“Entre Nos” (“Between Us”), a feature directed and written by Paola Mendoza and Gloria La Morte and shot with Panasonic’s AG-HPX500 2/3in P2 HD shoulder-mount camcorder, will be screened at the Tribeca Film Festival, April 22-May 3, in New York City.
“Entre Nos” was designated an official selection at the 2007 Independent Feature Project’s (IFP) Emerging Narrative Screenwriting Program, qualifying Mendoza and La Morte to receive a Panasonic/Abel Cine Tech Digital Filmmaker Grant. The grant gave them the use of an HPX500, Fujinon lens, P2 media and AG-HPG10 P2 Gear to produce their screenplay. The project also received backing from the Tribeca All-Access Program and a grant from Cinereach. The director of photography was Bradford Young.
The movietells the story of mother Mariana (played by Mendoza), who has toted her two children from Colombia to New York to indulge her husband's whim. But when he abruptly abandons the family, she has to rely on her own imagination and courage — and that of her children (Sebastian Villada and Laura Montana) — to survive insurmountable odds during their first summer in the United States.
“We wanted to shoot ‘Entre Nos’in solid state in HD because we were working with children actors, and we needed the freedom to have as many takes as necessary to get the performances just right,” Mendoza said.
According to Young, the light-handling capabilities of the HPX500 allowed the camera to be “amazingly sensitive” in low-light situations. Shooting with available light gave Young the ability to move with the actors in a “liberated way,” he said. “When an actor sees a light or has to step over a cable, they divest from the moment in a particular way; because of its sensitivity, the HPX500 allowed us to help Paola and Gloria keep the moment moving without loss of image quality.”
The move was shot using the HPX500’s 1080i/24PA setting, and the pull down was done on the set with Raylight, Young said. “Though we originated with an interlaced signal, shooting at 1080i allowed us to use more of the camera’s chips. We decided to zero out all our settings and shoot Cinelike D,” he said.
