JAMES HAWKINSON

Career: Ph 200+ music videos [see below]. Ph commercials dir by Dave Meyers [for Motorola], Dean Karr [for Universal Studios], Tom Kuntz/Mike Maguire [for IKEA], a.o..

Awards: MTV Music Video Award for Cinematography nom [2001] for 'Get Ur Freak On'; MTV Music Video Award for Cinematography nom [2004] for 'Naughty Girl'.

'Arrested Development': When the producers of the new Fox sitcom, 'Arrested Development', went hunting for an acquisition format to fit their show's creative approach and budget, there were limited available options. And of those options, most didn't suit the production's requirements, according to the producers.

16mm, for instance, was out because the show is shot documentary style, with a great deal of improvisational moments and multiple running takes, and the film and lab fees associated with that much footage made the option prohibitive. Video footage would have to be shot and delivered 24p to suit network standards. Sony's CineAlta HDCAM system, however, was too large for the kind of frenetic, handheld camera work the production wanted to adopt.

The producers had DP James Hawkinson next tested Panasonic's AG-DVX100 MiniDV camcorder. Because that camera, however, does not permit the capture of native 16:9 images, the production would have had to extract a 16:9 version from a squeezed 4:3 image if it adopted that approach. 'We would have lost information on the bottom of the frame that way, and in our tests, the image just didn't look the way we wanted it,' explains producer Victor Hsu.

Therefore, producers opted to make 'Arrested Development' using Panasonic's AJ-HDC27 Varicam technology. The first season, at least, would be acquired solely using the Varicam, and both they and Panasonic officials believed the show to be the first network, episodic, primetime series to use the Varicam exclusively for an entire season. Several pilots have used the camera in the last year, and a handful of regional and syndicated shows are now using it, as well, but 'Arrested Development' is believed to be the first primetime series to adopt the technology.

Hsu calls the Varicam an 'intermediate camera'. Ironically, it was chosen not for its variable frame-rate capability, but because it fit the show's shooting style, creative approach, and technical requirements. These matches made producers choose the camera even though the Varicam captures its images at 60fps, thus requiring an extra post step of converting to 24p.

The DP says the result was, stylistically, what was intended. 'Man, we were flying during that shoot [of the pilot],' he recalls. 'We actually got out an hour early the first and second days,' Hawkinson adds. 'We spent very little time on setups - it was all spent shooting. The camera held up optically, and it let us shoot almost entirely handheld at a blistering fast pace. We did not use the variable frame rate and some of the other bells and whistles since we wanted this to have a raw, documentary-type look, but the camera performed well at a very fast pace. All handheld. No sticks. No dolly tracks. No focus pulls, unless the operator is doing it himself. The camera isn't exactly light, per se, but it was light enough, along the lines of an ENG camera, for this style of shooting.' [From article (2003) by Michael Goldman on the digital content producer website.]

1996	Progeny [Brian Yuzna] c; 2uc: Jürgen Baum, Gary Hatfield, Baqi Kopelman & Lawrence Sher
1999	Zoetrope [Charlie Deaux] b&w; short/18m
2000	Tool: Salival [Adam Jones] c; comp of music videos
2000	The Kiss [Anthony & Joe Russo] c; short/8m
2003	Linkin Park: Live in Texas [Kimo Proudfoot] c; concert film/68m
2004	Idlewild [Bryan Barber] s35/c; addph; ph: Pascal Rabaud
2005	Lonely Hearts [Todd Robinson] s35/c; co-addph; ph: Peter Levy
2006	The Hitcher [Dave Meyers] s35/c; 2uc: Gary Hatfield; aph: Kurt E. Soderling
2006	AVPR: Alien vs. Predator - Requiem/AvP2 [Colin & Greg Strause] c; addph; ph: Daniel Pearl
2008	The Unborn [David S. Goyer] p/c; addph: Gregory Lundsgaard; aph: David B. Nowell & Kurt E. Soderling

2003	Arrested Development [pilot dir by Anthony & Joe Russo, ep #2 'Top Banana' dir by Anthony Russo (AR), #3 'Bringing Up Buster' dir by Joe Russo (JR), #4 'Key Decisions' dir by AR, #5 'Charity Drive' dir by Greg Mottola (GM), #6 'Visiting Ours' dir by GM, #7 'In God We Trust' dir by JR, #8 'My Mother the Car' dir by Jay Chandrasekhar, #9 'Storming the Castle' dir by GM, #10 'Pier Pressure' dir by JR & #11 'Public Relations' dir by Lee Shallat Chemel] 53-part series/HD, 2003-06; 1st season, 2003-04; other ph: Greg Harrington
2005	Dirty Famous [Alex Winter] pilot for VH1-tv
2007	Carpoolers [pilot 'Dougie's First Day' dir by Anthony & Joe Russo + 9 ep dir by various] 13-part series, 2007-08
2009	Secret Girlfriend [ep #1a 'You and Your Ex Call It Quits' & #1b 'You Find an Awesome Strip Club' dir by Ross Novie] series, 2009-present; other ph (+ cph #1): Hisham Abed
2009	Community [pilot dir by Anthony & Joe Russo + 9 ep dir by various] series, 2009-present

1987	Intruder/Night Crew: The Final Checkout [Scott Spiegel] electrician; ph: Fernando Argüelles
1989	Silent Night, Deadly Night 3: Better Watch Out!/Blind Terror [Monte Hellman] co-electrician; ph: Josep M. Civit
1990	Open Window [Rupert Wainwright; tvm/25m] 2nd c.asst; ph: Chuck Colwell
1991	Alien³ [David Fincher] electrician; ph: Alex Thomson
1994	Fist of the North Star/Hokuto no ken [Tony Randel] 2u electrician; 2uc: James McCalmont; ph: Jacques Haitkin
1994	Species [Roger Donaldson] electrician; ph: Andrzej Bartkowiak
1996	Turbulence [Robert Butler] co-electrician; ph: Lloyd Ahern II
1996	Air Force One [Wolfgang Petersen] electrician; ph: Michael Ballhaus
1996	Selena [Gregory Nava] 2u c.op; 2uc: James L. Carter, Kirk R. Gardner, James Glennon & Phil Pfeiffer; ph: Edward Lachman

1997	All for You [a: Sister Hazel; d: Thomas Mignone]
1997	Aenema [a: Tool; d: Adam Jones]
1998	I'm Losing You [a: John Lennon; d: Dean Karr]
1999	Windowlicker [a: Aphex Twin; d: Chris Cunningham] 11m
1999	One Man Army [a: Our Lady Peace; d: Mark Kohr]
2000	Kryptonite [a: 3 Doors Down; d: Dean Karr]
2000	X [a: Xzibit; d: Dave Meyers]
2001	Up All Night [a: Unwritten Law; d: Honey]
2001	Hey Baby [a: No Doubt; d: Dave Meyers]
2001	Get Ur Freak On [a: Missy Elliott; d: Dave Meyers]
2003	Drain the Blood [a: The Distillers; d: Dean Karr]
2004	Southside [a: Lloyd; d: Irv Gotti]
2004	Over and Over [a: Nelly & Tim McGraw; d: Erik White]
2004	Naughty Girl [a: Beyoncé; d: Jake Nava]
2005	Teary Eyed [a: Missy Elliott; d: Antti Jokinen]
2006	Lonely Day [a: System of a Down; d: Josh & Xander]
2006	From Yesterday [a: 30 Seconds to Mars; d: Bartholomew Cubbins] 2uc: Gary Hatfield