Lucasfilm Ltd. and Industrial Light & Magic turned to Fujinon HD lenses for blue screen, miniature and motion control photography in the blockbuster "Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones." Episode II was shot entirely with high-definition cameras and lenses.
Several of Fujinon's HA10x5B-10 wide-angle HDTV Cine Style zooms were used extensively in production of the special effects and pick-up shots. The wide-angle 10x zoom has a focal range of 5 to 50mm. This range is very useful to ILM, where visual effects elements are matched to principal photography in post production. Principal photography was shot at location using Panavision HD cameras and lenses.
"The Fujinon 5 to 50mm zoom (HA10x5B-10), helped us match the principal photography beautifully," explained Episode II Producer Rick McCallum. "We shot the entire film in HD. After combining blue screen, motion control and miniature scenes from ILM with principal photography footage, we are very pleased with the final product. With the Fujinon HDTV zoom lenses we didn't have to constantly change (prime) lenses to integrate special effects shots, enabling the shooting process to be more accurate and to go much faster."
Of the approximately 2,200 shots that appear in the film, more than1,800 contain special effects. HA10x5B-10 Cine Style HDTV lenses were used predominantly for motion control shots. These lenses feature film-industry standard gearing and indexing, and their relative compact size and weight is particularly useful to the production needs of ILM.
