About a month ago I entered OpenCut 1.0, a short film (appox. 10min) competition where the organizers provide you with the script, storyboard and footage. Pretty interesting idea really. I entered this competition more the access to full blown RED footage then I did for the prizes (which are sweet by the way).

I sent a 750GB HD off to L.A. about a week ago ready to be loaded with 170GB of RED RAW footage. I’m talking the copied the entire contents of the cards (or RAID) they shot on, on to the Hard Drive. The files are like nothing I’ve seen before. Audio and video are separate, and there are about 30 folders (reals) with footage in them. About 170 clips all together.

Before I could even look at the footage, I had to go to RED’s web site and download the necessary plug-ins for FCP.
After doing that, Quick Time was able to open the RAW files and…. and…. Oh my God… they were HUGE and AMAZING! Like no other piece of “video” I’ve seen before. At 100% it didn’t fit on my 22″ monitor running at 1680 wide. I checked… yep, the clips are 1920×1080. Oh and did I mention all 4k.

After I calmed down a bit, I realized editing these files Real Time in FCP would be a joke. I read some RED forums online and found another plug in that transforms the Log & Transfer window in Final Cut into a media transcoder for RED footage. Basically you get 1920×1080 Apple ProRess 4:2:2 (HQ) clips out of the RED footage. Much more manageable for FCP.

As we speak the 170 clips are ingesting at the studio; I chose to do it over night! Hopefully in the morning I will have something to start working with.

As a closing note: There is still a lot for me to uncover when it comes to work with this footage. It took me about two hours to get the point where I knew what I needed to do with the RAW footage to work with it in FCP. I could choose to finish the project in the ProRes, but seriously… I have RED RAW 4k files here… I want to finish in 4k! I’m still reading up on the workflow for that…. it doesn’t sound easy. Check back - I’ll keep posting on my progress and be sure to post a summary of my findings and workflow!

For now,
S

PS - I will post a link to a RED RAW file for you to download. Its HUGE and will take a while, but at least you can see the quality!

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I’ve seen it with my own eyes! The PWX-EX1, XDCam from Sony. In a post from last week, I wrote without a lot of hope about the MPEG-2 compression on the camera along with a number of other things. After seeing the camera and a demo with the camera, I’m still not completely sold, but am a lot more interested in seeing it really put to use. A Sony rep. who was at the demo was boasting the EX’s stunning low light capabilities, and I must say, based on what was shown, I am seriously impressed. Here are some other things that might make you think about opening your wallets for the sub-$7,000 camera:

1. Tapeless media sold by Sony and San-Disk. They are calling the media, SxS (spoken, “S by S”). Since it is being made by both companies you can probably count on cheap media. Cheaper than P2 cards that is.
2. The SxS card will slide of so nicely into your slot on the MacBookPro. Take your download speed up to 10x real time. If you have 100 minutes for footage, you can be editing on it in 10 minutes in FCP. You can buy a USB 2 reader which will download in about 3x real time.  The camea is equipped with a SP and a HQ record setting. SP records 1440×1080 @ 60i (the equivalent of HDV) at 25mbs (thats mega-bits). The HQ setting records all formats at 1920×1080 and writes 35mbs. Quite a quality jump.
3. Fujinon Lens. Yes, you read correctly, a serious lens on this camera. A user of the Ex1 at the demo was raving about how much sweeter it is than the HVX200’s lens. And from the looks of it, it does appear that way. Since it is a Fujinon lens, it has a iris ring built into it which will stop turning when its all open or all closed. (AMAZING). As well as a focus ring which will slide forward and back to which between auto and manual focus. This could be turn in to a real nightmare for this camera, I’ll be listening to see what people think.
4. Uncompressed audio recording is a great addition to this package. Unlike some other solid state cameras, this thing gives you 2 uncompressed tracks. I know in my previous post I was doggin on the EX’s audio abilities, and I’m still not loving only two tracks, but I’d rather have two uncompressed than four compressed.
5. Lastly, 1/2″ CMOS chips. Three of them for that matter. And they all record full 1920×1080. Each chip is 2.2 mega pixels and records a full progressive frame.

There are other things to note about this camera, but for now, go and play with it. I could see this camera being a reality in my shop sooner or (more likely) later. Its too bad though that Sony couldn’t match or beat Panasonic’s price point. We’ll see how things unfold in the coming months.

Happy techo-lusting.

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I realize I left out anything having to do with audio recording on the 200. While it is no where near as complicated, as working with the picture side of the camera, understanding your options and how to best use them will increase your productivity in post.When you are shooting DVCPRO HD or Pro 50, the camera will record four channels of audio, two of which will always be the on board mic. The other two will be the XLR inputs on the camera. I prefer to always set the switches on the side of the camera (under the LCD panel to reflect channel one receiving input one and channel two receiving input two. This will force the on board mic to channels three & four. When you injest your footage and start editing, your audio tracks from your XLRs will appear on the top two tracks and on board mics on the bottoms two.

The manual for the 200, as with many manuals, has a lot of useful (and some useless) info. For those of us who don’t like to thumb through the paper copy, you can download a PDF version which is searchable (an added bonus). If you are curious about the 3:2:2:3 pull down, conversion to 24p, 30p to 60i and 24PA to 60i, the manual, and many places on the web, have this info. This will inevitably be a topic of conversation in the coming months.

I would also like to add some thoughts on the P2 and FireStore tapeless media. For all of us who have came from a would of shooting tape, which seems to be all of us, we’re use to putting tape in the camera, and shooting until we run out. The only thing that has changed with shooting tapeless media, is about of space we’re aloud to shoot before we have to spend almost as much time injesting that footage. P2 cards until recently has been the inferior of the two formats. You could only store about and hour of footage on two 16 GB cards. Yeah, this isn’t much different than your hour of tape, but when you have to spend another hour injesting before you can use it again, you begin to see its disadvantages. The Firestore and handle 110 minutes of 720p30 HD footage. And depending on your project, this usually is enough to get you to a stopping point, injest some, and continue.

In November, the world will be blessed with 32GB P2 cards holding about an hour on each card. Now we’re talking! The 200 will hold up to two P2 cards at a time, and if you are able to purchase two cards, you can shoot one, and then injest it while you shoot the other and never have to really worry about running out of space. Yes, this advancement will take HD to a new level and untether you from the Firestore.

For now, I think that will do it. In about two weeks, look for an article on producing for the internet.

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I Sent an email this week to a producer friend of mine in Kansas regarding the new Sony XDCam. I wanted to post a portion of the message.

Seems to be a lot of hype about this new cam. Although after reading that Sony decided to use MPEG-2 compression, I stopped reading wanted to yell really loud…. Yes, that’s right, this $6,700 HD shooting camera comes without all the bells and whistles we were all hoping for in a rival to the Panasonic 200…. only 2 audio channels (to the 200s four) (did I mention) MPEG-2, no ability to shoot to tape, 14x zoom, along with other minor issues I’m sure to find later. On the other side of things, this cam is flaunting a 1/2″ CMOS chip - WOW - that’s huge! This does provide a little hope to the MPEG format. But still after see what happens to MPEG footage after a little color correction and composite, I’m not sold yet. Anyway - that’s my story. Take a look and tell me what you think.

More sure to come on this between articles. Comments or thoughts on this cam are welcome.

More info on the PMW-EX1

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Sean R. Smith
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The Panasonic HVX-200 has gotten a lot of attention in the two years. Since its release in 2005 this camera has gone from a dream to a reality for many larger studios and indie filmmakers. The 200 came at a time when ENG HD cams were not a reality for many producers and shooters. The camera turns out great quality, most of the time, at a Wal-Mart price. Now, I’m not one to relate much to Wal-Mart, but in this chase the camera (compared to ENG cams) is a steal. I could spend three weeks talking about everything this HD miracle machine has to offer – however, I will stick to how it relates to post workflows and processes.

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