Panavision

In my initial discussions with the Producers of the new TV series Spartacus I felt that we needed a point of difference to set it apart from other shows shot in the same vein.

I wanted to explore the option of shooting the fight sequences at ultra high speed. I had used the Phantom V10 camera on a commercial. This camera was built for industrial applications and despite its obvious potential it proved a bit clumsy and cumbersome for our shoot.

When I heard that Vision Research had released the Phantom HD camera and this could be sourced through Panavision locally in New Zealand I decided to test it. I could achieve up to 1000 FPS at full resolution (1920x1080) with the new camera.

The camera had been fully Panavised to take the Primo Lenses and all add on accessories that we would be using on the Genesis cameras. This simplified everything for us and we could use the camera in full studio mode. Also knowing that Panavision would supply service and back up gave me the confidence to use the camera full time.

After shooting some Green Screen tests and putting some footage through the Post House the next step was to work out the best workflow for this camera.

John Virtue and Peter Lorz from Panavision worked closely with Digital Post to set up the best post path. Ross Turley trained Todd, Sam and Blair in the onset procedures for downloading the data. It was a big learning curve for us all but once we got over the initial teething problems the camera worked remarkably well over the 30 week shoot.

The Directors loved what they could achieve with the Phantom and we soon started to use the camera on a daily basis rather than just the occasional shot.

Vision Research recommend that the camera be rated at 500 ASA but I prefer to rate it at 250 ASA. The camera has a contrast ratio of between 8-10 stops. I always take incident readings but will sometimes check the waveform for peaking.

Panavision have since returned the camera to Vision Research for the Gold upgrade. This will reduce black balance time and make the data transfer on set even quicker.

Overall I was delighted with the results achieved with the camera on the show. Now that we are confirmed for a second series, the Phantom will again be on my gear list for discussion with the producers.