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El Regalo de
Silvia is a co-production between three Spanish production
companies – Imval Madrid, El Medano and Lorelei
Producciones-plus Calatambo Producciones from Chile
and Portuguese company Cinemate. In adittion, two other
Spanish companies, Bausen Films and Mario Benedetti
PC, are associate production companies.
Silvia is young woman who has made the most important
decision in her short life: to commit suicide. Before
going through with it, she makes it clear in her video
diary that she would like to donate her organs. As a
result of this, three anonymous people receive Silvia´s
organs. For all three, the end of Silvia´s life
marks a new beginning for them. Each of them will make
the big or small decisions that will determine their
future.
The feature is the debut from Dionisio Perez Galindo,
a director from the world of short films with two well
known works on the international circuit: Pecados Capitales
and Corto Oriental. DoP on the proyect is Alfonso Parra,
one of Spain´s leading cinematographers.
Producer, Luis Ángel Ramirez, explains why CineAlta
was chosen: “The main motive for choosing HD was
the necessity for the director, together with the actors,
to capture the precise feeling of the performance, freeing
him from the pressure, and associated costs, of filming
on celuloid. Futhermore, it was important to find a
cameraman with experience of working with this format,
who would couple the especific nature of HD with the
visual concept for the film that the director had in
his mind. Alfonso Parra´s previous experience
and his constant investigation of HD were other reasons
that conviced us to use HD.”
“Now that film is nearly finished we can confirm
the result is magnificient and it was the rigth choice”.
Ramírez adds that Jordi San Agustin from Image
Film played a major role in advising on technical issues.
“From the point of view of budget, the choice
of HD definitely means a substancial reduction in what
it set aside for materials and laboratory. However,
this is starting from the idea that the most important
percentage of any budget is invested in what´s
in front of the camera.”
Parra says: “HD fits perfectly in the world of
cinematography due to its picture definition, colour
reproduction, sharpness and contrast. HD allows you
to create picture with the atmosphere required to tell
a story in the same way as you can with 35mm. I think
that technical comparison between HD and 35mm are useless.
They are very different media: analogue versus digital;
chemical versus electronic. They are difference and
require approaches from technical point of view, but
they not so different from a conceptual point of view
when you are designing the style and look of the movie.
“To work with this camera didn´t mean we
had to change substantially our usual way of shooting.
Anyway, I made my personal tests to get the maximum
latitude and colour reproduction from the camera. I
worked on the camera menus until I got the setting I
was looking for. These test included not only the camera,
but the laboratory, grading, Arrilaser filming process
and emulsion development.
“The decision of shooting on HDCAM wasn't determinated
by the post production in this case, but by the picture
quality of HD, the system versality and the freedom
for the necesary material.
“I am actually shooting a new movie in HD and
I feel more and more comfortable with the system. Now
that I understand the technical issues, the results
on the big screen are superb. I have no doubt more and
more movies will be shot in this formart. The result
are very satisfactory for me as a DoP and also for my
directors and producers.” |
