A few months ago, I edited a few segments for the Smithsonian Institute’s growing collection of online programming. It was a first for me in terms of the technology used to acquire the material, and the workflow there after. By the time it was finished, I was undoubtedly convinced this was the future of filmmaking, and I wanted to be a part of every step. So in addition to editing the pieces, I was given a job on location, that had no official title, as I was sure it was the first time being done.

Let me explain the gig, and how it was being produced. We were taping a full day of events including a live awards show for the Cooper Hewit Museum. We had three cameras scattered around the venue, shooting masters, close ups etc., the entire setup was relatively standard and uninteresting. However, the format we were shooting is what makes this article worth reading. Each camera was shooting on Panasonic’s AG-HVX200 3-CCD P2/DVCPRO HD camcorder.
It’s extremely robust, and gives the user a variety of different shooting options, including recording to the memory sticks known as P2 cards.

You either love em or hate em, as they come with limitations, the most note worthy being price and recording time. (A 16gb card, which was the largest at the time of shooting will get you 1 hour at DVCPro, 30 minutes at DVCPro 50 ((the format we were shooting) and a pretty tame 16 minutes at DVCPro HD), all that for about $1,000 bucks. We were determined to shoot tapeless, however, for a variety of reasons, but mainly for the sheer thrill with imminent disaster larking in every corner. We needed a way to shoot the main 2 hour event without missing a beat. Enter Focus Enhancements FS-100 firestore.

This 100 GB hardrive is known as a “direct-to-edit” digital video recorder, having the ability to record up to 100 minutes of DVCPRO HD footage, and an array of different formats including your standard DVCPRO and DVCPRO 50. And with a slew of additional features and a price tag of only $1,700 bucks (I use the term “only” loosely in comparison to the high cost of P2 cards), this was unquestionably the way to go for our shoot. In addition to the longer record times, the “direct-to-edit” feature of recording in standard MXF files and importing them into my avid without the need to digitize was very appealing. (with our finishing format being the internet, there is no need for an expensive deck, just plug in the firestore via firewire, and start cutting. more on this process later). the FS-100 is rugged and able to withstand the typical wear and tear of field recording. It is however, slightly bulky, at about the size of an old game boy, but does clip in well to a belt, or a variety of accessories that allow the hard drive to sit under the camcorder. (a popular example is the jimmy box) a creation of Jim ODonnell, who was actually one of the camera men shooting the event with us.

Another great feature is the ability for the unit to plug into a device equipped with a firewire port, and playback video like a deck. This feature gave birth to my on location duty of collecting the drives when they were full, plugging them into a DVCPRO deck, making the client a tape backup, then connecting the drive to my laptop, transferring the material onto a 1TB external LaCie drive, and finally deleting the footage allowing the camera to go and shoot additional material.

At the end of the day, the client left with a safe tape submaster. I had a drive all ready to plug in and start editing, and to top it off, some pretty great looking footage coming off an excellent camera. The whole process (with a bit of practice before hand) was safe, reliable and fast. There is no question, in a short period of time, true HD shooting and editing will be readily available to all filmmakers with a price tag way out of proportion to the quality achieved. Much like the ridiculous high quality of 8 mega pixils standard on all consumer still cameras today, tapeless HD will soon do the same.

This entry was posted on Friday, February 8th, 2008 at 6:07 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.