'ANYWHERE, U.S.A,' DEBUT FEATURE SHOT WITH AG-HVX200 P2 HD CAMCORDER, SELECTED FOR DRAMATIC COMPETITION AT 2008 SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL

December 19, 2007

Source: Panasonic

When choosing a camera for his debut feature, Anywhere, U.S.A., filmmaker Anthony (Chusy) Haney-Jardine selected Panasonic's AG-HVX200 P2 HD camcorder, as "the project just might be seen somewhere." That "somewhere" for Anywhere has turned out to be one of the film industry's most coveted stages, the Sundance Film Festival (Park City, UT, January 17 - 27), where the movie will have its world premiere as one of 16 entrants in the 2008 Dramatic Competition.

Told in three segments ranging from satirical to tragic, Anywhere, U.S.A. takes a wildly original look at American manners, prejudices, and family dynamics. The movie was directed and written by Haney-Jardine, who shares the screenwriting credit with his wife, producer Jennifer MacDonald. The director of photography was Patrick Rousseau, a veteran camera operator on such top television series as Mad Men, Carnivàle, Six Feet Under and Arrested Development.

Haney-Jardine's background in commercial production had encompassed shooting with Panasonic's AG-DVX100 series mini-DV 24p camcorders. "That camera really opened things up in terms of achieving a filmic aesthetic with video," the director said. "The HVX200, with a similar form factor, again puts a cinematic texture within the reach of unproven filmmakers, along with the benefits of off-speed shooting, tapeless production and HD image quality."

Haney-Jardine purchased two HVX200s for the production, one used solely for back-up. Anywhere, U.S.A was shot on location in Asheville, NC in "fits and bursts" throughout 2006 and 2007 to accommodate DP Rousseau's busy schedule. Shooting took place during the extremes of winter (snow in the mountains) and summer (temperatures at 100°F.) The cast was comprised largely of local amateurs, with the notable exception of the filmmaker's daughter, 10-year-old Perla Haney-Jardine, who appeared in Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill: Vol. 2 and will be seen in Michael Winterbottom's upcoming Genova, starring Colin Firth.

The director emphasized that, despite its independent film pedigree, Anywhere, U.S.A was shot classically, with tripod ( Cartoni Focus Fluid Head System), formal lighting (HMIs and Kino Flos), a full complement of jibs (Glidecam Camcrane 200) and dollies. A Panasonic BT-LH1700W LCD monitor was used for on-set monitoring and shot framing.

"We had an untrained cast and, although we were scripted, we would often finish writing a scene while Patrick was setting up his shot," Haney-Jardine said. "The HVX200 allowed me to work nimbly in these fluid situations, and because of its small size, the camera was unobtrusive and didn't intimidate the actors. Also, the HVX200 is exceptionally rugged--we abused it."

"One would expect an HD camera to respond well to underexposure but I was afraid of shooting exteriors, which we had a lot of," said DP Rousseau. "I really wanted to use the sun as a backlight and it turned out
that the camera handled the hot backlight beautifully, keeping detail where I expected there to be none. I
was really surprised!"

"The default color rendition was a little too saturated for the look of this movie, but we were able to dial it down easily in the menus," he continued. "The ability to manipulate the look in the menus is an incredible feature. We were able to come up with a look that was perfect through the use of the film gamma settings and taking down the color saturation."

"As with dynamic range, I was initially skeptical of the HVX200's off-speed feature, but after shooting tests, I saw how beautiful it was and we used it several times in the film," Rousseau said. "The variable frame rates are a great asset. I was also a little anxious about the tapeless P2 system, thinking that it would be too delicate for shooting in extreme weather conditions in the mountains of North Carolina, but this also performed flawlessly."

Rousseau shot at 720p/24pN direct to P2 cards. "When one card became full, we would eject it and start ingesting to our AJ-PCS060G P2 Store," Haney-Jardine said. "After ingesting, we would connect the P2 Store via USB to a laptop and use the import P2 feature within Final Cut Pro. Our back-up disk was always a 250GB OWC FW-800 external hard drive. We would repeat this process throughout the day, formatting cards after importing their contents."

The director edited Anywhere, U.S.A. on Final Cut Pro v.5.1.4 operating on a PowerPC G5, with 7TB Apple Xserve RAID system and 250GB OWC FW-800 hard drives for backup. Final color correction will be done at post-production house Optimus ( Chicago, IL ).

"With the advent the HVX200, the only limitation to high-quality HD production is your imagination," said Haney-Jardine. "The camera let me express myself freely and beautifully. There's no excuse if you want to make a film—here's the tool to do it."

For more information about the 2008 Sundance Film Festival, visit http://www.sundance.org/festival

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