Anyone planning on shooting an HDTV project in the Czech Republic is going to need to talk to Dick Miller, owner of EFA s.r.o, an adult production company located in Prague that is now the holder of the exclusive rights to represent the American version of Sony’s HDTV system in the Czech Republic.
There are two systems of HDTV, a European system and an American system. For the moment, EFA only has an American system.
Miller estimates that the Sony HDTV camera combined with all of the lenses and accessories EFA owns, is worth just a little under $200,000. And that doesn’t include the HDTV edit suite EFA owns.
Citing the delicacy of the camera, the rental fees, and probably most importantly, the size of the camera, Millerr doubts many people will want to bring their own HDTV camera to Czechoslovakia.
“If you take a camera that size into a country under a tourist visa it becomes fairly obvious to the people there that your not their as a tourist,” Miller told AVN.com on a rare visit to the U.S. “At this particular point in time that’s a very bad thing because the Czechs are up in arms because the United States isn’t granting them visas, stating the reason for them doing so is because Czechs are coming to the U.S. and working and not paying taxes.”
“The fact that American companies are doing what the Czechs are supposedly doing, that is coming in and paying everyone cash, not worrying about taxes…. well, they’re going to start having problems with that. The Czechs are up in arms about that.
“And if anyone does bring a camera in, they’ll still need to use the technicians,” Miller said.
“Something we can do when I’m making a movie is also make a DVcam time coded version at the same time. We can edit on that, then go into the high def suite and it’s just really a matter of transferring the numbers, almost in real time. There you have your finished product, color corrected and everything.
Production companies already in Czechoslovakia should be aware the camera is already rented out today - Roman Polanski has it, shooting behind-the-scenes footage for an upcoming feature.
Companies interested in renting the camera during their next trip to the Czech Republic, or companies wishing to hire EFA to shoot Czech productions, can contact Miller by emailing him at [email protected].
