THE CANON HV20 (Now HV40)

The Camera we Used for producing "SHADOW OF CRIME"



The HV20 is both a surprise, and an exciting new technology that blew me away when it first came out. It’s a HDV camera, which means that it records a MPEG-2 1440x1080 video stream onto a miniDV tape, which is the same technology in HDTV and Blu-Ray, but that’s not the only reason this camera is exciting. With it’s CINEMODE set, and it’s ability to shoot at a 24f frame rate, this camera can achieve a FILM LOOK, or as close to a film look as I’ve scene, even very close to what we see from the early Sony 900HD serious. The CINEMODE and 24f frame rate, work together to eliminate the over sharpness, and over saturation scene in most other Camcorders. To produce a look that could even fool, and surprise most Cinematographers using film.

I’ve been making films since the MID-1980’s, and back then film was the only acceptable way of making a film. Video looked horrible. I used 8mm film at first then moved on to 16mm film. These formats were very expensive even back then. I didn’t have the money to shoot a full length film. The film, and development for a full length feature would cost thousands of dollars, and that doesn’t include a final answer print. The answer print has synced sound, so it could play in theatres or be sent to a film festival. So I would shoot short films no longer than 10 to 15minutes. Even shooting short films I would only have enough film for a 2:1 shooting ratio. That means I could only shoot two takes, and then I’d have to move on. I would do a lot of rehearsals with the actors before I rolled camera, so no film was lost, and I was able to make sure the actors would know there lines. If an actor dropped a line I would have to try and fix it in post. Film back then was the only acceptable medium. The video that was available to the consumer was extremely expensive, and the quality quite frankly sucked. With a limited budget it did limit the film maker a lot more than can be imagined. Imagine only two takes per shot, and also imagine having to change a reel of 400ft film every eleven minutes, in a dark bag. Shooting a lot of movement on these cameras was difficult. Film also for better or worse had a much smaller DOF than Video, so a follow focus and some one to operate the follow focus on the camera was an imperative.

But film is now DEAD, for all practical purposes and a micro-budget film could never use film. It’s way too expensive. HD has changed the film industry in ways that haven’t really been measured yet. In the nineties it was all about the miniDV, and the XL1 and Sony VX2000, but to be honest miniDV never looked like film, but it was better video, and it never gave a true cinematic feel, as much as everybody tried. Then came along the top of the line HD cameras, George Lucas shot the second and third movies of his NEW Star Wars Trilogy, and Robert Rodriquez went all over the country, and world taunting HD. At this point, great HD can look like film, but there was no camera yet affordable for Micro budget film makers. Then CANON unveiled its new XLH1 HD camera, and a couple years later to beat all competition CANON came out with the HV20. I saw some footage on the internet, and it blew me away. I had to, get hold of this camera, and see for my self. We bought it from B&H photo video, and we received it three days later. The first thing I did was to plug this little baby in the wall, and zoomed through the menus setting up ZEBRA STRIPING, CINEMA MODE, 24F, and hooking up my AZDEN microphone. I could not believe the feel and look of this camera. With these settings, finally in my hand I owned a camera that could produce images far better than miniDV, and could even compare to film. I was ready to make a feature length film. I had the missing piece to my film making tools. An $800 dollar camera that produced the picture quality of film, finally the camera I’ve been looking for, for all these years. That meant there was nothing stopping to make a feature length film for very little money. THIS is only part one. The next BLOG will be on how it performed during the making of the film “SHADOW OF CRIME”.