Plus8 Video Rents HD Gear to New Documentary

Burbank, CA -- Plus8 Video, the first rental company to offerdigital HD production technology, furnished a Sony HDW-F900 HDcamcorder package to producers Dan Weisburd and Steve Elkins for theirnew one-hour documentary "Coming of Age at High Risk".

Elkins, who was also Director of Photography, used the versatileHDCAM camcorder in its 24P Mode on shoots in Los Angeles, Sacramento,and the Bay area. The documentary, which will be offered to PBSstations nationwide in the early fall, was funded by the CaliforniaDepartment of Mental Health. It examines the high risk behaviors girlsas young as six or eight fall prey to including eating disorders,depression, and self mutilation.

The program features a number of health and wellness professionalssuch as Richard MacKenzie, M.D., the head of adolescent medicine atChildren’s Hospital, Los Angeles; Lynn Ponton, M.D., professor ofpsychiatry at the University of California/SAN Francisco MedicalSchool; Francine Kaufman, M.D., pediatric endocrinologist and presidentof the American Diabetes Association; and Kathy Kaehler, author andpersonal fitness trainer.

But at the core of the documentary are the frank, sensitiveportraits of girls experiencing these issues first hand.

"The star of the documentary is the subject matter," says Weisburd,who also has writer and director credits on the project. "The HDW-F900camcorder and 24P HD format enabled us to field small crews whosepresence didn't get in the way of capturing the girls opening theirsouls to us. And we didn't have to consume a lot of time to getbeautiful images.”

Elkins convinced Weisburd to use 24P HD on the documentary after hewas introduced to the technology at Plus8 Video. "I tried the camera assoon as it was available," Elkins recalls. Plus8 president Marker(Karahadian) is so good about letting people try new products. I sawcomparison tests shot with 16 mm and 35 mm film, Digital Betacam, and24P and was very impressed with 24P’s results. For the firsttime, electronic imaging of video has a truly beautiful look. With amodest amount of money and a small crew you can have a big-film lookyou could never have before.”

Plus8 supplied Elkins with an HDW-F900 package that included a newFujinon HD zoom lens and a portable Sony HD monitor. "The lens islighter and smaller than those previously available from Fujinon orother manufacturers," Elkins reports.

"Shooting 24 P wide open most of the time gave us a soft colorrendition, a subtlety you don't see on studio material on television,"says Weisburd "Even when I had a low -resolution Avid AVR 3 VHS copy athome you could still see how beautiful the imagery was." Editor CarolOblath “didn't have to shy away from any coverage” of aballet sequence featuring a room with big mirrors and bright sunstreaming through the windows,” Weisburd adds. “It was amagnificent shot; she didn't have to dodge any burned outspots.”

Elkins' notes “that Plus8 supports its customers efforts 100percent. The engineering staff is always helpful and available. Youknow how you always make some mistakes the first time shooting? I wasin San Francisco when I got some strange read outs in the viewfinderand didn't know what they meant. I got Plus8 on the phone right away,VP of engineering Keith McGuire and camera tech Juan Corona knew what Iwas talking about and helped me adjust the camera for what I needed todo."

Elkins' points out that Plus8 also provided facilities for viewingfootage in an HD environment as well as 24P HD down conversion toDigital Betacam for the Avid edit. Plus8 Video subsequently supplied anHDW-F900 to Elkin's for “Motel,” a movie for Germantelevision, which he shot at 25P HD.