This year at NAB, AbelCine is exhibiting the latest technology in Phantom high-speed cinematography, digital cinema, broadcast, compact cine and high-end optics in our booth. In addition to this, we have launched two new departments, Digital Media Services and Training to better serve our clients. Watch our booth preview to see a sneak peek of some of the equipment we are showcasing.  Stay tuned for more reports from the floor of NAB 2011.

Last year on this blog we discussed a number of feature films that were currently in production using the Aaton Penelope 2-perf / 3-perf switchable 35mm camera. Now, with several of these high-profile projects about to be released, here’s a recap of a few of Penelope’s credits.

The Fighter, directed by David O’Russell, is a film inspired by the life of boxer “Irish” Micky Ward. The production considered shooting on digital, 16mm and 3-perf with various cameras but ultimately decided to use Penelope because of the 2-perf cost savings and the easy handheld capability. Renting two cameras through Abel Cine Tech, the production worked fast, averaging 36 set-ups per day. Camera Assistant Gregory Irwin pointed out that the “Penelope camera is smaller and lighter than any other studio package,” allowing the production to get almost every shot hand-held or with a Steadicam – no need for tripods or dollies. For his part, DP Hoyte van Hoytema praised the camera’s “thoughtful design” and “human touch.” The Fighter will be in theaters this December and stars Mark Wahlberg, Amy Adams and Christian Bale. Watch the official trailer.

…continue reading Aaton Penelope Projects Hit Theaters this Winter

Caroline Champetier shoots with the Aaton Penelope

Among the winners at this year’s Cannes Film Festival was Xavier Beauvois’ Of Gods And Men (Des hommes et des dieux), based on a true story and shot on the Aaton Penelope. Revolving around a group of Cisternian monks facing threats from Islamic fundamentalists in the mountains of Algeria, the film brought home the Grand Prix, the second highest prize awarded at the festival.

For a film in which the landscape played such an important part, it was important for Beauvois to work with a Director of Photography that understood his vision – enter Caroline Champetier. “The first question we asked ourselves, Xavier and me, was that of format,” she says. They decided to use the Penelope and shoot in 2-perf in order to preserve the 2.35:1 aspect ratio.

Champetier praised the camera’s design and comfort: “It allowed me to have real stability…it’s long and its center of gravity is very low, the sight is clear and bright. This camera allowed me a subtle and sensitive accompaniment of movement…” She concludes that “it was particularly reassuring, intoxicating even, to realize that we had the perfect tool to translate exactly what we wanted onto film.”

The filmmakers also chose Aaton’s Cantar Digital Audio Recorder for its flexibility and ease-of-use. Read an in-depth interview with Champetier about her experiences shooting Of Gods And Men here (French).

Not all shoots take place on comfy sound stages. Currently in production, Thunder Perfect Mind takes place almost entirely on an ice-breaker ship off the coast of Antarctica. The movie is shooting on a pair of RED One cameras, as well as the Aaton Penelope 35mm camera, shooting in 2-perf. Much of the shooting is on the open decks of the ship, so the ASL Gear T-Bag is being used to protect the cameras from the salt water spray. At least one shot calls for the camera to start at the waterline pointing at the tip of an iceberg, and then dunk under to see the massive blue ice below.

The gear was rented out of Abel NY, and I built the package for the production to checkout. Putting the Penelope into the T-Bag worked beautifully. Here are some observations from that setup.

For the RED One camera, there’s a special enclosure that allows the use of the RED 5.6” LCD panel as a viewfinder. When the Penelope is in the T-Bag, the production will switch to the ASL Underwater 4” HD/SD SDI montior. We used a small AJA converter box to transform the Penelope’s composite video signal into a 4×3 SD-SDI feed. Everything is powered off of the camera’s batteries.

While the movie is mostly shooting on prime lenses, I took the opportunity to try out an Angenieux Optimo 15-40 on the Penelope inside the T-Bag (see picture below). There’s so much space inside the splash housing that the little zoom almost disappears! In fact, with a little wiggling we can even get the Angenieux Optimo 17-80 to fit.

Photo by Rebecca Sandulak

Mother’s Day, a dramatic thriller shot in 2perf, has recently finished production using the Aaton Penelope.  Filmed in Winnepeg, from the Director of Saw II, III and IV, Mother’s Day is a heartwarming, bloodcurdling story of a sadistic family who return to their childhood home to terrorize the new home owners and their guests.

In an interesting twist on the industry’s trend toward digital, Cinematographer Joseph White explained how he and Director Darren Lynn Bousman chose to shoot film.

“We shot Repo! The Genetic Opera on Genesis with great results, but we felt that this film lent itself to a more traditional approach. We wanted a more dramatic, dark, stark look, and 35mm just made the most sense. Darren had done three of the Saw films on 35mm, and although we loved using the Genesis system (for a really stylized movie), we were both really happy to get back to 35mm.”

According to Joe, once they settled on 35mm film the decision to shoot 2perf was driven by two complimentary factors.

“The obvious budgetary reasons for sure,” he said “but being able to shoot around 22 minutes on a 1,000′ mag and 9 minutes on a 400′ mag is pretty amazing. With the finer grained film stocks today, it’s really hard to tell the difference between 2perf and 3perf, so in my mind it was a win-win for me and the producers.”

As for camera choice, Joe used both Panavision in 2perf, as well as Aaton Penelope, and found the Penelope perfect for portability.

“We used Panaflex cameras for our studio cameras, but the Penelope was just incredible when shooting handheld, steadicam, or even just putting it on a sandbag with a long lens to get another angle fast – it was an incredibly versatile camera and gave us so many shooting options. It is really the only compact camera that can shoot 2perf.”

“It really is an impressive camera” Joe enthused. “Gorgeous video tap, very quiet, a dream on steadicam and shooting in cars – many car shots would not have been possible without the Penelope. It’s just such a sexy little camera with every bell and whistle you could want, while still getting the fundamentals right. A camera with a real design sensibility – it has so many uses.”

We asked Joe how he’d feel about using Penelope again on his next film project.

“Absolutely, in a heartbeat” he said. “Penelope is my new favorite camera.”

Mother’s Day is Joseph White’s twelfth feature film. Other credits include Shelter, Repo! The Genetic Opera, Equality U, Open House and Café, starring Jennifer Love Hewitt. Joe graduated from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts and received an MFA in Film Production from USC.

Mother’s Day stars Rebecca DeMornay and Jaime King. Joe’s crew on this project included operators Paul Suderman and Ari Robbins, along with AC’s Marcus James and Danny Quesnel.

If Indiana Jones were a cameraman his name would be Scott Duncan. An eight time Emmy award winner, Scott is known for his artistry as well as his sense of adventure. Scott has filmed inside war zones, on top of mountains and under raging rivers. Last month he used the new Aaton Penelope camera to shoot one of Manhattan’s most menacing marauders – Donald Trump.

The project was the opening of a brand new season of Celebrity Apprentice with The Donald and a gaggle of…celebrities (who we can’t name right now – you’ll know them when you see them). It proved an excellent opportunity for Scott to become acquainted with Penelope.

…continue reading Scott Duncan: First Impressions of Penelope

Geoff Haley (left), First Camera Assistant Gregory Irwin

Cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema has just completed principal photography on The Fighter, after a seven week production schedule, using Aaton Penelope cameras configured for 2-perf.

Perhaps the highest profile 2-perf movie since Sergio Leone pointed a Techniscope camera at Clint Eastwood, The Fighter is directed by David O. Russell and stars Mark Wahlberg, Christian Bale and Amy Adams. It is a drama about boxer “Irish” Micky Ward’s unlikely road to the world light-welterweight title and was shot on location in Lowell, Massachusetts.

…continue reading Penelope 2Perf Feature,The Fighter, Wraps