For the saga’s latest installment, Swaffield and DP Teodoro Maniaci chose to work with two Sony F3 cameras for the bulk of the photography, supplemented by an Arri Alexa for slow motion sequences. “With good glass, the Sony F3 produces wonderful images, it has a great sensor,” explained Swaffield. “However the internal recording is done at 4:2:0 35Mb/s and we wanted a higher data rate.” To address this issue, Swaffield turned to Gary Pontore, a VP in the modern media solutions division at Future Tech Enterprise, who serves as a post/digital workflow consultant on the series. Pontore recommended an all-new workflow using two Ki Pro recorders on set fed from the cameras’ SDI outputs to the recorders to benefit from Ki Pro’s 10-bit 4:2:2 recording capabilities, along with Mac Pros running Final Cut Pro 7 and Adobe Creative Suite 6 for editing.
AJA KONA cards have been in use on the series since 2005, and were once again tapped KONA 3G to precisely monitor the signal during all aspects of visual effects creation and color grading.
“Our KONA cards have always performed so well, I had faith in AJA gear and in Garys assessment of what would be best for our workflow,” Swaffield said. “The Ki Pro really allowed us to get the most out of the Sony F3 with high quality recording and real time color correction. It let us work faster and better from filming through to editing – we really got to have our cake and eat it too.”