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Creative shooting with the System Cine 30

Bill Berner filmed an educational series for children using the System Cine 30 from Sachtler.

The Electric Company from Sesame Workshop/PBS, is a location-based film-style digital shoot set in a “big city” restaurant where a group of eclectic young people in a society called The Electric Company meet. They use their “secret” powers for good. They scramble, recall, project and animate words in different ways – always trying to stay one step ahead of their nemesis – The Pranksters. Cinematographer Bill Berner used a System Cine 30 HD from Sachtler, a Vitec Group brand.

“The show is shot with two Panasonic AJ-HPX3000 cameras equipped with cine-style zoom lenses, matte boxes, follow focus, and zoom and iris motors, so the weight really adds up,” explains Berner. “Having a Sachtler System Cine 30 HD gives me the confidence to be able to walk away from the camera and know it will still be there and ready when I come back.”

Two Heads Make a Great Shot

“One of my favorite setups is when we had to shoot both sides of a cell phone conversation with two characters walking down different streets in matching medium shots, allowing both back and forth cuts and split-screen effects,” he recalls. “We laid track down the middle of a Manhattan sidewalk, put a Ubangi on our dolly and mounted both heads at the extreme outsides of the plate. My A-camera operator and I mounted up with our cameras facing opposite directions. We had our actresses walk and talk along at matching speeds while the dolly grips took us for a ride. Two takes later we had the entire scene with terrific performances because the ladies were able to play off each other in real time.”

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Sachtler Just Keeps Making Creative Moves

Berner has also mounted the heads to a HiHat rigged to the lighting grid. “The head and mount were vertical so the camera could point straight down for a Busby Berkeley style shot,” he explains. “That’s a hell of a lot of torque to be putting on the head, but I had no worries that the Sachtler could take it. I’ve had Sachtlers in the dirt, on top of 14 foot ladders that were in turn on top of trucks, mini-jibs, and pretty much everywhere else in-between,” he adds. “And they have never disappointed me or given me a moment’s concern.”