Take 2 Film Services arrived in South Africa in January 2007. A working relationship with Moonlighting began with Take 2’s first 35mm feature: Neil Marshall’s Doomsday.

That partnership is continuing with Blue Crush 2, which is currently being shot in Durban and along the Natal South Coast.

“Mike Elliot, having produced their previous feature, Death Race: Frankenstein Lives, had another project coming up, this time as the director on Blue Crush 2. Having been impressed by the Sony F35 and Phantom HD on Death Race: Frankenstein Lives, Mike really wanted to use the same camera systems and has ended up with three F35s and two of the updated Phantom Golds on this production,” says Take 2’s marketing liason, Brenn Marais.

According to Brenn, the F35 is suitable for any lighting situation. “Its ability in lowlight combined with high contrast is outstanding. In addition to this, you have the ability to ramp in shots between 1-50fps, while retaining full colour resolution and image size. Best of all is its ease of use.”

Brenn says that Roel Reine, the director of Death Race: Frankenstein Lives, is prolific in both film and digital acquisition and had some very specific requirements for the feature. “Roel has a very sharp eye for image quality, specifically colour resolution and image distortion, which are dictated by the quality of the sensor. This resulted in Death Race: Frankenstein Begins testing a variety of cameras before eventually deciding upon two Sony F35s and a Phantom HD.”

He says that the material shot on the Phantom HD matched the F35 footage seamlessly, enabling Roel to take advantage of its lighter weight when shooting handheld, as well as the versatility of higher frame rates at the touch of a button.

When Take 2 met Roel at NAB in Las Vegas this year, he showcased a five-minute promo, pointing out; “The majority was shot on the Phantom. I’m in love with it!”

Blue Crush 2 posed a number of challenges. “Not only did Mike want to be lightweight, but he also needed to shoot on, in, and underwater. There was no way in getting around the fact that we needed to manufacture housings for both camera systems. We embarked on a massive challenge, not only to come up with professional, user-friendly, watertight housings but to achieve this in a six-week period!”

After the initial conceptualisation phase, Take 2 went through a number of design drafts for the physical housings, and then repeated the process for the electronics side, which needed to integrate perfectly with both camera systems. This led them to design and manufacture their own waterproof lens control system. “Once we had confirmed the design work, we had a curve ball thrown at us. We needed to ensure that the units would fit on a Libra remote head. Needless to say, our confirmed design had to be modified accordingly.”

A team of professional industrial designers and manufacturers spent the final three weeks working around the clock to meet the six-week deadline.

Two unique housings were created: The Splash and The Imanzi. The Splash is a surface splash bag that can be used to a depth of 3ft and accommodates both  the Sony F35 and the Phantom.

Future developments will be made to the splash bag for it to accommodate the Arri 435 and Arricam LT.

The Imanzi (meaning “wet” in IsiXhosa) is a stainless steel underwater housing, tested to a depth of 7m and certified to 5m. It will accommodate the use of 35mm prime lenses and both the 15-40 and 28-76mm Angenieux Optimo Zooms.  It incorporates a 7” HD monitor and control panel, combined with a waterproof, three-axis lens control system. The combined monitor and control panel enables the operator to use all the main control functions of the Phantom HD/Gold with simplicity.

“With the 7” underwater monitor control unit, you have the main camera control functions of the Phantom HD/Gold at your fingertips,” says Brenn. “It is straightforward and easy to use, which is exactly the idea, especially when you are underwater.”

Take 2 have seen a growing demand for cost-effective camera solutions like the RED One, but believe that a place remains for high-end digital cameras like the F35. They are investing in both ends of the digital market. “But as we all know, the version and designs change often, so we’re aiming at the top end of the market, as cutting-edge technology tends to take a little more time to evolve.”

Brenn believes that 35mm motion picture film cameras are still the classic work horses and deliver unsurpassed image quality. “But there is a term being commandeered out there: ‘2010, the year celluloid died!’ We’ve heard this before and film will be here for a while yet, as we are yet to see a digital system that surpasses it in quality. But Sony certainly made a remarkable effort in bringing us the F35. As their upgrade on the Panavision Genesis system, the F35 has had post facilities both locally and around the world ask the question, ‘If only film got scanned in as good as this,’ and voila, the 4K image scanners arrived.”

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Kevin Kriedemann