Advanced Systems Group provided camera and editing equipment for The Galapagos Affair: Satan Came to Eden, a new documentary released by Zeitgeist Films that is being screened in U.S. theaters through June.
Directed by Dayna Goldfine and Dan Geller, the two-hour film paints a fascinating portrait of a 1930s murder mystery based around German physician Friedrich Ritter and his mistress, who start a new life on an uninhabited island in the Galapagos Islands. When the international press sensationalizes their exploits, others flock there, including a family determined to become the Swiss Family Robinson of the Galapagos and a gun-toting Viennese Baroness with her two lovers.
Goldfine and Geller told their story by interweaving newly unearthed home movies and archival stills of the settlers with testimonies of modern day islanders, HD footage of the area’s native flora and fauna, and voice performances from international stars including Cate Blanchett, Diane Kruger, Connie Nielsen, and Sebastian Koch. The movie took about six years to produce, though the initial idea was planted in 1998 when the directors visited the islands while working on a different project.
The production used a Panasonic DVCPro HD camcorder with a Fujinon wide-angle lens purchased from ASG for shooting interviews and island imagery. ASG also installed an Xsan infrastructure, which Geller said was used for editing on Apple Final Cut Pro edit systems, creating Adobe After Effects sequences and photo retouching using Adobe Photoshop. ASG has designed, installed and supported the infrastructure at Storyline Productions, Geller and Goldfine’s San Francisco-based production company, since 2001.
“The team there has for years not only provided equipment at good prices,” Geller said, “but has also been great advisors about finding the gear best suited to our needs by talking extensively with us before making recommendations. ASG is our go-to VAR.”
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