Filmmakers John McDougall and Steve Esteb partnered to shoot Dirty Politics, a political satire about a flawed Louisiana presidential candidate who is dealing with a scandal as he enters the primaries. Shot predominately handheld with JVC GY-HD250 ProHD cameras, the film premiered on Aug. 16 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

McDougall had previously put JVC cameras to the test on Ghetto Stories, which he shot with his own GY-HD250 in the spring of last year and was pleased with the visual outcome. He was therefore excited to use the HD250 to its full potential on Dirty Politics, which was shot entirely in Louisiana, primarily in Baton Rouge.

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The film was shot with two timecode-synced GY-HD250s cameras running with Zeiss Super Speed prime lenses mounted to JVC’s PL-mount lens adapter [HZ-CA13U]. In situations where they were not able to shoot with the prime lenses, they used the Fujinon Th13x3.5BRMU wide-angle zoom. “There was a lot of movement and focal length changes in some of the scenes, so being able to rely on the zooms did save us some time,” says McDougall.

• Everything Is Illuminated: Experiments with the JVC HZ-CA13U PL-Mount Cine Lens Adapter, Tim Dashwood, Videography, April 2007
• Renaissance Cam: JVC's GY-HD250, Carl Mrozek, Videography, November 2007

Most of Dirty Politics took place in a hotel presidential suite, and about three-quarters of the film was shot handheld. “We decided to go handheld to show the actors' true emotions and to lure the audience into the action. And the camera’s weight was light enough that shooting handheld wasn’t overbearing. Depending on the type of setups and the type of movement, I would go back and forth between the Fujinon and the Zeiss lenses,” adds McDougall.

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“I bought JVC’s PL-mount lens adapter, which is a pretty incredible product. I have to admit that I’ve seen all the moving glass devices and I have not been a fan of any of them. And being from the traditional film world, I felt there was always something in the way of what the final image was—plus all the moving parts that generate sound issues. But using JVC’s PL-mount lens adapter provided an optical solution that was so much more preferable to me, and it was reliable,” says McDougall.

McDougall adds, "Because of the nature of shooting, we couldn’t always use [Zeiss] primes because we were literally shooting up 11 pages at a time, which is very intense for a dialogue-driven film of this nature. So I would resort to shooting with my Fujinon wide-angle zoom, jumping back and forth depending on the type of setups and the type of movement.”

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There was quite a bit of shooting in low light, which pushed the limits of exposure for each of the lenses. Also, McDougall ran Tiffen antique suedes for filtration and reset all the internal settings for gamma and color to a more desaturated look. “The GY-HD250s were also affixed with Cavision follow-focus units and matte boxes, with the [Focus Enhancements] DR-HD100 hard drives running simultaneously with tape,” notes McDougall.

“The camera’s user-friendliness and the layout of the controls made it extremely easy for the other camera operator to use. There are a lot of features, which gave us the ability to change the [color] temp settings within the camera. Steve and I are extremely happy with the final footage.”

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“JVC has been very supportive to me for using this camera format. I give a lot of credit to Carl Hicks at JVC and JVC’s tech support. There are many cameras out there, and I’ve used many of them, but I was comfortable within the budget parameters of making Dirty Politics work for that camera body,” adds McDougall. “There are lots of changes happening in the digital world for filmmaking. The combination of the GY-HD250's performance and its features is critical to produce a high-quality film. I know people who have GY-HD100s and GY-HD200s and use them day in and day out, so obviously the camera has proven itself as a true professional camera.”

Dirty Politics stars Beau Bridges, Melissa Anne Davenport, Howard Hesseman, Jerry Katz, Judd Nelson, Melissa Peterman and Johnny Valdetero.

• Director's Chair: Steven Esteb, Dirty Politics, Randi Altman, Post Magazine, September 2008