#shoothd

An immaculate BMW i3 has been shot to within an inch of it’s life - we can report. In a quiet Bath City backwater, DOP Robert Shacklady lined up the perfectly innocent little car in the sights of a Shoot HD 17-120mm Canon lens and then repeatedly pressed the trigger on an Arri Amira. Some of his best shots came when he deployed the Ronford-Baker 4ft slider as he mercilessly raked the vehicle with one shot after another.

Above: a ‘manic’ Shacklady locked, loaded and ready to roll.

“I couldn’t believe what I was seeing” reported eye-witness Robert Momber (23) “the more he shot the more he was grinning as if he just didn’t care”. Momber, who is now recovering from his ordeal in a nearby hostelry, captured some of the shooting on a Go-pro Hero 4 and we hope to bring you some of the actual footage as soon as it is cleared for public consumption.

Also present at the scene was Paul Hellard (38), a professional Sound Recordist and owner of Shoot HD at Pinewood Film Studios which supplies high-end camera kit to the film & Television industry. “It was breathtaking” said Hellard “the camera is completely silent so we had no idea he was shooting until we heard his (Shacklady) manic laughter and we turned around to witness him re-loading”. Mr Hellard is also now recovering in a nearby hostelry.

No prizes for guessing where Shoot HD have landed up this week - that’s right, under the Eiffel Tower in Las Vegas, where else could we go but NAB to get a first look on your behalf of all the latest cameras, lenses and shooting kit. You can rely on us to order up all the best bits and have it available for you guys to hire just as fast as we can.

SEEING RED

RED WEAPON

We make a point of ensuring our Shoot HD RED cameras are bang up to date, so we’ll be checking out RED WEAPON™ (above) the latest digital camera to be added to the RED DRAGON family that combines optimal color science and dynamic range of the 19 megapixel RED DRAGON® sensor.

  4K CRACKERS

ARRI ALEXA MINI

We’ll be looking to complement the Shoot HD 4k AMIRA line up with the new ARRI ALEXA MINI (above). Compact, lightweight and self-contained. Crews will find that the ALEXA Mini perfectly complements their shooting kit, eliminating the complications of working with third-party cameras for specialized shots and keeping everything within a single system that is trusted all over the world.

CANON C300 MK11

Of course Shoot HD are at NAB to see the CANON 4K EOS C300 Mark II cinema EOS camcorder (above) unveiled. It features a new 9.84 megapixel Super 35mm CMOS image sensor that offers a maximum ISO of 102,400 and 15 stops of dynamic range.

We’ll also be looking at some fun stuff like the the World’s smallest HD monitor (below) from British company High Performance Media Technology.

HI-DEF ADAM

The BBC is to screen The Gospel of John this Easter. Filmed by Shoot HD DOP Ben Hodgson, it’s scheduled to be shown as three one-hour features from Good Friday morning and on Netflix from April 7th. Ben chose to shoot Red 4k with Zeiss lenses.

Epic choice

The initial format decision was taken when the project started in early 2010. A lot has happened with cameras since and opting for the then relatively new Red 4k proved to be a wise future-proofing decision at a time when other realistic camera options comprised Arri’s D21, the Silicon Imaging Si 2K, Super 35mm, Super 16mm and HD/pro-35 tape formats.

Trans Atlas

Having a complete shooting package that could deliver cameras and lenses as well as pulling together transcoding and offer production immediate 2k playback review was also a key requirement. A fully kitted out, air conditioned Love Film camera/wrangling vehicle travelled overland from the UK, over the Atlas mountains to Quazazarte Film Studios, Morocco.

All Your Shoot Needs

It's kit combinations just like this that Shoot HD specialise in. Whether it’s a single camera kit, or you need all the lights, grip and DIT kit too, we’ll make sure that it all comes together in the right place and at the right price. The Shoot HD team work with DOP's, Production Managers & Directors, building shoot specific packages.

Glasgow based Finestripe Productions whose film The Day Kennedy Died was nominated for a 2014 BAFTA, came to ShootHD for kit and crew to film at Althorp House for their Million Dollar Princesses production.

Executive Produced by Sue Summers and presented by Downton Abbey star Elizabeth McGovern, Producer/Director Michael Burke dedicated three cameras to the shoot in order to minimise re-set time and maximise the shooting day.

A Plant Room Sony F5 camera with a Canon 17-120mm was supplemented with a Ronin mounted Canon c300 with 35mm EF prime and an additional Canon c300 dedicated to a Jimmy Jib with 16-35mm lens.

Above: Check out what the Ronin could do for your shoot

To mark the return of apocalypse drama the Walking Dead on NowTV, Producer Jamie MacDonald and Director Paul Wilkinson came to Shoot HD for cameras & crew to film a zombie-attack on a North London petrol station. The 30" & 40" promos will play at petrol station check-outs around the UK and show the forecourt being swamped with flesh-hungry zombies.

Wilkinson called in 20 zombie re-enactors and unleashed them in the dead of night and filmed the ensuing chaos. 1st AD Nick Goulden turned zombie wrangler for the night and skilfully avoided being bitten. DOP Ben Hodgson left Shoot HD's Red and Amira cameras on the shelf in favour of a couple of c300's, a box of primes and a ladderpod. "We had to resist the temptation to go for a cinematic look as we needed to emulate a cctv look" said Ben "we considered using a portable multi mini-cam rig as well as a dozen Go-pro's, but opted for two c300's as they gave the best low-light latitude as well as falling within a limited budget". Lenses used were a Canon 16-35mm zoom, Canon 24mm & 50mm prime.

For lighting, a couple of bi-colour led panel lights were used for fill and one Dedo 575hmi for a shadow effect, otherwise it was down to the low available light. "I wanted to shoot around a stop of F.11 to keep the deep focus cctv look and set an iso of 5,000 which we upped to 10,000 for the penultimate shot where a marauding zombie takes a side-swipe at the camera."

Above: Shoot HD's Robert Momber lines up a zombie to shoot

This is Shoot HD's first commission from WCRS and we had a lot of fun shooting zombies with them - who wouldn't! We're certainly looking forward to our next project with the team and who knows, we may even get to break out some of our Arri Amiras, DJI Ronins and a bunch of other cinematic toys - stay tuned!

Shoot HD supplies cameras, lights and sound for Eagle Rock's 90min BBC documentary 'Genesis: Together & Apart'. Dop Graham Day took 3 x Canon c300's and recordist Paul Hellard met a challenging sound brief (no personals/wide lens 3 shot).

The team behind last year's #RTSAward winning 'You Too Can Be An Absolute Genius' now brings you 'Appsolute Genius'. Shoot HD DOP Ben Hodgson who worked with Director James Millar on both shows and shot the Tokyo links with Rima Sen says "Send your kids to tidy their bedrooms while you plonk yourself down in front of the telly to enjoy some classic #dick&dom

Shoot HD’s own Robert Momber is moving up in the film & TV industry - by spending most of the night perched at the top of a ladder-pod operating a #shoothdcamera

Sadly we are honour bound to keep everyone in the dark about this project for a few more nights, but we can say that the whole shoot was filmed in low light conditions at a secret North London location where Canon c300’s were used to emulate a 12 camera CCTV rig to film a highly classified ‘undead’ event.