ABSTRACT
Some 4 or 5 months before the shooting of The Children of Dune was due to commence, one of the
producers came to Panavision in London to talk about the possibility of shooting with the Panavision HD camera. I was there in my capacity as an associate of Panavision. After something like a 2-hour presentation I had the impression that he was convinced he wanted to shoot on HD, but the producer
made it clear that economics would be the deciding factor. The previous series, Dune, had been shot on three-perforation 35mm, so we knew where the extra
expenses would be and where the economies could be made. Although the equipment was going to be
a little more expensive than 35mm, over the shooting period that was planned, something like 4 months, the economies on stock and processing were going to be huge. So we progressed to the point where we all agreed in principle that HD was the answer, that they would make sizeable savings and there would be absolutely no loss in quality when compared to the previous series.
