Press Release
Panasonic AJ-HDC27 VariCam HD Cinema Camera Goes Stormchasing for Nature's Most Violent Tornado
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SECAUCUS, NJ (Feb. 17, 2004) -- Hunt for the Supertwister, a new NOVA/PBS documentary profiling the latest research and discoveries in tornado prediction, was shot with Panasonic’s AJ-HDC27 VariCam™ HD Cinema camera. The program was produced by Thomas Lucas Productions, Inc. (Ossining, NY), with Tom Lucas as producer/director and Rich Lerner as Director of Photography.
Hunt for the Supertwister, which airs on Tuesday, March 30th at 8 p.m. EST on NOVA/PBS, features noted researchers Howie Bluestein and Joshua Wurman of the University of Oklahoma – rival stormchasers who have perfected the art of tracking down tornadoes with instrument-laden vehicles designed to gather data as close to the churning twisters as possible. Also featured are Kelvin Droegemeier of the University of Oklahoma and Lou Wicker of the National Severe Storms Laboratory, who are independently creating computer models that provide insights into the intricate sequence steps that goes into spawning a twister. The collective goal is to provide more warning for all tornadoes, especially “supertwisters,” classed F4 or F5 on the Fujita scale of 0-5. A F5 tornado’s winds swirl at speeds that may exceed 300 miles, destroying virtually everything in its path.[an error occurred while processing this directive]
The United States has the highest incidence of tornadoes in the world. Most of these storms occur in a region known as Tornado Alley that stretches across the Midwestern and Southern states, especially Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, and Iowa—all among the locations for Hunt for the Supertwister.
Lucas was the co-producer/director and Lerner the co-DP of the acclaimed 1985 NOVA special, “Tornado!” which followed a group of scientists who chart tornadoes in an effort to learn more about predicting nature’s most powerful and elusive weather phenomenon. That show has been credited as the inspiration for the blockbuster feature film, “Twister.”
Lucas chose to work with Panasonic’s AJ-HDC27 VariCam because it replicates many of the key features of film-based image acquisition, including 24-frame progressive scan images, time lapse recording, and a wide range of variable frame rates (4-fps to 60-fps in single-frame increments) for “overcranked” and “undercranked” off-speed in-camera effects. The AJ-HDC27 VariCam also features CineGamma™ software that permits Panasonic’s HD Cinema camera systems to more closely match the latitude of film stocks.
Panasonic’s AG-DVX100 24p Mini-DV 3-CCD camcorder was the back-up camera on the 9 -week shoot. Given the ever-present stormy conditions, another essential piece of equipment was Spintech’s Rain Deflector (RD) system, which places a clear piece of Tiffen glass in front of the camera lens and spins it very fast, thus forcing rain to the edges of the unit and draining it away without compromising the shot. The VariCam and Spintech system were rented from Abel Cine Tech (New York, NY), with the AG-DVX100 provided by the DP.
While Hunt for the Supertwister will feature several interviews shot indoors, the majority of the shoot was done outdoors, often in moving vehicles and in the sort of severe thunderstorm conducive to the formation of tornadoes. A typical shot had Lerner holding the Spintech-equipped VariCam and shooting the radar truck out the open, sliding door of a mini-van, all in driving rain. When the DP had to instantaneously take advantage of a shot, he had the AG-DVX100 bungee cord-mounted in the front seat, and would often shoot with the camcorder through the front window.
Lerner said, “I purchased the AG-DVX100 late last year, and 24p has completely changed the way I feel about video. Of all the HD cameras, I prefer the way the VariCam looks; it has great hand-hold-ability—critical for this shoot—and, very importantly, it offered us variable frame rate and shutter options.” He continued, “The value of VariCam as a low-cost imaging medium—roughly
$60 for 46 minutes of video—can’t be overstated. We could take advantage of a much longer roll time than one could afford with film to capture the ever elusive lightning strike that would take a great landscape shot and make it amazing.
“We shot 24p in the CineGamma mode, making certain adjustments. In very high contrast, you have to make some compromises. We used the sky as a character in our drama. It was dark, brooding, scary—but we wanted as much detail as possible. The VariCam gave us a tremendous amount of tonal range—grey, grey/green, black. The camera has really great color rendition; I felt we really got what we saw, particularly with some subtle emerald greens.”
Lerner added, “We shot a lot of time lapse. We’d shoot at 4-fps, thereby taking less time and using up less drive space for post production, and then extract the video using Panasonic’s Frame Rate Converter. While shooting time lapse with the VariCam, we’d often use the AG-DVX100 to shoot the scientists, or even use the DV camcorder as a second time-lapse camera. With the VariCam, I did a fair amount of running shots at frame rates below 24-fps, e.g., 6- 12-fps, which gave an energy effect to the sequence. Also, in a typical set-up of scientists gathered around a computer, which can be necessary to the story but a bit dull, the VariCam gave me options as a DP to do something in camera. With the slower frame rates rendered in real time, which you can see in the view finder and play back through the camera I was able to bring a cinematic, visceral energy to the situation and share the look with my director on the spot. I really took advantage of the variable shutter and off-speed, hoping to give the editor lots of choices in post.”
Producer/director Lucas recounted, “We tested the camera in pre-production, and in a previous standard def show, and loved the look of it. HD allows us to keep costs under control and maintain high standards, and 24p only increases those options. And what we can get with the Panasonic Varicam camera is increased mobility and off-speed shooting.” He continued, “The video we shot for the upcoming special looks wonderful—
the colors are vibrant and the contrast is really pretty good. We intend to blend our footage with some very high resolution simulations of thunderstorms created at the University of Illinois’ National Center for Supercomputing Applications.”
Lucas said that post-production included off-line edit with Avid Express Pro, followed by an HD conform at NOVA, using the series’ Avid DS system. All the material (including some stock and amateur storm chaser video in a variety of analog and digital formats) was converted to 1080i during the assembly, creating a 1080i master that will be downconverted to NTSC and PAL for broadcast.
For more information on Panasonic’s VariCam and HD Cinema product lineup, visit www.panasonic.com/hdworld.
Panasonic Broadcast & Television Systems Co. is a leading supplier of broadcast, professional video and presentation products and systems. Panasonic Broadcast is a unit company of Matsushita Electric Corporation of America, the principal North America subsidiary of Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. (NYSE: MC), one of the world’s leading producers of electronic and electric products for consumer, business and industrial use. For more information on Panasonic Broadcast products, access the company’s web site at www.panasonic.com/broadcast.
In its 31st year of broadcast, NOVA, produced for PBS by the WGBH Science Unit, is the most watched science television series in the world and the most watched documentary series on PBS. It is also one of television’s most acclaimed series, having won every major television award, most of them many times over. Access NOVA’s web site at www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova.
Visit Thomas Lucas Productions on line at www.tlproductions.com.
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