David Fincher’s “Zodiac” Shot With Grass Valley Viper FilmStream Camera System
When award-winning director David Fincher’s “Zodiac” hits movie screens worldwide today, it marks the first time that a major studio feature has been shot and produced digitally without the use of videotape or compression.
The hard drive-based datacentric workflow for “Zodiac” began with Fincher’s use of the Grass Valley™ Viper FilmStream Camera™ system from Thomson (Euronext Paris: 18453; NYSE: TMS). Fincher worked with Grass Valley and its partner companies to develop and implement this next generation of digital, disk-based workflows following many Viper-shot commercials including those for Nike, Xelibri, HP, Motorola, Lexus, and Heineken.
Lensed in San Francisco and Los Angeles, principal photography on “Zodiac” lasted 117 days and made use of two Viper cameras with Zeiss DigiPrime lenses shooting in uncompressed 10-bit 4:4:4 1920×1080/24p FilmStream mode with a 2.37:1 anamorphic aspect ratio. Data from the Viper cameras as well as on-set metadata fed a rotating group of 20 D.MAG (Digital Magazines) removable hard drives loaded in Digital Film Recorders (DFRs) from S.two Corporation of Reno, Nev. This equipment was rented from, and supported by, The Camera House in North Hollywood, Calif.
Captured on-set data was transferred from D.MAG to LTO-3 data tapes using S.two’s A.Dock where images would go through quality control and inspection and then two additional LTO-3 clones were made as back-up files.
At times, up to six Viper cameras were used, including scenes at San Francisco’s KGO-TV studios, where the Viper cameras were mounted inside the empty shells of studio broadcast cameras for point-of-view (POV) shots.
Fincher’s next feature, “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” which began principal photography in New Orleans last fall, is currently shooting with four Viper cameras and recording once again, to the S.two disk based systems.
For more on the tapeless digital acquisition and workflow of “Zodiac,” visit http://www.grassvalley.com/news/2007/assets/zodiac/
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For information about Grass Valley products from Thomson please visit www.thomsongrassvalley.com.
Media Relations:
Denise Williams
Phone: (503) 526 8160
Fax: (503) 526 8109
denise.williams@thomson.net
