Question: Among the commercials you have shot with VariCam were celebrity-filled spots for Wilson’s nCode tennis racquets. Tell us about them.

Mullin: I shot two spots for Wilson, both working with Convergence Film & Tape in Orlando. For the first, which introduced the nCode string technology, I shot the commercial, an industrial and the web presence simultaneously.

In the commercial, one at a time, tennis stars Venus and Serena Williams and Roger Federer entered a studio with a bare white cyc from a tunnel doorway. Visual effects were going to play a big role in the spot: The racquet would magically appear, the player would grab it and the lines of the court would crawl onto the white world and they’d start playing.

I shot the players hitting the ball at 60 frames at 1/2000th of second shutter to get the most precise freeze frame possible. Because of the 60 frames and shutter I needed an enormous amount of light: I keyed with two 50K soft suns. The VariCam’s knee technology kept the whites manageable.

The industrial featured the commercial and a series of interviews with the players that I shot with the Panasonic AG-DVX100A (24p/30p/60i Mini-DV camera). The 100A and the VariCam footage cut together just fine.

My second Wilson assignment consisted of several commercials, the web presence, DVDs and Point of Purchase. The “Awakening” spot revolved around Roger Federer, who comes through a virtual doorway to a futuristic white world with curved walls and doors like ports in a spaceship. He presses a control panel and brings up an aerial image of people playing tennis, the nCode racquet, and strings. Then an army of players comes through other doors and starts hitting tennis balls.

I shot all the players green screen, at standard speeds, and used a Phantom camera to shoot extreme slow motion -- 1000 fps -- video of the ball hits. The VariCam had an impact in post production. It was easier for the editors to do the green screen with the VariCam footage, thanks to the camera’s greater dynamic range, than with the Phantom footage.

Question: How did your interest in HD acquisition evolve?

Mullin: It was market driven – all of my clients were requesting HD. One client sells packages featuring an infomercial, web site and commercial. We formerly shot the interview and demo portions on standard def, and the beauty shots and the spot on film. Then, that client discovered they could give customers a film-quality image at a video price with HD, and requested that I shoot with the VariCam. I gradually began to shoot less and less film and more and more VariCam HD. I realized that if I was going to buy a camera, it made sense to buy a VariCam.

Question: What attracted you to the VariCam?

Mullin: Clients were asking for it by name. I own a Sony SD camera but from my limited experience with Sony CineAlta cameras, I felt they were less like a film camera, less user-friendly and more cumbersome. The VariCam felt more familiar; it was much more filmic in its operation. After a few years of renting VariCams, I purchased my own last December.

Question: What other kind of assignments have you done with the VariCam?

Mullin: I do a lot of underwater cinematography, so I started to move from film to the VariCam for most of it. I was underwater unit DP for the independent feature Blue Demon, which was shot with the VariCam in an underwater housing built by Vince Pace of Pace Technologies. It is very helpful that VariCam can see farther into the water than I can. I would frame up a scene and the water would not be very clear, but when I looked through the viewfinder, the camera would see much more clearly than my own eyes.

For another assignment, with Traveling Light Media in Los Angeles, I shot several Secrets of the Black Box programs for The History Channel about well-known plane crashes. We initially shot the crash recreations on Super 16. But with the Aloha Flight 243 program, we switched over to the VariCam because of a History Channel directive for HD acquisition and delivery. The producers were just as happy with the HD footage as they had been with film.

I have been all over the U.S. and Europe with VariCam shooting an informational piece for Convergence Film & Tape about Disney’s Vacation Club. It was a video about the vacation ownership program targeted to guests staying in Disney hotels. I used my own VariCam at Disney’s Keystone Key Resort in Colorado, where it was 27 degrees below zero! Two days later the camera was on a beach in Maui shooting another Disney property.

Question: What are your overall views concerning the camera’s performance?

Mullin: The VariCam performs very well. The ability to achieve a variety of looks allows me to tailor the look to a client’s needs and desires. The camera is sturdy, robust, and user-friendly -- there is a lot to learn, but you can do it!

Question: What have you found to be different about shooting HD?

Mullin: Surprisingly little is different about shooting HD instead of film. I have to manage the highlights a little more but not as much as I had feared. The focus is incredibly critical. The apparent depth of field is much less than indicated by the lens and f-stop.

Question: What are your thoughts on VariCam’s variable frame functionality? Did you use it on your commercial shoots?

Mullin: I don’t use it often but on sports commercials I use 60 frames a lot. When I do use the variable frame rates, it has real value to me.

Question: Can you generalize how shooting HD affects budgets?

Mullin: It used to be that either clients could afford film or they’d have to shoot video. HD gives clients the ability to shoot film quality on a tape budget.

Question: What would you say to colleagues about the VariCam?

Mullin: I’d recommend the VariCam. Film guys need to know that HD is not going to go away so they might as well get on board. The VariCam is a user-friendly HD camera that allows me to give my clients a high-quality image for a comparatively modest cost.