A friend of mine recommended The Devil’s Miner and I definitely plan to see it. It’s a documentary about Basilio Vargas, a Bolivian child miner. It’s like a cross between citizen journalism and gonzo journalism. Kief Davidson, director, says:
The challenge for THE DEVIL’S MINER was finding a young boy who could carry and narrate a feature-length film. We hired a former miner and local guide who introduced us to a dozen families. The Vargas family was the first on his list and we were immediately captivated with Basilio’s positive energy, intelligence and articulate speech.
From a filmmaker’s perspective, there were some important technical challenges like lighting and cameras. I’m still trying to figure out from the photo if they are using an HD cam or not. It looks like a Sony FX1 with some accessories :
In the claustrophobic tunnels, we shot with a small-format digital camera. Anything larger would have been impossible. The miners’ open-flame carbon lamps were used as the main source of lighting…
You can visit The Devil’s Miner official site where there’s a trailer and plenty of information about the documenary. You can also order the DVD.
The camera is a DVX-100, the FX1 and ZIU both have LCD flip-outs mounted on the handle. The big barrel eyepiece is pretty distintively DVX. Given how long post usually takes probably all the HDV cams: the FX, ZI and definitely the HVX probably weren’t out in time for the filmmakers to use them.
You’re probably right, DVX-100 looks like a good choice for aspiring filmmakers as it has 24p.