Now that I am finished shooting and editing Zed Lapel Pin I have a few thoughts and reflections on the camera and tapeless workflow. (From a producer's perspective)
I was a huge fan of the Panasonic DVX 100 (http://www.panasonic.com/business/provideo/app_dv.asp) when it came out and I am almost as big a fan of the Panasonic HVX 200 (http://www.panasonic.com/business/provideo/hvx200microsite/index.asp). As far as image quality goes, the HVX is great, it really is the HD version of the DVX. Some of my friends have complained that it doesn't shoot 1080, but I shot Zed in 720 and am very happy with the results. (you can see sample footage at www.zedlapelpin.com)
For as much as I love the picture from the HVX, I am not 100% happy with the tapeless workflow. And my dissatisfaction is mostly my fault. I wasn't able to put an assistant editor on the shoot to manage the cards, so I had to dump the cards each night. (Note for producers: Never agree to do this!!!!) After our first day of shooting, I took the cameras home and left a card in both cameras. That footage is permanently gone. :( Fortunately there was enough footage to keep me covered, but it sure would have been nice to have that footage.
So, I guess I have two complaints about tapeless:\
1) It adds an extra person to the crew to manage the cards (This is a must have position - I dont care if you use a PA, just have someone who can be there for the entire shoot)
2) Once the cards are formated, the footage is gone forever. (This just scares me)
Maybe I am too old school, but I like having a stack of tapes that I know the footage is on. Even if I have to store the tapes, I know the footage is there.
Also, once you download the contents of the card you have to have a hard drive to store it on. Forever. [Insert scene from "The Sandlot"]
There is an alternative to shooting on P2 cards, you can shoot directly to a hard drive via firewire such as the Focus FS-100 (http://www.focusinfo.com/solutions/catalog.asp?id=150) This product allows you to spend more time shooting and less time swapping cards. It also makes your assistant editor's life easier. I haven't tested this personally, but I have heard rumors that if you shoot to a hard drive you can also shoot to tape for back-up.
My final verdict on the HVX and tapeless: like, don't love it...yet
3/20/08 Update
I just read a great article on audio and tapeless workflow http://www.studentfilmmakers.com/news/article_1593.shtml I have also been getting lots of emails and phone calls about audio issues with the RED camera.
Thank you all for participating in this discussion, and feel free to post comments on the blog.
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2 comments:
Buy a blu-ray burner. That will help protect your data then, you'll stop worrying.
Let the filmmaker beware when using the Focus Systems' Firestore drive... I produced a doc-style shoot last year that was shot 720p to Firestore. It's all well and good when you're doing single camera, film style production. You can download at the end of the day and you're fine. When you're shooting hours of footage though, you suddenly find that your drive is up to its 100gig limit, it only has a Firewire 400 port, and you have to shut down shooting for the full hour that it takes to download. It can be problematic if you don't plan for it. And besides, one of our Firestores (we had two) started creating glitches in the footage... it ruined soundbite after soundbite, even throwing audio and video out of sync within the same clips! We were eventually able to cut around it, but it was a horrendous headache in post, especially syncing two cameras together. Not to say the Firestore doesn't do a good job... it just needs to be approached with caution.
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