What was supposed to be a rather simple slouch into summer turned into a breathless blur of a month here at Bourbon Street.

June kicked off in Vail, Colorado at the annual Teva Games shooting in triplicate, so to speak. For live events, Camera Operator John Bourbonais went with 1080i; for capturing footage he knew would be perfect for slow motion -in this case kayaking - the speed of choice was 29.97. Of course, interviews were shot at 23.98. Three different tapes, three different speeds, one gig. We can't recommend it enough.

Speaking of speed, we were recently demonstrating the slow motion beauty of 29.97 for a producer, only the camera (our trusty Sony 900) was set up for 23.98. What a wonderful gaffe! For those who have occasion to use a 900 for, say, a VTR down convert to standard definition, or to play into an edit system, be it known that you can get amazing slow motion by shooting at 29.97 and then resetting the camera set to 23.98 for the playback. Just though you should benefit from our oversight.

As we often do here in the newsletter, it's not time to make a technological stump speech. This month's harangue concerns white balance. Invariably, the Sony 900 and other cameras come with the white balance (WB) set neutrally (Preset) or by manually setting the WB in either the "A" or "B" positions. We think this is a disservice to shooters and digital image techs. The answer requires a brief anecdote.

This past November, John Bourbonais was working with Tom Burstyn, CSC on Going to the Matt, Disney's first ever HD movie of the week (now showing on The Disney Channel).

"During the first couple of weeks of shooting we were doing white balances on set and I happened into page two of the paint menu," Bourbonais recalls. "The red and blue numerical values, which range from -99 to +99, were being affected through the WB. The green always remained at zero but the red and blue always changed."

Graph lover that he is, John made an X-Y chart. After plotting six different Kelvin temperatures ranging from interior to exterior, a side curve was established enabling him to plot the WB accordingly.

"With the 3200 Kelvin correction, (Filter B on the Sony 900) I typically have the A WB programmed as 3600 Kelvin, B as 4000, while the preset remains at 3200," John explains. "Once I get to a location I can warm or cool accordingly and quickly present the director with options. If 3200 isn't warm enough and 3600 is too warm, I can split the difference numerically."

If this chart is something you might find useful, look for it at www.bourbonhd.com under "HD Camera Protocol."

Next month, we'll talk about how the white balance menu can be further manipulated for post-production using the green channel.

But for now, we're dismounting the techno soapbox...

...and mounting the Nostradamus Soapbox. Though we think our prediction, we think, is hardly cryptic. It is only that Panavision's Genesis camera will kick some butt as soon as this fall.

Designed by both Sony and Panavision, the Genesis features 1" chips that make it compatible with 35mm zooms or primes. This means you'll get the same depth of field as 35mm in a format that's as close to uncompressed HD as we've seen in a one piece camcorder. Sony has given no indication that it will ever be for sale, however, Panavision will start renting it sometime this fall.

By next year, we expect to see at least half a dozen major motion pictures shot with the Genesis, compared with the current one a year that's strictly HD. We think many more Producers, Directors and DPs are going to bring Genesis into motion picture production, which is good news for HD.

Finally, thanks to everyone who attended last month's workshop in Colorado Springs. The questionnaires indicated that everyone felt it was a great value, appreciated the hands-on aspect and would recommend it to others. Wow. We sure hope you're not lying. Look for more workshops in the future.

As always, Bourbon Street offers our HDW-F900 Camera Package including operator for $1000.00 per day. For the details, "www.bourbonhd.com."

We look forward to your comments and ideas.