Panavision

I first got involved with the film ‘Tracker’ about a year ago. The Director, Ian Sharp, called and asked me if I would consider photographing the project scheduled to shoot in New Zealand in late 2009.

Ian and I first met on the Bond film ‘Golden Eye’ and we have remained firm friends ever since. I also knew Trevor Haysom, the New Zealand Producer, from my previous visits to New Zealand.

I first came to New Zealand in the early 70’s to shoot commercials when I was a Director / DP for James Garrett & Partners based out of London and have maintained a love for the place ever since.

The film itself was primarily a location shoot. We shot around the North Shore of Auckland for the first three weeks then relocated to Queenstown where we shot for a further four weeks. Initial discussions had been to shoot the project on HD. However, I am a dyed in the wool film man and managed to get Ian and Trevor around to my way of thinking without too much difficulty.

Over the years Panavision has always been my choice of camera system. I like the way it all fits together, its reliability. The Primo Lenses offer me a great range of focal lengths. The optical quality of these lenses is superb. I like to work mainly with prime lenses. I prefer to track rather than use zooms as it feels far more natural.

I chose the Millennium XL in 3 Perf. The shooting format was 2:40:1. The XL offers me everything I need on location. It’s a full studio camera, a hand held camera and a Steadicam camera all rolled into one. With the inaccessibility of some of our locations it was the obvious choice. The 3 Perf format would also save on our stock costs.

We used a Platinum as an occasional B camera and a 235 for some hand held fight sequences, both cameras having been converted to 3 Perf by the technicians at Panavision.

The standard of the local crew was as good as you will find in Europe or the USA. I was very happy with my team. There was a great sense of “can do” and everyone rolled their sleeves up and got on with the job.

Gear wise I had everything that I had asked for. Paul Lake at Panavision looked after us really well. I can honestly say that we lacked for nothing during the shoot. Wes Printz, the Panavision tech, also flew down to Queenstown to service the gear mid shoot.

My experience of shooting in New Zealand has been a happy one. I’m spending my Xmas and New Year in the Bay of Islands with my lovely wife, Sally. Another picture in NZ would suit me down to the ground.