Tagra Productions, a French production company, shot a 4K production in Tahiti with the Sony F55 Camera, which can record both 4K and HD rushes concurrently. The benefits of having instant access to HD and 4K versions of their material proved invaluable to Producer Olivier Chiabodo, who said he wanted to gain added value by having all of the different options for screening available to the production team, both for television and cinemas.
Chaiboda said: “From a producer’s point of view, the global strategy is to try to capture very high quality shots which we can then use in whichever way we want. Choosing the Sony F55 camera meant that we could generate both HD and 4K raw images which represent the island’s strong heritage.
“We were therefore able to operate very quickly editing in HD on a day-to-day basis while at the same time storing our 4K raw material. This allowed us to edit the footage for the cinema in particular for the Nuit de la Glisse and probably also for commercials for French Polynesia.’
Lighting Cameraman Laurent Celarie added: “We used the F55 for several reasons. It is possible to shoot in two formats simultaneously recording both heritage shots and fast news clips for quick viewing. We shot with the XDCAM HD 422 and chose the 4K resolution to film all the natural and cultural shots, all the aerial images and all the aspects we wanted to catch for Polynesia and its tourism companies.’
Tagra Productions intends to continue shooting in French Polynesia, capturing the heritage of the Marquesas, Gambier and Austral Islands and the Tuamotu Archipelago. The aim is that by scripting their collection of images, they will be able to create a feature film.
“A single unique capture using the Sony F55 allows us to move from simple HD news material every evening to a reworked cinema screening. From a production company perspective, this process is invaluable because during a shoot we can do what we want with all the media we have produced and that has high added value for a producer,’ Chaiboda concluded.
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