HD1200A deck.
Post-production on Sweet William will be completed by mid-January 2005, at which time a multi-format HD master will be made for festival submissions.
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