|  Question: I have heard you’ve used VariCam on many diverse assignments. Please tell us about them.
Winters: I’ve shot everything from commercials to documentaries to feature films on the VariCam; I’ve used it in a very minimal way - without a crew, documentary-style - or a very “maximal” way - with a full crew and video engineer for commercials. I shot promos for Nike Battlegrounds with LeBron James and college football promos for ESPN’s 2005-2006 season with the VariCam. Also, I did a greenscreen shoot about menopause for Wyeth Labs’ interactive website. This fall, I’m shooting an indie feature, Among the Shadows, directed by Kevin Hicks, in Ithaca, New York. It has a tight budget and schedule, and the VariCam will allow us to move very fast. Question: Tell us about the commercials you’ve shot with the VariCam.
Winters: Most of the spots I’ve been shooting recently are intended for the web. They’re 30-second commercials for Ameritrade, Interscope Records, Wal-Mart and Puma - they look like pop ups. Most production companies feel it would be overkill to shoot web content on film so they opt for HD. Puma athletic apparel’s “Messenger” web spot grew out of a 15-minute documentary. My friend, Dan Leeb of CineCycle, Brooklyn, was making a feature-length doc on bike messengers in New York City when he connected with Puma, which sponsors a bike-messenger team in velodrome races. Puma hired Dan and me to make a documentary short, spotlighting team member Alfred Bobe, to use on the web, in DVD inserts in Res and Fader magazines, and in retail stores.
I pitched Puma on making a web spot from the documentary material, which we’d shot with the VariCam. I knew certain sequences we’d captured would make a good spot; we had all the raw footage we needed. The concept for the doc and the spot are the same - a day in the life of a bike messenger. It starts in Williamsburg, Brooklyn where Alfred lives and follows him into Manhattan where he works, and then back home. It was a five-day shoot with a single VariCam. For three of those days, I was hanging out of a minivan on location in the streets. The shoot was last winter and showed the elements Alfred contends with, biking through the cold, rain, sleet and hail.
I also did bluescreen photography for the doc’s opening title. VariCam was great for that; it was easy to pull a key in post with no problems at all. I shot the entire doc with a P+S Technik Pro 35 adapter and 35mm Zeiss super speeds. I’ve done a lot of documentaries but this was the first with prime lenses, and it was very challenging. It was really tough to think about what lens I wanted to use; sometimes I made the wrong selection but I got something unexpected that was really cool - a happy accident! Question: What are your overall views concerning the camera’s performance? Winters: I love the way the VariCam performs. I come from a film background and think in terms of film. The VariCam delivers a very film-like image and its menus are set up in film terms. So it’s really easy to transfer my film knowledge to HD. Question: What have you found to be different about shooting HD? Did it impact production?
Winters: The thing that’s the most different is something I really like - being able to look at the monitor and see what we’re going to get. The director and client can view the footage and sign off right there. It helps me sleep a lot better at night. Some of the Puma shoot was very chaotic, right in the middle of traffic. I could shoot on the fly and see it on the monitor and know exactly what we were getting. Also, when we have a tight budget and are shooting a narrative piece, we can do a lot of takes with the actors. It’s great to not have to worry about conserving film because it’s so expensive. Question: A camera’s dynamic range and color rendition are important factors for shooters. How does VariCam stack up? Winters: Only film can be film but the VariCam’s look is really beautiful. It is one of the first video cameras that gives me an image I can be very excited about. The VariCam has a pretty wide exposure latitude; I usually mute colors a bit and desaturate them for an overall look I like. Question: What are your thoughts on VariCam’s variable frame functionality? Did you use it on your commercial shoots? Winters: What makes the VariCam especially useful is the ability to do multiple frame rates and speed ramps all in-camera. Film has that capability in its arsenal, and it’s great to have it for HD. When I shoot action footage, like the college football promos, I do a lot of speed changes. I overcranked the VariCam on “Messenger” to take out some bumps in Alfred’s bike footage. I’ve also shot at a very slow frame rate, 4-fps, to get a really nice time-lapse look with clouds, sky, cars. Question: In general, how are the projects you shoot on VariCam edited and finished?
Winters: I’m not usually involved in the edit, but I did edit the Puma spot from the documentary footage. I’m a bike fanatic myself - the minute I’m not working you can find me on a bike. Cutting the spot on my Apple Final Cut Pro system gave me another voice to express my passion for bikes. Question: Can you generalize about how shooting HD affects budgets?
Winters: It depends on the project. You can really get away with slimming down - no film stock, a small crew. Or if your budget permits you can hire a video technician and full crew for a lot more control over the production. Question: What do you say to colleagues about the VariCam? Winters: I tell them that it’s one of the best film-like video cameras out there. It’s easy to use, and its look is great. Question: What’s next for you? Winters: I just shot content for Sprite’s Project 23-23 interactive web site. Users will log on and enter a competition to create a theme song for LeBron James’s new Sprite commercial; the top three winners will air on TV during the NBA All Star Weekend. I shot LeBron doing basketball moves on a greenscreen and in interview situations. The VariCam was my primary camera with Panasonic’s P2 HD HVX200 my B camera.
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