Sinatra''s Story, HD Style

DP/digital imaging technician Dan Coplan says an HD shoot for director Christopher Olgiati's new documentary on the life of Frank Sinatra, Sinatra: The Untold Story, proved “quite educational: in terms of learning how far high-definition production equipment can be pushed in compromised circumstances, producing stylized imagery without sacrificing high-quality. The feature-length documentary has already aired in Germany and the UK on BBC One. It's expected to be broadcast on A&E in the United States and France in the next several months.

Coplan says the production used Panasonic's AJ-HDC27 Varicam as its “workhorse” across the U.S. and Cuba as filmmakers shot sequences in locations that played important roles in Sinatra's life.

"It wasn't feasible to bring a big crew, and we had a very tight schedule, so my background as a digital imaging technician as well as DP served us well in painting and engineering the camera on the spot," he explains. "We relied mainly on one lens--a Canon 11x4.7 HD ENG lens that includes an extender. Thanks to its portability, an LCD monitor served as our main reference for most of the shoot. I did extensive testing before we went into production, so I was aware of monitoring differences and how to compensate."

One of the production's innovations included the use of the new Cine SpeedCam HD recording system from Switzerland's Weinberger Company. The system was supplied by Band Pro in Burbank, Calif., and outfitted with Zeiss SuperSpeed prime lenses. That system was used as a data capture device to record sequential TIFF images, captured between 700fps and 1,000fps, for historical re-creations of images requiring extreme slow motion effects, such as a bullet fired from an assassin's gun. Coplan says the device made a great contribution to the program.

"The camera records to a hard drive, and is controlled by a PC," Coplan explains. "One cool thing about it is you can get an instant preview of the effect before the final rendered version, so you can see what you need to adjust instantly. We had considered doing some of our slow-motion on film, because the Varicam couldn't go slow enough for what we had planned, but we chose (the Cine SpeedCam) option instead, and it worked out beautifully."

The lens was chosen because of the range it provided. "The wide end gave us great scale for establishing shots, while the telephoto end was used for detail shots and interviews," he adds.

Coplan also says that he used a variety of compact production tools as part of his gear package, which was easier for the small crew and multiple destinations. Examples include the MicroDolly (lightweight, collapsible dolly tracks); Supergrip (a camera plate mount using a big suction cup for car mounting a camera); and the CamRail, a remote-controlled, motorized dolly; among others.