Shyamalan Begins Shooting "After Earth" with New Camera System

"After Earth" Is First Motion Picture to Be Shot with Sony's F65 Camera

Sony Pictures Entertainment's Upcoming Science Fiction Epic Gets True 4K Production Treatment Using Groundbreaking New Camera System

PARK RIDGE, N.J., Feb. 29, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- The latest film from the production company Overbrook Entertainment and acclaimed director M. Night Shyamalan, "After Earth," scheduled for release next year by Sony Pictures Entertainment's Columbia Pictures, is the first major motion picture to be shot using Sony's groundbreaking F65 CineAlta(TM) digital production camera.

Shyamalan commented, "I couldn't be any happier with the F65, which is amazing since I'm a 'film guy' and I thought I'd die a 'film guy.' It's a digital media that's warm and has humanity in it which is obviously the most important thing to me."

"The F65 is like a great leap forward," said director of photography, Peter Suschitzky. "As soon as I did testing of the F65, I was immensely impressed by the amount of detail it captures, by its incredible flexibility, from low lights to high lights, and its great contrast range. It really is a camera for the future and I'm going to use it again on a number of films."

In January 2012, Sony began worldwide deliveries of the F65 camera to meet the incredibly high demand from production professionals. Approximately 400 units were pre-ordered, and several other high-profile productions are also planned to be shot with the F65.

"This movie is the perfect first project for the F65," said Alec Shapiro, senior vice president at Sony Electronics. "The combination of an innovative moviemaker and a script with incredibly high production values will test the limits of this camera and its powerful feature set. The result is sure to be a unique and visually immersive entertainment experience for the movie-going consumer."

The F65 camera's unprecedented 8K image sensor, with approximately 20 total megapixels, offers higher image fidelity than any other digital cinema production camera. With 16-bit Linear RAW file output capability, the F65 creates the gateway to an end-to-end 4K file-based mastering workflow.

In response to the strong interest in Sony's new F65 CineAlta(TM) camera from the filmmaking community, Sony Pictures Studios plans to host workshops on digital workflows supporting the F65. The workshops, beginning in March, are designed to educate qualified directors, cinematographers and other film industry professionals.