From Comingsoon.net
http://www.comingsoon.net/news/topnews.php?id=10626
George Lucas-
"For the live-action series, he said, "we're going do something that would normally cost ($20 million-$30 million) and try to do it for $1 million," citing The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles as one show where he was able to stretch his production budget.

He said he'll shoot the series on a Sony digital camera system that anyone can buy at an electronics store."

Z1, maybe?

Actually, I have a friend whose son will be in charge of the animated Star Wars series. He had some great stories about how George Lucas discovered him and the time he spent at the Skywalker ranch. Like so many similar stories, he got a call from George Lucas' secretary asking him to come out for a meeting. He thought it was a friend playing a prank on him and hung up :-)

The article ends with "He said he'll shoot the series on a Sony digital camera system that anyone can buy at an electronic".

If he shoots with HDV and specifically the Z1U - I will freak!

The article ends with "He said he'll shoot the series on a Sony digital camera system that anyone can buy at an electronic".

If he shoots with HDV and specifically the Z1U - I will freak!

they already have a boatload of Z1's, and have allegedly ordered a bunch of A1U's as well. There are a lot of places the Z1's are being used in Hollywood-related/level projects, partially because of the 1080 ability, and partially because they're here, now.
It's too bad Sony's not assembled a list for advertising of who already is using the Z1 and where. Aside from the people I've been called in to train, (which is sorta the "B" listing) there are some huge directorial and DP names that would be in there.

I assume they shoot 25fps since cineframe 24 is a pretty horrible approximation of 24fps while cineframe 25 seems perfectly fine. Does anyone know? Anyhow, that's really cool to hear. I can't wait for the show; I bet it will look awesome.

D.S.E,

This is really great news if it pans out. I can't think of anything better for spreading the HDV word. When I talk to clients and explain DV vs. HDV it'll be so much easier to say, "It's the same camera the new Star Wars television show uses."

That would rock. Of course, I wouldn't mention the millions of dollars worth of OTHER equipment they have and I don't....lol.

I would love to find out if they will use tape or shoot uncompressed from the live camera. During Episode 2 (not sure about Episode 3) they usually shot with many different backup systems in place. They ran an uncompressed feed to a system for the main video. They also ran a tape in the camera and a feed to a HDCAM deck for a 3rd copy. It wouldn't really cost much of that 1 million $ budget to get a uncompressed system to capture the video.

The quality would be pretty amazing if they used uncompressed.