We just got back from an intense 20 day shoot in Valencia filming some scenes for a feature-doc commissioned by the owners of Oracle, following the BMW Oracle team as they competed and eventually won the 33rd America’s Cup.
We filmed on 2 Sony PDW800s, a Sony EX3 and we had two Cineflexes, one on a chopper and one on a boat, both recording onto SR decks. We had a mixture of lenses: 2 x Canon HJ22, 2 x Canon HJ11, 2 x Canon HJ40, 1 x Schwem and 2 x Pro35 with various sets of prime lenses.
We brought in Christian and Mike from HD-Skycam.tv to take care of the gyro-stabilised Cineflex systems.
The Cineflex mounted on the rear of a chase boat
Christian setting up his workstation
Monitors and recorders
Filming the Oracle during practice
It was amazing to be able to film with the Cineflex on water. What an experience. Rough waves, smooth waves, it made no difference. The pictures were steady as a rock and we could film from an extraordinary distance. Its an expensive toy to have compared to the lens usually used when filming on water, the ‘ol Schwem lens, what a difference in quality!
The Schwem is a bit of a dinasour, but there aren’t any alternatives, they are to expensive to produce. It was designed during SD times and with all the years of their lives on water, salt creeping into the glass and all the elements means that used on HD a camera the pictures turn out a little soft and murky.
The second cineflex on the chopper
The Rising Sun. The 4th largest private yacht in the world, owned by Mr Larry Ellison
Adam driving his private yacht…erm, I mean the chase boat…
Larry Ellison leant us his private cat from which to film the race from. The set up wasn’t as easy as the original chase boat we had; it was an open hull and everything was exposed to the elements which meant at the end of the day we had to take everything off and annoyingly would have to put it all back again the next time we went out.
The positive was that with the camera on the front of the boat we had uninterrupted 220 degree views.
After a particular heavy session of filming in big swells, sea water managed to get into the little nooks and crannies of the Cineflex casing which caused major problems, a steamed up lens and some kind of kink in the calibration. Christian and Mike from HD-Skycam.tv went out of their way to replace it with another camera which they had someone drive over from Germany!
Christian, the operator and Mike, the technician, work as a fantastic team and I can’t recommend them highly enough, they are absolute pros! Christian is one of the best Cineflex operators I have come across and has a great photographic eye. Mike is superb with technical solutions. He is able to mount camera’s in the most extreme situations and positions.
The weather changes from bright and sunny to gusty, wet and cold!
The Oracle, winner of the 33rd America's Cup
Left to Right: Simon Burles (Soundman), Adam Docker, Larry Ellison and the America's Cup
Photos courtesy of Mike@HD-SKYCAM.TV