-
Is a Sony EX3 “Cinema/Movie Theater Ready”?
Hello,
I’m shooting a documentary in the UK and I was told by a rental house that whatever I shoot on the Sony EX3 will not be able to play in a Cinema or Movie Theater. Is this correct or does anyone know any suggestions/info on this topic? Thank you so much in advance! -
4 Replies
-
John,
That is not true. Movies like “Blair Witch Project” and others were partially or completely shot with even more inferior cameras. Sometimes it is for effect or other creative reasons that filmmakers choose “sub-standard” or “prosumer” quality technology, but usually, as I suspect in your case, it’s a matter if economics.
There are many better choices, such as Alexa, F65, F3 with external recorder, Red, or even film. I’m sure this is what the technician at the rental company means.
The requisites for quality vis-a-vis cinema projection are both in the camera, especially sensor size (35mm being a nominal standard) and in the recorder, where 10 bit color depth and 422 color sampling and as mild a compression scheme (or uncompressed) would be preferred.
The EX3 for example has a 1/2″ sensor and records at best at 420 8 bit in 35Mb size. It was really intended for low-end broadcasting.
Please don’t take any of this personally, because as I said at the beginning, you can still use whatever you want, it just makes it harder to achieve your goal of release in the cinema, except of course if you’re able to make up the technical deficiencies with your story telling ability and compelling topic or treatment.
JS
-
I believe the EX1 or EX3 was used to shoot last concert Michael Jackson’s rehearsals and then this footage was used on his film. If you’re going to use the EX3 then think about using an external recorder to take full advantage of the very efficient 1/2 sensors and it’s 10 bit / 4:2:2 video output port.
Good Luck
Michael Palmer -
Look at the following link for the Johny Depp movie….
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1152836/technical?ref_=tt_dt_spec
on that page you will see a EX-1 listed and was used to shoot the car scenes from the inside, as they could not get the bigger F23 camera inside the cars. There was a write up about this in Videography Magazine when the movie came out.
HTH
Bill Griffin
HD Cameraman
972-475-6870
http://www.dallascamguy.com
Dallas, Texas USA -
We used EX1s for Crank: High Voltage. In fact, that was the NICE camera in the arsenal. Most of the movie was shot HDV on a bunch of Canon XH-A1s.
Reply to this Discussion! Login or Sign Up