TagTeam Film & Video
When the producers of Dateline NBC decided they wanted a show segment to mimic the look of 30-year old news film, they knew it would take a special piece of equipment and an experienced group of video professionals to accomplish this task.
Enter TagTeam Film & Video, Inc. With customers that include General Mills, Best Buy, Mayo Clinic, Marshall Fields, and ESPN, TagTeam – a provider of production and post-production services to broadcast, corporate and independent producers and directors – decided to utilize the new technology of the Panasonic SDX900 camcorder.
Panasonic SDX900
“Although we've been shooting HD projects for more than four years and thought we'd never buy another standard definition camera, we couldn’t justify buying a Varicam at this point,” said Jeff Byers, co-owner of TagTeam Film & Video, Inc. “We decided to purchase the SDX900 because we wanted to stay current, and ‘24P’ is a big buzzword among clients.”
TagTeam contacted Mike Pouh, account executive at Alpha Video & Audio, Inc., in Edina, Minnesota. “We knew Alpha was an authorized Panasonic reseller, so when the decision was made to purchase this camera, we went to them.”
Byers goes on to say that the camera portion of the SDX900 is similar in quality to their current cameras, but offers a variety of additional recording options. “It was also important for us to be able to record in a digital format” said Byers. “The SDX900 allows us to do that.”
TagTeam put the camera to use immediately, shooting an interview and B-roll for Dateline NBC a promotional campaign for a local Minneapolis television station.
Dateline's requirements
Dateline NBC had two requirements. “We needed a 3rd camera wide-shot for an interview,” said Byers. “Since the primary cameras were Betacams, we used the 60i setting with standard gammas to match them.” To complement historical footage, TagTeam’s other co-owner and Director of Photography Tom Krohn set up scene files in advance – “we made it grittier and noisier, like an old film shot” – and used 60i, 24P, Digital Super Gain and standard gain settings in various configurations.
Before shooting the promo video for the local Minneapolis television station, TagTeam first shot some camera tests for television station personnel. “The station liked a 24P look with film-like gamma settings, but wanted us to shoot in a 4x3 aspect ratio in SD. Again, the SDX900 allowed us to do that.”
The Panasonic AJ-SDX900 is the first dual-mode standard definition DVCPRO camcorder capable of recording at 24 frames per second in progressive scan (480/24p).