No Rest for the Weary

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Wed, 07/23/2008 - 20:00 -- Nick Dager

Laid to Rest Director Shot Digitally to Facilitate a Tapeless Workflow It is a dark and claustrophobic night for the heroine of the upcoming horror movie Laid to Rest the terrifying story of a young girl who wakes up in a casket with a traumatic head injury and no memory of her identity. This is the second directorial effort from renowned special effects artist Robert Hall (Superbad Buffy the Vampire Slayer and the upcoming Pineapple Express). Anchor Bay Entertainment a division of Starz Media has picked up the film for release in February 2009 and premiered the Laid to Rest trailer at Comic Con in San Diego. Lena Headey recently seen in the title role of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles stars in the film as does Bobbi Sue Luther (Killer Pad) as The Girl who after she awakes quickly realizes she was abducted by a deranged serial murderer and must survive the night and outsmart the killer who is intent on finishing her off. The director of photography was Scott Winig. The movie was shot entirely with Panasonic AJ-HPX3000 native 1080p one-piece P2 HD camcorders. Hall was introduced to P2 HD cameras when he shot a music video with the AG-HVX200 handheld. “I loved the tapeless workflow and when Laid to Rest was in the planning stages I knew I wanted to avoid the lab telecine and transfer costs of my first feature (Lightning Bug shot on 16mm) ” he says. His research led him to the HPX3000 which he chose based on the AVC-Intra codec and its full-raster cinema-quality images as well as the solid-state workflow. The production rented two HPX3000s and an AJ-HPM110 P2 Mobile recorder/player from Panavision; the cameras were outfitted with Panavision Primo digital zoom lenses. “The P2 format is literally a filmmaker’s dream ” Hall says. “Having the flexibility to edit a scene that you shot two hours ago right in the field is amazing and has made post-production move along much more quickly. Most importantly the footage is stunning.” The production entailed a 24-day shoot on location in Maryland in April of this year. “We shot almost exclusively at night most exteriors ” says Hall. “The weather was cold and rainy and I was impressed with the HPX3000’s flexibility in the face of weather extremes. It performed perfectly.” Hall and Winig had not worked together prior to the Laid to Rest shoot but met through a mutual colleague director Max Nichols. Earlier this year Winig shot a music video with Nichols for the British metalcore band Bullet for My Valentine; the four-minute video currently airing in the U.K. was a multi-cam HVX200 shoot. “That was a demanding assignment on the road with band covering 12 cities in as many nights ” Winig says. “The material looks fantastic and HVX200s came through again and again in mixed lighting situations.” Hall is currently working on a director’s cut of Laid to Rest. The movie will be color-corrected in a da Vinci system and output to film. “The HPX3000 was the best camera for this project and it performed flawlessly ” says Winig. “We had the cameras in the rain on cranes we were running around hand-held—we really pushed them to the limit.” Laid to Rest www.laidtorestmovie.com Panasonic www.panasonic.com/broadcast