The Global Rivers Project

Tapeless Workflow - A few lessons so far

Our workflow had to change some from our original plans for this international collaborative documentary project. We intended to provide faculty/student teams in five different countries with Panasonic HD cameras. Throughout the year each team would shoot river footage and share it with all collaborators via DigiDelivery. Teams were to share periodic edits from our five rivers. Then one final collaborative edit would be completed and exhibited at the Beijing Film Academy in November 2008.

One Lesson. DigiDelivery is a fantastic tool. However, the backbone or infrastructure needed to upload and download even small files was not adequate for our needs. The upload time for just one minute of HD material was over 20 hours. And that was working with broadband access in the US. Some Global Rivers Project partners had much more limited access. In India, we often faced routine power shut-downs when we planned to upload Ganga River files. In the end, we switched to a workflow that shared P2 files by shipping hard drives from production teams to an editor.

Another Lesson. P2 tapeless technology is a great new HD format. At first we were nervous about going all-digital. Erase footage after copying it to a hard drive? No tape for backup? We recorded to P2 cards and then reluctantly followed the workflow. Now after a year of working with the format, most of us plan to continue to shoot with the P2 cameras. I for one, cannot imagine going back to clunky videotape ever again.

And Another Lesson. Technical support from Avid and Panasonic is priceless. As you look back through this blog, you will see posts that address our anxieties and questions. You will also read about HD workflow workshops presented by Panasonic. This project would never have happened without the generous support of Avid and Panasonic. Even more valuable were their replies to our panic calls and messages.

Keep reading this blog for further instruction and insights, frustrations and troubleshooting. The Global Rivers Project has tested the HVX200 camera on rivers in scorching heat, wilting humidity, and biting cold. We survived. The cameras performed. Now the big final edit begins.

What a difference a Card makes

One of the goals of our Global Rivers Project is to test best practices in tapeless HD workflow. Thanks to Panasonic, all of our teams are shooting with the HVX200 camera. As you read back through our blog posts you will see that our teams were a bit frustrated by working with the 4 gig P2 cards. Now, thanks to Panasonic and to B & H Photo Video, we have new 16 gig cards. What a difference a card makes!

We are shooting in 720p/24pn. In this mode, a 16 gig P2 card captures up to 40 minutes of HD video. On a recent Mississippi River shoot, I spent a several hours on the river with the Missouri Department of Conservation. I had two 8 gig cards and two 16 gig cards. These cards provided enough recording time to capture the tagging and sampling from the boat. When I got to shore, I copied the cards to a MacBook Pro, erased the cards, and got back on the boat. Back in the motel at night, I backed up all the P2 media to a portable hard drive.

As I've said in previous blogs, erasing the cards produces a bit of anxiety. Of course, videotapes jammed and creased sometimes, but there was something tangible to hold. However, that is not reason to go back to tape. I cannot imagine wanting to search through tape ever again. And with the larger P2 cards, our workflow got even easier.

For further reading on P2 workflow:
http://www.panasonic.com/business/provideo/p2-hd/white-papers.asp

Calendar for Global Rivers Project 2008

March 10-15  Shoot Mississippi
March 16-20  Shoot Rio Grande
April 15-20     Shoot Amazon
May 12-30     Shoot Danube
June  -          Shoot Rio Grande

August 12-16    
UFVA.  3rd cut complete
August 17-Sept 1 
Create graphics.
Composer on and writing.
Final editing  (approvals via SyncVue??)

Sept 15      LOCK PICTURE
Oct 13-17   Mix
                 Online and layback
Oct 19        Materials to DVD Authoring

November 3-8     CILECT in Beijing

Panasonic P2

As you read this blog, you see that our teams are shooting with Panasonic HVX200 HD cameras provided by Panasonic. We are investigating best practices with this new tapeless workflow. As you look back through our postings, you see that we started with two 4 Gig cards with each camera package. Working in the 720P/24Pn format, we are able to record 10 minutes on each card. Not exactly the best solution for shooting in the field. Thanks to Panasonic and B & H Photo Video, we now have 16 Gig cards. With the ability to shoot 40 minutes on each card, we are much better able to capture the cultural,political, and environmental stories on our rivers.

Last year, again thanks to Panasonic US, my students at the University of South Carolina shot a feature film with the HVX200. Only 4 Gig cards were available then. On set, when the cards were full, a camera assistant would take the cards to an editor. The cards were transfered to a MacBook Pro, then erased. Meanwhile, the DP/camera operator continued to shoot with the other two 4 Gig cards. This workflow mirrors that of a 16mm film shoot with camera assistants loading and unloading film magazines.

You can view on-set photos of our feature film, THE FOUR CHILDREN OF TANDER WELCH, at www.tanderwelch.com.

Scroll down this blog to see photos of our project teams working with the P2 tapeless cameras on the Mississippi and Rio Grande Rivers.

Want to read more about the Panasonic HVX200?
Go to Barry Braverman's review at the Digital Content Producer website.
http://digitalcontentproducer.com/cameras/revfeat/video_handson_hvx/

WORK FLOW ISSUES

This past trip to India was much easier since I worked out most of the bugs about shooting. I brought a two power strips and two different types of converters with lots of fuses. (In July we blew two fuses and one of the converters!) The Western Digital external hard drive was great, because it could just power up from the laptop. The first time around I brought a big 500 gig G-TECH drive, but that was so bulky and when I plugged that up with the computer, there wasn’t enough juice to run both, so I could only use that when I was running off the laptop battery. This WD drive worked like a charm.

When Norm wanted all the material I had shot, I started uploading the files via digi delivery. He wanted the full res files. At home, one file was taking me over 26 hours to upload. Because I only had one computer to upload this I couldn’t do anything else. In the end, I decided to just send all the material on another drive to Norm. I thought this was going to be the easiest thing to do in the long run. Although, when I was transferring all the footage from 3 different drives, some of the footage didn’t make it to the drive I sent him. So I have digi delivered two of the three files that did not get transferred the first time.

And a reminder- because luckily all the footage was at least on one of my drives- I did not lose the footage so please make sure to back it up in a variety of places. I thought one drive had all my material. Hope this helps!

Shooting Schedule

Shooting has begun on the Mississippi and Rio Grande Rvers.
Shooting on Ganga is complete.

Planned Shoots:
Mississippi - 10-16 March
Rio Grande -  15-23 March
Danube - February and April?
Amazon - February?

Hey River Partners, post your schedules here.

P2 Passes BRRRRR Test

The temperature was about 6 Degrees F on the Upper Mississippi yesterday when we were shooting. I am happy to report that the Panasonic P2 HVX200 fared just fine. With wind chill, it was at least 10 or more degrees below Zero. My footage would be better if I had been able to bend my fingers. I thought I would have to change batteries often due to the bitter cold, but the Anton Bauer battery provided by Panasonic did not seem affected by the cold at all. I filled up two 16 gig P2 cards and still have more than half the charge on the battery.

Again, my fingers and toes did not fare as well in this test. I stopped in Lake City, Wisconsin and bought some hand warmers at Wise Ace Hardware. When I told the store owner that I was visiting from South Carolina, he quickly replied, Why? (Then they gave me some tips on where to spot eagles in the area.)

Rethinking Workflow

Now that we have started the workflow for this international collaborative project, we might need to rethink some of our plans. Last night I uploaded two files for Digidelivery to Norman Hollyn, our editor. One file included a minute or so of assembled clips from the Mississippi River. That Avid file took about four hours to upload. I also started the upload process for about 2.3 Gig file of P2 media. The upload started at about 11 PM last night. This morning when I checked the computer at about 7 AM, the Digidelivery window showed that the process would take another 12 hours.

These are big media files and take a long time to get across the ether. Our editor wants as much of the best quality media as possible so that he can start to shape the final "meta-movie" of our project. I'm working with a broadband connection during a not too busy time of day, and the upload still will take many hours. At our gathering in Tewksbury, we agreed to send low-res files via Digidelivery and then later send hi-res files as requested. Avid has generously agreed to hold a backup archive of all our footage. That footage must be sent via Digidelivery.

How do we proceed?

Avid Media Composer & Panasonic P2 Offline - Online Workflow

One of the most popular emerging workflows in today's post-production world is the Offline-Online workflow with the Panasonic P2 camera.  Watch this video to learn exactly how to take your HD media from the P2 card, edit at a SD resolution, and then relink back to its HD flavor.

Download this video for iPod

Video demonstration by Bob Russo, Avid Media Education Evangelist

Working on Workflow

As I continue to work with the Panasonic P2, I again ask the question... Will I ever get over the anxiety of erasing the P2 cards? I have my Mississippi shots backed up on three or four different hard drives. The same files copied four times to different drives.

I am fortunate to have multiple P2 cards. My department bought two P2 kits last year and I can take the extra cards with me when I shoot with the Panasonic loaner for this project. I used all eight cards when shooting on the Mississippi last week. I was in a boat all day and could not lay off the shots to the P2 Store until I got back to my friend's house in St. Louis. At her dining room table I could set up my Macbook, P2 Store, and 750 GB external hard drive.

Here is the process (Note - I am working on Macintosh):