Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/3788
HPX3700s, with footage being captured onto P2 cards. "It has a totally new look," says Wiegand of Season 2. "I think last season was a little softer.This season has a lot more darkness to it. There's a lot more saturation of the colors and a lot more hand-held work. It's a more edgy feel in general." The decision to switch to HD, she notes, stems from a number of reasons."They wanted to be able to have a more immediate feel to the whole thing. They like the contrast and feel of HD, and having the more lightweight cameras. And they love having the ability to view HD monitors on-set and see what they are really getting while we are shooting. And, of course, budgetary reasons. I'm sure that has something to do with it, but I don't think it's the only reason." The choice to use the Panasonic AJ-HPX3700 was Wiegand's alone. "It was all driven by me personally," she notes."The producers didn't re- ally know what system they wanted to go with. There were pluses and minuses for the EX3s, [but] I didn't feel that a prosumer-based system was reliable enough to sustain [this] type of work." The Sony F23 was tested, but they wanted something with more freedom and lighter weight.Wiegand also likes the flesh tones captured with the Panasonic camera. The show shoots 1080p, and the P2 card's capacity has never been an issue. "We get 40 minutes on a card and with film you get 10 minutes on a roll, so it's definitely not an issue at all. We rarely get to the point where we've gone the full 40 minutes. We'll be downloading stuff before that." Dollhouse shoots on four stages at Fox, and Stage 19 is the largest, with the multi-story Dollhouse see- ing much of the action. Camera set- ups include a crane, a Steadicam, handhelds and dollies. The show rents two 3700s from Panavision Hollywood, and when more cam- eras are required, they rent Pana- sonic HPX-3000s, which also cap- ture to P2 media. All back-up is to hard drives. One drive stays in the camera de- par tment and one goes to post. The show is cut at offices on the Fox lot using Avids. Burbank's Level 3 Post (www.level3post.com) han- dles the online and color timing, which can be a challenge consider- ing how dark they tr y to go. "[Se- nior colorist] Larr y Field times all of my episodes," says Wiegand. "Some of the darker stuff can be difficult, and we do tr y to go ver y, very dark, so [I'm] sor t of trying to get to that communication point continued on page 54 The Suite Life On Deck is shot with Sony HD cameras. Frank Sackett is associate producer. HD TV Series