St Kilda Film Festival swung around once again this year - this time to celebrate its 30th year.
As in previous years Lemac was there on opening night and also to partake in the industry open day at the wonderful Astor Theatre. As well as manning Lemac's stall with representatives from Sales and Rentals, Tim Schuman (Manager for Digital Cinema) was asked to be part of the panel for a session titled 'Production: The Changing Technological Landscape'.
The panel's focus was on the highly successful and critically acclaimed series 'The Slap' and how digital production is changing content creation. As the first TV series in Australia to shoot on the Arri Alexa digital camera this series broke ground in many ways and was a commercial and critical success.
Alongside director Matt Saville, producer Michael McMahon from Matchbox Pictures, Ross Mitchell from Deluxe and production designer Melinda Doring, Tim discussed the process involved in testing for the right equipment to use, introducing a new camera system, taking it through its workflow, and Lemac's key role in liaising with post-production at Deluxe to make sure the camera department got the most out of what was, at the time, a brand new camera system. Throughout the shoot, Lemac provided full service and support for the extensive range of extras that can be overlooked when approaching long form production rentals.
When asked if the production had considered purchasing their camera equipment for this project, both Michael from Matchbox and Matt Saville responded that for a production of this size equipment purchase isn't a good option. "For the set of Cooke prime lenses we used on the show you would be up for somewhere around a quarter of a million dollars," said Saville, "which isn't a viable option - especially when that doesn't even take into account servicing, calibration and upkeep of such precise tools."
With technology changing so rapidly, the discussion was a timely and well received look at the challenges the industry faces and Lemac was proud to have been asked to participate.
Thank you to the St Kilda Film Festival and the panellists for welcoming Lemac on board.
Lemac's Alexa production kits continue to provide rental support for other great TV dramas such as 'Time Of Our Lives', 'Rake' series 2 & 3 and 'Mako - Island of Secrets'