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This summer, I have spent plenty of time with all of my nieces and nephews, filling up our souls with countless hours of animated feature films. Pixar has truly raised the bar. Wall-E, Incredibles and Ratatouille. I’ve also watched all Shreks again, Madagascar, Happy Feet, Bee Movie…And it was the last film that reminded me of a very astute Op Ed piece I read in the New York Times, “The Real Life of Bees”. Besides all of the inaccuracies regarding bee/insect life as portrayed in animated films, I also wondered why do American animated films shy away from a female protagonist who is not a princess? (note: female love interests, even when all characters are animals, are usually the daughters of the king of the hive, tribe, flock etc thus making them the princess)  Couldn’t Bee Movie be about the Queen Bee? What about Antz? What if the main toy in Toy Story was a girls favorite doll and her adventures? What if the mouse of Haute Cuisine was a female rat? It bugs me (pun not intended).

This is Cybel, reporting from the front lines. The resident Director of Photography. Before I discuss the Sony EX1 camera (a handheld flash memory HD camera that sells for $6500), let it be clear that I am a film girl. The day I die and my life flashes before my eyes, it better be shot with Anamorphic lenses and on Eastman Color Negative.

Having said that, I recently went to a film test screening at Duart. The very generous Andy Young of Duart did his own test, comparing the Sony EX1 to the Red Camera (both 4k & 2k) and outputted to film. He also shot some footage of his family with the camera “straight out of the box”. It was a relief to see unbiased camera tests not orchestrated and financed by a corporation, in this case Sony.