Prime Time Live, The Sarah Johnson Story
When director/photographer Tom Hadzor got the call from ABC producer Jeff Diamond to shoot a series of four-camera interviews for an upcoming Prime Time Live special, he knew he’d have to bring along the entire equipment locker. Wide Eye was to provide a third BetaSP unit to a pair of staff ABC New York crews. The NY team was bringing along two BetaSP units and a fun toy, the fourth camera was a glide cam that would gather smooth tracking shots to cut into the solid interview segments. The width of the glide cam’s track required flying all the lights up and over the interviews and talent. A slightly tricky setup, but not a problem.
The night before the shoot, the ABC producer called Tom from Denver, their flight had been delayed. The ABC crew was renting a car and would drive all night from Denver to the location in Sun Valley, Idaho for the next morning crew call. The good news was they could make it in time for the first interview. The bad news was their equipment would not.
Tom immediately got on the phone to Wide Eye photographer Bill Krumm. Bill was back in Boise and could drive the next morning to Sun Valley with our Panasonic VariCam HD package. Bill arrived in SV early the morning of the shoot and jumped in to help Tom and audio/lighting technician Andy Lawless with the setup. By 8am, they had two cameras in place, using the VariCam as the reversal camera focused on ABC news talent, Deborah Roberts.
Tom says, “We had to dumb down the VariCam a bit to get it to match the standard definition Sony D-600, but after tweaking some of the gamma and black levels, we matched it up very well.”
Over the phone, the producer described how he wanted the scene to look. The piece, about a young girl who killed both of her parents, required moody lighting, but not too dark. Tom, Bill and Andy broke out the entire arsenal of lights and set the scene with the right mood.
The New York crew arrived shortly before the first scheduled interview, with just enough time to check the setup and give the Wide Eye crew a big thumbs up. The producer was especially pleased to sit down at our Panasonic 17″ pro HD monitor, setup just for him to switch between cameras. Later that morning, the equipment from New York arrived. The producer chose to keep the VariCam in place, so the entire crew worked together, staging one more Betacam and the glide cam. A switcher was added between the run from the four cameras to our HD monitor. The producer could sit back and watch any of the four cameras with the touch of a button.
“The Wide Eye crew was outstanding. We had one opportunity to gather these interviews. When our flight was delayed, we thought we were doomed. But Tom and his crew came to the rescue with top notch gear and the skills to match,” said producer Jeff Diamond.
After completing the indoor interviews, the Wide Eye and ABC teams moved outside for walk-and-talk interviews and talent standups. The VariCam had easily won its place as 1st Unit and Tom was recruited to shoot key outdoor interviews and the talent standups as well.
In the end, the Wide Eye team served as principal crew on the entire hour long Prime Time Live special that aired nationally on ABC.
