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The Kill Point (cont.)

Featuring a camera head about the size of a golf ball, and weighing a mere two ounces, the remote head system of the Iconix HD-RH1 can keep pace with larger HD video cameras, yet is versatile enough to offer 35 different format and frame rate combinations. “We’re able to feed the Iconix footage into an SRW1 recording deck, essentially feeding it a 4:2:2 signal with much less compression than, say, an HDCam deck,” Dunk explains. “That’s really what prompted me to get it on the show.”

Bill Hill, Co-Producer of The Kill Point for Lionsgate Television, credits Panavision’s Plus 8 Digital with tracking down the Iconix for the production’s use. “Not only did they get hold of a unit we could run tests on virtually overnight, they ended up buying the camera so we could rent it. Now they’re asking for it back so they can rent it out to other productions,” relates Hill. “We’ve tried to get everybody on set involved in coming up with various ways to use the camera, and it’s great to see how many different ideas everyone has. We’re very excited about future applications for the Iconix.”

Michael Endler, first assistant cameraman for The Kill Point, notes that the Iconix footage had complete intercutability with the two Sony HDC 950 and Arri SR 16 mm cameras used to film the series. “Whenever we ran into a situation where a standard camera would be too large to allow us to get a shot, we used the Iconix,” says Endler. “We’ve placed it behind railroad ties for actors to run and jump over during chase scenes; we’ve rigged it to a boom pole and manipulated it inside of air ducts and, during one scene showing a spy cam coming up from the bank floor, we were able to place the Iconix behind where the camera was to appear, and shoot it as it came up out of the floor. The Iconix was the larger of the two, but only slightly.”