Monster Movie -- CLOVERFIELD

(From Videography -- By Jon Silberg)

What if the only surviving witness to a monumental emergency situation was a consumer video camera?

This basic concept serves as the storytelling approach to Director MATT REEVES' CLOVERFIELD, the smartly marketed PARAMOUNT monster movie that was recently unleashed in theaters.

And the filmmakers involved used some very high-tech gear, including the THOMPSON GRASS VALLEY VIPER and the SONY F23, to intentionally achieve the picture's low-tech, "prosumer video" look.

Much of CLOVERFIELD was in fact shot with a prosumer PANASONIC HVX 200, but for the significant chunk of the picture that involves CGI and compositing -- including the mysterious monster, defending military machines and resulting destruction -- the signal from the HVX simply wasn't up to the task.

For these scenes, Director of Photography MICHAEL BONVILLAIN (FELICITY, ALIAS, LOST) made due with the VIPER in its highest bit rate-pseudo-log FILMSTREAM MODE -- and the SONY F23 in its equivalent Sony-branded S-LOG FORMAT.

Monster Movie -- Cloverfield