LOS ANGELES, CA. -- Noted director Gregory Nava and producer/director Barbara Martinez-Jitner have completed a 90-minute documentary, Gregory Nava on the American Dream in the 20th Century: The American Tapestry, that was shot and edited with Panasonic DVCPRO50 equipment. "Tapestry" premiered on Monday, Nov. 8, 1999 and aired throughout December on a national cable network.

Nava and Martinez-Jitner have significant experience in shooting video for film, and utilized the Panasonic DVCPRO format in two of their recent feature films, "Selena" and "Why Do Fools Fall In Love." "The American Tapestry" is an all-video production with three distinct segments, all related to the American experience of immigration and migration; Nava directed the first two segments, and Martinez-Jitner directed the last, the "Mexico sequence." She also served as producer and as one of the production's directors of photography.

"This is a big epic tale that includes sweeping vistas of the Grand Canyon and Ellis Island, as well as intimate close-ups of aging immigrants," said Martinez-Jitner. "In contrast to a feature film, we knew that we had to shoot a lot of footage. Film would have been far too expensive, but we were committed to finding a format that would give us beautiful, film-like image quality. DVCPRO50 fit the bill in every regard--the video is gorgeous, we could shoot long-format, the camcorder is rugged and unobtrusive, and editing in the format was altogether as versatile as we required."

The filmmakers shot with the AJ-D900WA 2/3-inch, 16:9/4:3 switchable 3-CCD DVCPRO50 camcorder, and did the on-line edit and extensive telecine work with two AJ-D950 DVCPRO50 studio VTRs.

"We were encouraged to adopt digital Beta and we evaluated it carefully, but didn't find it could rival DVCPRO50's deeper, richer resolution," recounted Martinez-Jitner. "Digi Beta didn't handle close-ups as well. DVCPRO50 simply doesn't feel like conventional video--it's warm, emotional, film-like." Martinez-Jitner directed and shot the Mexico Sequence about a modern border crossing between Tijuana and San Diego. "The AJ-D900WA easily withstood the Mexican desert heat and freezing New York City weather, and it was easy to travel with," she said. "The camcorder has great built-in filters that allowed us to make adjustments in gradations of light at a moment's notice. We weren't in a position where we could go in and re-light a factory!

"DVCPRO50 yields such a tremendous amount of resolution that it made our telecine work easier--again, it was as if we were working with film. There was depth of color, and the flexibility to perform a range of digital effects. Ultimately, it's an ideal format for the sort of 'guerrilla filmmaking' this project entailed. It gives the user a very fine look, pristine sound and the technology to do visually arresting effects." Switchable between tape-saving 25 Mbps ENG mode and 50 Mbps EFP or studio mode, DVCPRO50 equipment is the ideal dual-use format: high-quality component digital acquisition for ENG/EFP, and high-quality recording and editing for studio applications in television stations, production and post-production facilities. As a fully compatible extension of DVCPRO, DVCPRO50 products offer a digital video data rate of 50 Mbps, 3.3:1 DV-based compression, 4:2:2 signal processing and four 16-bit 48 kHz sampled channels of uncompressed digital audio.

Capable of recording either 16:9 or 4:3 images, the AJ-D900WA DVCPRO50 camcorder features three 2/3-inch (520,000 pixel in 16:9, and 400,000 pixel in 4:3 aspect ratios) M-FIT CCDs, 31 minutes of recording (63 minutes in DVCPRO), 10-bit digital processing and a signal-to-noise ratio of 63dB, and a minimum illumination of 1.6 lux. The camcorder consumes less than 28 watts of power and fully-operational weighs under 14 pounds. It offers as standard a bayonet mount for 2/3-inch lenses.

The AJ-D950 DVCPRO50 multi-standard studio VTR with built-in recording and playback offers compatibility between the 25 Mbps 4:1:1 and 50 Mbps 4:2:2 DVCPRO signal structures and is switchable between 525 (NTSC) and 625 (PAL). www.panasonic.com