Tech Focus and Product ReviewsAlex Gibney's 'Taxi To The Dark Side', Shot With Panasonic Varicam, Receives 2008 Academy Award Nomination For Best Documentary Taxi to the Dark Side , a gripping account of U.S. interrogation policies in Afghanistan and beyond, has just been nominated for a 2008 Academy Award in the Best Documentary Feature category. Taxi to the Dark Side , a gripping account of U.S. interrogation policies in Afghanistan and beyond, has just been nominated for a 2008 Academy Award in the Best Documentary Feature category. Shot with Panasonic’s AJ-HDC27 VariCam® HD Cinema camera, Taxi to the Dark Side marks the second Academy Award nomination for director/writer Alex Gibney, whose Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room screened at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival and subsequently was nominated for a Documentary Feature Oscar.
Critical consensus is that Taxi to the Dark Side confirms Gibney’s standing as one of the foremost non-fiction filmmakers working today. Upon its theatrical release earlier this month, the New York Times said, “If recent American history is ever going to be discussed with the necessary clarity and ethical rigor, this film will be essential.” Gibney’s most recent film, Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson, had its world premiere at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival, where it screened in the Documentary Competition. Produced by THINKFilm and Jigsaw Productions Inc., Taxi to the Dark Side takes as its jumping-off point the homicide of Dilawar, an innocent taxi driver, at the Bagram Air Force Base in Afghanistan. Featuring candid interviews with American servicemen, fellow prisoners and newspaper reporters, the documentary goes on to meticulously trace the spread of a central, controversial tactic in the U.S.’ “war on terror.” Cinematographer Gregory Andracke, who shares the Director of Photography credit on Taxi to the Dark Side with Maryse Alberti, is a veteran documentary cameraman. The winner of numerous Emmy and Peabody Awards, Andracke was the DP on the 1989 Academy Award-winning You Don’t Have to Die, as well as Citizen Kane, The Killing Ground and Rehearsing a Dream, all Academy Award nominees in Best Documentary categories. “Alex is always anticipating a theatrical release for his documentaries, and the VariCam is a great system for going in that direction,” Andracke said. “The ability of the VariCam to deliver 720/24p was a primary consideration, and when the HVX200 came on the market we felt that it was a superb complement to the VariCam, a small package to photograph scenes where the VariCam was too ‘big.’” “I find the dynamic range of the VariCam to be superb,” the DP noted. “ Taxi to the Dark Side really challenged the camera: we had some quite unpredictable situations in Guantanamo with high-contrast scenes under the noon day Caribbean sun and no opportunity to modify them with lighting. The camera really digs into the shadows, and the results were excellent.” Andracke recently completed work on an independent feature, Eavesdrop, which he also shot with the VariCam. “The camera’s performance equaled the work on Taxi to the Dark Side, which is to say it was outstanding,” the DP said. The online edit of Taxi to the Dark Side was done at FRAME: RUNNER ( New York, NY). The color correction ( Pandora Pogol work station controlled by a Pandora Evolution control panel, all run on the Pandora Pixie color corrector ) was done at PostWorks, New York, and the sound mix at Sound Lounge ( New York, NY). The film-out was done at Alpha Cine Labs ( Seattle, WA). For more information about Taxi to the Dark Side, visit www.taxitothedarkside.com. About VariCam Panasonic’s AJ-HDC27 VariCam replicates many of the key features of film-based image acquisition, including 24-frame progressive scan images, time lapse recording, and a wide range of variable frame rates (4-fps to 60-fps in single-frame increments) for About the AG-HVX200 The ultra-versatile AG-HVX200 records in 1080i and 720p in production-proven 100 Mbps DVCPRO HD quality, with the ability to capture images in 21 record modes. The camera records video on a P2 card as IT-friendly MXF files in 1080/60i, 30p and 24p; in 720/60p, 30p and 24p; in 50Mbps DVCPRO50 and in 25Mbps DVCPRO or DV. The HVX200 can capture fast or slow action in 720p at various frame rates--the first time this function is available in a hand-held camera. The shooting frame rate in 720p native mode can be set for any of 11 steps between 12fps and 60fps including 24fps and 30fps. About Panasonic Broadcast Panasonic Broadcast & Television Systems Co. is a leading supplier of broadcast and professional video products and systems. Panasonic Broadcast is a unit company of Panasonic Corporation of North America . The company is the North American headquarters of Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. (NYSE: MC) of Japan, and the hub of its U.S. marketing, sales, service and R&D operations. For more information on Panasonic Broadcast products, access the company’s web site at www.panasonic.com/broadcast.
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