Direct to Video
It's not often that a movie's camera gets more attention than the actors, but that's what happened on the set of the independent film Nicolas. Director Peter A. Shaner shot the movie with an innovative camera system (called the Sony 24P) created by Sony Corp. and Panasonic Consumer Electronics Co., making Nicolas the first U.S. feature to be produced in the 24 frames-per-second (fps) High-Definition TV (HDTV) standard. This camera integrates video, which normally records at 30 fps, with the 24-fps film standard. HDTV is cheaper than shooting on film, and it saves time in the editing process. George Lucas asked Sony and Panasonic to develop the system for the next Star Wars installment, but Shaner got to take the camera out for a test spin before it's used on Jar Jar Binks.