The director of the new music video So to Speak, which is attracting significant attention from MTV2 and Canada’s Much More Music cable channel, says he could not have costeffectively achieved the look and feel of 35mm film without the use of HDW-F900 CineAlta HDCAM cameras.

Steven Wagner, of Chicago’s hybrid production and post company Astropolitan Pictures, said he was seeking a ‘photosurrealistic’ setting for the DJ Acucrack video, which offers a glimpse into the dark side of a futuristic city.

A seven-time Midwest Emmy Award winner, Wagner’s goal was to shoot a video that would have a cinematic feel, combining complex digital effects with live-action. But, operating on a tight budget, he was concerned with the costs associated with buying film stock and transferring it to video. He knew that he would be shooting elements against bluescreen and digitally manipulating every shot in post. It seemed a waste not to acquire these images in a digital format.

We initially had plans to shoot on 35mm film and transfer it to video, but then we saw a demonstration of the HDCAM camera at Fletcher Chicago and immediately discovered the advantages that shooting directly onto high-definition video offered,” said Wagner, referring to a local film and video rental house. “To me, it offered the best of both worlds: the ability to shoot in a 24-frame progressive (24p) format that fulfills the film quality you’ve come to expect with 35mm, and the handling of an electronic field production (EFP) camera.

With this level of visibility in mind, Wagner knew So to Speak would be viewed by audiences used to seeing a majority of videos shot on film. He quickly found that he could achieve the same results shooting on 24P, and at roughly one-fifth the cost.

Wagner said the camcorder handled the bluescreen shooting elegantly, adding that the video – captured to HDCAM tape, then transferred to disk at Post Effects Chicago – was some of the cleanest bluescreen shooting he’s ever seen, easily rivalling work shot on 35mm film.

“The audience expects quality on everything they see. They’re using the same criteria to judge how every video looks and sounds,” Wagner said. “We have to meet or exceed their expectations, and once I saw the results from the HDW-F900 camcorder, there was never a question that we would use the camera.”

Larry Thorpe, senior vice president of content creation for Sony Electronics Business Solutions, predicted that more music videos will be shot on 24P. In fact, he pointed to the recent MTV Video Music Awards, which were captured with Sony HDCAM cameras.

“Sony 24p cameras truly allow me to be a filmmaker using digital HD video,” Wagner said. “For storytellers, they are inspiring new tools, that will allow us to ignite the imaginations of our audience in new ways. That’s what I’m after as a director.”