Last week saw the worldwide cinematic release of director Shane Abbess’s “Gabriel,” a gothic action drama shot entirely with JVC’s GY HD100 Series ProHD cameras.
The movie tells the story of a battle between good and evil set in Purgatory. Prior to “Gabriel,” Abbess and his writing partner, Matt Hylton Todd, had produced more than 20 short films, music videos and TV commercials together. With Abbess’ extensive experience, he knew many of the tricks needed to shoot a great idea in a unique way. Abbess enlisted the producing skills of Anna Cridland and Kristy Vernon, who pulled together the team needed to make the movie.
Before settling on JVC GY HD100, Abbess conducted a competitive analysis of various cameras and selected the ProHD after through testing. Abbess was attracted to the GY HD100 because of its ability to shoot progressive scan, support a calibrated lens and its size, he said.
Abbess and his crew were also particularly impressed with the look of GY HD100 shots transferred to film. “It was stunning,” he recalled. “Everyone was amazed. We knew we could take ‘Gabriel’ into cinemas,” Abbess said.
With the input of the producers, Abbess and DP Peter Holland made sure low lighting would work correctly in all 26 locations where the movie would be shot. Holland and his crew took the next five weeks to create controlled lighting situations to achieve a movie look.
Once shooting was completed, editor Adrian Rostirolla used Final Cut Pro to complete the cut in six months. Abbess and post-production producer Matt Graham tackled the challenge of 800 FX shots, an epic music score and a complex sound design.
“Gabriel’ is being distributed by Sony Pictures.
For more information, visit www.jvc.com/pro.
