Over the austral summer of 2006/2007 I used Sony’s XDCAM HD for a shoot in Antarctica requiring two months of demanding and remote fieldwork.
During the project’s four year gestation we pondered a number of formats from super 16mm, P2, Varicam and were initially attracted to XDCAM HD by Sony’s claims of a robust and reliable format. However there’s much more to XDCAM HD than simply reliability, and I found myself in for a very pleasant surprise.
The shoot just wrapped, still in Antarctica waiting for ship home and with the experience still fresh in my mind, I've posted this Blog as a reference to others considering the format for remote field work.
Very concisely – the feature length project commissioned for Australian and British TV is about polar explorer and scientist Douglas Mawson. It’s essentially a history film, with a contemporary element and re-enactment – hence our two months location-work on the Antarctic plateau.
We transported all of our film and survival equipment on three sleds towed behind skidoos and undoubtedly the greatest technical challenge was the relentless vibration the equipment was subject to. To further complicate travel, all six vehicles – 3 sleds and skidoos - were roped together so that should one break through into a crevasse there was some chance to recover the equipment and rider!
Antarctica’s interior is covered in sastrugi, sharp irregular grooves or ridges formed by wind erosion and deposition. Travel across them is a bone-jarring ride and this relentless shaking snapped components off the circuit board in a GPS, split a heavy metal fuel drum and perpetually rattled nuts and bolts out of mechanical items. I was horrified once to open the camera case and find the lens had been shaken off the camera body and bouncing about loose in the case! However, very impressively, over 500 kms of gruelling sled travel, the camera nor Fujinon XS13x3.3 lens skipped a beat.
The above pic shows one the camera sleds, and the daily ritual of digging it out from the relentless drifting snow. While travelling the PDW-350 and sound kit were housed (in a thick bed of close-cell foam) in the large blue ‘Space Case’. This was tied permanently to the sled and meant that by simply opening this one box we could get recording quickly.
The continual fine drifting snow on the ice cap proved quite a challenge by finding it's way into every nook, cranny, socket, plug and switch. From experience gained on other Antarctic jobs (www.emperorpenguins.blogspot.com) I’ve found the most practical weather protection is a heavy-duty plastic bag and gaffa’s tape and best way to remove snow is simply flick away using a quality paint brush before it melts into the electronics or turns to ice and locks.
I did have icing-up a couple of times with the lens, which prevented lens change until I could warm it up. That would be my sole complaint, the non-industrial nature of the B4 lens mount apposed to something robust like Arri B. A fault – in my opinion - of course across most tape and digital cameras and not restricted to the PDW-350.
A problem with the cases being on open sleds is each time – hundreds of times a week – you opened a case it inevitably let more spindrift snow in. So beginning just days into the trip, each little switch and socket was caked with snow and this didn’t let up for the duration. Again – impressively no problems with the 350 nor Fujinon lenses.
Likewise the disc format, very impressive performance in harsh conditions with vibration and often changing discs in drifting snow and blizzard. At first glance the 350 didn't appear very rugged, yet there wasn't a moment when the camera didn’t snap into record instantly.
We lived for the duration out of small mountain tents (because of the need to try and travel reasonably light) and most days breaking camp, so there was little opportunity to take equipment to a dry and clean place at the end of a day.
Rather the camera shared the floor of the tent with damp and snow-encrusted clothing. It’s not ideal and not what I would recommend, but in this case there was little choice and the camera handled the conditions fine.
The interval record and over and under-cranking features were another big attraction with the 350. Pictured above in Interval Record atop a motion control head tracking the 24 hour summer sun.
Like-wise the ability to over-crank in my opinion is very handy, particularly coming from a film background. Simple scenarios like the above: 32 fps smoothing out a shot lowering into a crevasse.
Plus our aerials needed be shot handheld, aided with a simple bungie rig, so the ability to overcrank was very useful to smoothen these.
Much of the film takes part in a tiny period tent, with a floor space about 2x2m and no way I could squeeze in there.
Only solution was to poke the camera and mic through the tunnel door and pull the sleeve tight around me to keep heat in and snow out. Here Fujinon’s 13x3.3 came into it’s own. Very wide, distortion free and fast. Fogging, particularly when the kero stove was running inside the warm tent was often an issue. Only way around this was to warm up the front element a little in another tent before we shot in the period tent.
A mini Litepanel did a fabulous job as eye-light, restoring skin tones under the brown muddied light filtered through the tent wall. With weight, space and power always going to be an issue, we drew line on taking along a HD monitor, however the 350’s flip out screen sufficed in field conditions to check and select correct colour balance in the menu. In the above example about 4200K
Prior to leaving for Antarctica we took the 350 for a week’s trial in New Zealand’s Southern Alps and I ran the unit for 24 hrs in cold store at –18 degrees C. All held up fine in those trials and like-wise down South, battery life with the Sony Lithium Ions as far as I could detect, was on par with operation standard room temperature!
The need to rapidly review, log and digitise material was never a prerequisite with this job, however now having had a taste of the instant, tapeless work path, I can’t imagine going back. We also shot a little ‘making-of’ and reference material on a Z1p and by comparison having to log tapes now seems an arduous task!
We’ve a month at sea now sailing back home to Australia and with fairly modest kit – laptop and hard drives, the material will arrive to the editor very tidily organised. Extraordinary when I think back on my previous Antarctic shoot (2005) on 35mm film. Then I wasn’t able to view a single frame over the year-long shoot until the job was well and truly over, back home and in telecine! Now that was stressful!
And all in spectacular HD.
With sincerest thanks to my thoughtful and wise colleagues and companions: Malcolm McDonald, David Tingay and Fred Olivier. Together we weathered some test in the ice and wind. The hardest moments endured and graced with your humour, warmth and support.
Wade Fairley
Davis Station, Antarctica Feb 2007
