HD Today Stories Archive
A Chinese journey for HD feature
Category: P2
Tigerlily Films' latest feature, 'She, A Chinese', swapped the streets of London for western China this September, as the production moved to Chongqing, following the journey of its main character. Whilst aiming to achieve the best pos ... Read More
Phantoms gets the film look
Category: P2
Director and editor Lauren Pushkin’s latest pop promo commission, Fifty Phantoms’ ‘Last Night’ called for a rich, vibrant look – without the budget for film. Her first port of call was VMI, where she hired a HPX 500 camera with cine-style lenses, as ... Read More
On the crest of a wave with Varicam
Category: DVCPro/Varicam
Big Wave Productions produces high-end science, wildlife and adventure programming for the UK and international markets, with broadcast clients including the BBC, Channel 4, Nat Geo and Discovery. When the company came to make ‘The Manta Queen’, a do ... Read More
Garage Days Revisisted - pop video shot with HDX-900
Category: DVCPro/Varicam
MC Bonez and DJ Q’s latest hit, ‘You Wot’ was shot using Panasonic P2 technology hired from VMI shot on an HDX-900 by Flynn Productions.
“It was a single day shoot of 14-18 hours and we shot all over East London,” recalls Flynn’s Mikey Levelle, “s ... Read More
P2 at the height of fashion - Lipsey E-Commercial using HPX-500
Category: P2
New London Films and Volatile Media - part of the Music to Your Eyes group - have carved out a niche specialising in filming for the fashion and beauty industries. As image really being everything in these sectors, they decided to shoot in HD using P ... Read More
Lessons learned when using P2 on a 4 camera P2 commercial
Category: P2
Yesterday we completed our first multi-camera commercial set up running on HPX-500 P2 cameras combined with an HVX-200 P2 camera. The shoot went smoothly and there are some learning points:
First of all sending 1 x Panasonic G10 archive field unit ... Read More
Campaigning in HD
Category: HDCAM
The latest campaign for Cancer Research was produced by London-based MakeFilm and shot in and around Seaford near Brighton over one hectic day using a pair of HDW-750s hired from VMI back in the Autumn.
“One of the biggest hurdles was arranging th ... Read More
Oaten takes the reins!
Category: Other
Kevin Oaten has been voted onto the VMI board as Operations Director, a role he does not take lightly. “I am here to make sure that VMI’s clients receive a compromise-free drama/feature film service with an attention to detail that only a small comp ... Read More
Journal of a Contract Killer in prime focus
Category: HDCAM
Inspired by a true story, the short but rather dramatic life of 28-year old Stephanie Komack is told in an intriguing new film written and directed by Tony Maylam. Dubbed Journal of a Contract Killer, the clue is very much in the title as it contrast ... Read More
HPX 500 = Has Potential X-factor
Category: P2
John Lamb at John Lamb Films has become the first person to try out VMI’s new Panasonic HPX 500 cameras, which are rapidly being seen across the industry as a tapeless replacement for the reliable Sony DSR 570 workhorse but in High Definition. And hi ... Read More
VMI makes substantial investment in new kit
Category: Other
In recent months, VMI has spent over £500,000 in upgrading and adding to its kit hire list. This has included a complete overhaul of the camera fleet, investing in the very latest models from Sony and Panasonic to make sure its clients have the best ... Read More
Agile Films Shoot Virtual Campaign
Category: DVCPro/Varicam
“Parcour” is the title of this very exciting and creative production by Agile films. Featuring street acrobatics is cool enough, but this production also uses well-known London landmarks to act as spectacular backdrops for this project.
Agile fil ... Read More
VMI welcomes its 5,000th attendee to HD seminars
Category: Other
VMI’s MD Barry Bassett, has been a prolific evangelist of HD over the past 4 years. He has been instrumental in spreading the good news of HD and its merits far and wide by introducing this technology to a wide spectrum of industry professionals incl ... Read More
Sensitive Skin II
Category: HDCAM
Baby Cow productions has recently completed shooting the second series of the drama Sensitive Skin, staring the wonderful Joanna Lumley.
Patrick Duvall, the DoP who shot the first and second series said “I was encouraged by the success of series on ... Read More
Stink Productions crack it with Egg Commercial
Category: DVCPro/Varicam
When London based Stink Productions were commissioned to produce a series of commercials for the new Egg card, producer Juliet Naylor said “the production team were faced with many, creative and technical challenges”.
These commercials were directed ... Read More
Low-budget solution via HD
Category: HDCAM
Sillwood Films found two solutions for the production of their latest film, SAXON: one was a specially-structured tax rebate scheme for investors, and
the other was to use High Definition.
SAXON follows ex convict Eddie back to the corrupt housing ... Read More
Bad Vibes in the Studio
Category: HDCAM
S2S Post have been having a macabre time with Reverb, a horror movie set in the claustrophobic confines of a recording studio. The Film is the debut feature of Writer/Director Eitan Arusi.
Alex and Maddy, two guerilla musicians, set about laying dow ... Read More
VMI INVEST £1/2m in the next generation of HD camcorders
Category: Other
VMI has just increased its inventory of HD equipment with a major £1/2m investment in the next generation of HD camcorders. “There has been an explosion in the number of new HD camcorders being released, so we bought all of them for maximum choice”, ... Read More
Shaking Dream Land
Category: HDCAM
“When we embarked on Shaking Dream Land, we were first-time feature-makers. We had only produced shorts and documentaries before, so we tried to surround ourselves with a mix of talent,” remembers Katrina Moss, one of the all-woman
trio behind Eagl ... Read More
VMI sides with the Tyne
Category: HDCAM
Tyne Newcastle-based Pinball Films are just producing their final cut of Kaz, shot in Berlin and the UK, for less than EUR1million, thanks to a consortium including VMI.
The feature film, about a feisty music journalist who discovers she’s inherite ... Read More
Green light for HD
Category: DVCPro/Varicam
It was no giant leap for DoP Damian Elliott to choose a Panasonic Varicam when Northern Ireland’s Tourist Board asked 4X4 Production and Post for footage of their thirty major attractions.
Says Damian:” We could have used Super 16 film -the budget w ... Read More
Plastics wins gold
Category: Other
A pumped-up, overblown thriller of a teen flick which gets rudely invaded by sci-fi...” says Plastic’s official synopsis: it won top prize at this year’s VMI - sponsored Curzon High Definition Shorts festival.
Its hero Matt is obsessed with prom que ... Read More
“Lorenz, Set Me Free”
Category: DVCPro/Varicam
BigHead Media certainly brought the magic of lenses to bear on their recent promo video Lorenz, Set me Free.
Says Producer/ Director Martin Pickering “We wanted to make the video look as if it had been shot on film, since the video budget was way b ... Read More
HD Optics By Barry Bassett MBA Managing Director, VMI
Category: Other
There are wide differences between Standard Definition, High Definition, cine-style, video-style, Electronic News Gathering (ENG) lenses and cinematography lenses, as well as HD and film primes.
The type of production dictates what style of optics i ... Read More
Lady Godiva
Category: HDCAM
How many 90-minute features with a £1.4 million budget do you know which have been written and directed by a 20-year-old with her own film company?
Well, Lady Godiva is one. What’s more, Director Vicky Jewson’s been a digital devotee since she made ... Read More
Granada ANGLIA’S New Wildlife Series for National Geographic
Category: HDCAM
Granada Anglia have worked extensively in the US for a number of broadcasters over the last six years. Recently winning a major commission from National Geographic for a 13 part Wildlife series, however, gave Granada Anglia the opportunity to move in ... Read More
Perfect Woman
Category: HDCAM
Most crews - film or otherwise - would be in a rush to create ‘the perfect woman’. But one week? That was the challenge facing Olympus Productions recently, and High Definition provided the answer . Neil Johnson, the Supervising DoP, looks back on “m ... Read More
LESSONS FOUND IN LOST WORLDS
Category: HDCAM
Atlantic Productions are currently shooting over 20 hours of HD television material across the globe, for major companies like The History Channel, National Geographic and The Discovery Channel. Ruth Sessions, Head of Production at Atlantic, says:” H ... Read More
Popcorn
Category: HDCAM
This 90-minute comedy starring Jack Ryder and Jodi Albert follows the lovelorn Danny as he takes a job at the local multiplex so he can be near the girl of his dreams -only to find out that his first day is her last.
But “lovelorn” is certainly not ... Read More
Tutankhamun’s clue to planetary chaos
Category: HD Post Production
This scarab-beetle on Tutankhamun’s necklace represents the life-giving Egyptian Sun-God. But scientists say the natural glass it is made of came from a cosmic calamity that could repeat itself at any time.
Tutankhamun’s Fireball tells of the quest ... Read More
IN THE FRAME
Category: DVCPro/Varicam
Barry Bassett, Managing Director of VMI, explains the intricacies of frame-rate conversion. for international co-productions
In an international HD co-production, you will encounter the problem of differing frame rate compatibility between the USA/ ... Read More
Lighting for High Definition cameras By Paul Wheeler, BSc, FBKS
Category: Other
There are many myths about lighting for HD cameras: let’s see if we can substantiate or dispel some of them.
You need less light - Producers would love to believe this, but unfortunately in 98% of cases this simply is not true - sorry Mr Producer!
... Read More
Painting with HD
Category: Other
High Definition enthusiast and DoP Joe Dyer originally trained in Fine Arts,particularly portraiture, and developed all the artist’s painstaking devotion to image.
That devotion has stayed with him through an enviable filming career as an award-winn ... Read More
LESSONS FROM DADDY
Category: HDCAM
Katie Bevell is a producer and, since her background is very much production-orientated, also the line producer of the 14-minute short Daddy (working title), a dark drama which explores how Damien’s involvement with a paedophile ring affects his prev ... Read More
HD’S TECHNICAL VERSATILITY CUTS COSTS
Category: Other
When Polish director Edward Porembny visited his roots to shoot a bittersweet examination of middle-age, little did he know he would be recording the demise of his beloved Poland . Or that he would blaze a technical trail with his use of High Definit ... Read More