IAC DISCUSSION FORUMS

You read it here first!!

Ned C

It’s that time of the year again when the world’s film and video makers gather
in Las Vegas for the NAB (National Association of Broadcasters) Convention
and Trade Show. Here we can dream about bottomless bank balances and see
the present and get a glimpse of the future.
High Definition production in its many formats is maturing and we have to
take notice. Canon demonstrated their new HDV camera, the XL-H1 with a multi
camera studio shoot. (www.canondv.com) The camera is in the traditional XL
“chainsaw” layout but all black. It records a number of formats, HDV (1080i)
24p, 30p, 60i and SD, plus an uncompressed HD-SDI output to an external recording
medium. Price around $10,000, inexpensive for the pros, second mortgage for
most of us.
The Panasonic HVX200 was in much evidence and in every configuration from
news gathering to feature film production. (www.panasonic.com/broadcast)
The solid state P2 cards are the bottleneck in my opinion, they fill up very
quickly in DVCPRO HD mode and are expensive.
The JVC GY-HD100 was demonstrated and I enjoyed a presentation by a nature
film maker who used the camera on a shoot in Madagascar where the conditions
were so severe the camera began to fall to pieces but kept on recording.
This camera seems to be aimed at the film transfer people with 24/720p
recording. (www.jvc.com/pro)
Sony were showing their new HDV camera, the amazingly small HVR-A1U and
the demonstration footage looked fabulous. (www.sony.com)
The editing software makers have kept pace with these HD/HDV demands and
we look to edit these formats with almost the same ease we edit DV.
What are the future trends? The end of tape is now just over the horizon.
The replacements are solid state storage as used in the Panasonic P2 card
system, the optical disk as used in the Sony XDCAM system and the number
of small external hard drives by third party suppliers, such as Focus Enhancements
Firestore (www.focusinfo.com) and CitiDisk (www.shining.com). These connect
to the camera Firewire and can be set to record in the format to be used
in editing (.mov; .avi; .mpeg2; DVCPRO HD). At the same time a tape recording
is made as a back-up. The advantage of this system is that the files on
the hard drive are ready for instant transfer to the edit system or the
hard drive can be used as an external HDD for the edit computer. In my
view the external HDD is an intermediate phase between tape and the fully
developed optical disk/card systems. It offers some very real advantages
and actually makes the Panasonic HVX200 a workable proposition until the
price of P2 cards come down to manageable levels.
What else? The Steadicam Merlin for cameras up to 5 lbs weight offers the
most compact and beautifully engineered floating camera mount (price about
$800- www.tiffen.com).
Smartsound; the music creation system demonstrated their new SonicFire 4
with mood mapping. This expands the technique of music scoring using the
prerecorded samples and a “mood” element the movie maker can incorporate
(www.smartsound.com).
Did I spend any money? Yes, I purchased the latest version of CatDV, a logging
program that should be on every documentary makers edit computer. (www.squarebox.co.uk).

"Ned C" <forums@theiac.org.uk> wrote:

It’s that time of the year again when the world’s film and video makers
gather
in Las Vegas for the NAB (National Association of Broadcasters) Convention
and Trade Show. Here we can dream about bottomless bank balances and see
the present and get a glimpse of the future.

All you can hear round the UK now is video makers drooling ...


Dave

"Ned C" <forums@theiac.org.uk> wrote:

What are the future trends?

In my view the external HDD is an intermediate phase between tape and the
fully

developed optical disk/card systems.

Many thanks for the information, Ned. "Intermediate phase", yes, ... but

the last ten years all machines and systems were in the intermediate phase.
It's a never ending process and the multinationals are always eager to encourage
us to buy these new and better things. In my club there are people who are
on the dole ! They enjoy making films, but they cannot afford new cameras
and editing machines. It gives a very sad feeling. I am a socialist in the
right sense of the word. Please, do not think of politics. Some friends even
buy machines on the hire-purchase system and when the instalment period is
over the things that they have bought is out of date. Making films is not
for the normal working class people. It's for the happy few.

In our clubmagazines most articles are about HDD. A new high definition camera
means a new high definition editing machine and a new high definition projector,
and ... I think I will wait for an other few years to replace my fantastic
Sony 2000 camera and my super casablanca prestige, unless I win the big prize
at the lottery. The only thing I will use is format 16:9, but I can do this
with my Sony camera. I think it's not a theme to discuss about. I think we've
already done this enough.

"Ned C" <forums@theiac.org.uk> wrote:

You read it here first!!

Ned C

No Ned sorry, I have read all this in various forums already but thanks all
the same because you expanded details somewhat.

Willy is, as usual, quite right, all this can mean big expense but it is
not a must! Wonderful films can be made on the simplest equipment and it
has always been thus, even in the good old film days. It is just that if
productions are going to be shown to big audiences or on TV then the new
improved picture make it better.

Ned, I don't think the new Canon will convert out in HD through the SDI output
if material has been shot in HDV will it? At present I have to use the Convergent
Design HD-Connect to convert my HDV footage but maybe Canon have incorporated
that feature but I doubt it. Also can I ask if it is thought that the solid
state media storage systems will be time proof as we all know that burnt
DVD's are very fragile in this respect. There would be no point in shooting
on disc and then having to archive on tape! Mind you the BBC say they will
be tapeless by, I believe, 2010.

You are absolutely right, MIchael, this is just the first stop for my NAB
report, the info is all out there. As I understand the uncompressed HD out
on the Canon is not related to converting HDV and the camera will not be
recording HDV to tape as well. Obviously the size of the files will be large
and I assume the HD - SDI out will go to a large storage system which makes
this a studio rather than field use. There is also a module for the camera
to give it the abilty to record PAL as well as NTSC.

I also agree that great films can be made on any medium, a cheap Hi8 camera
with a basic computer and edit system is capable of making anything the imagination
can think up. When I belonged to a cine club (a good many years ago) we were
formed in to production units of 3 or 4 people with different skills and
equipment. So in a round about answer to Willys' points it would seem that
people on the dole can make great films with no personal ownership of equipment
but with the co-operation of their fellow club members offering a range of
specialist skills; after all this is how professional films are made. One
of the things that struck me about clubs was that the requirement for membership
was to be the owner of a camera, which is used in only one relatively short
phase of the film making process.

The Panasonic P2 cards are claimed to be stable but they are not intended
for use as an archiving medium as we do with tapes but just the acquisition
medium then downloaded to a HDD, wiped and re-used in the camera. Archiving
will be done on HDDs. Same with the XDCAM optical disks.

This all added up for me to the conclusion that film will be around for a
long time to come as video formats come and go and Arriflex obviously agree
with their lovely new Super 16 camera - this is "rob a bank or win the lottery
country", but of course you can rent for the duration of the shoot.

Ned C

No Ned sorry, I have read all this in various forums already but thanks
all
the same because you expanded details somewhat.

Willy is, as usual, quite right, all this can mean big expense but it is
not a must! Wonderful films can be made on the simplest equipment and it
has always been thus, even in the good old film days. It is just that if
productions are going to be shown to big audiences or on TV then the new
improved picture make it better.

Ned, I don't think the new Canon will convert out in HD through the SDI
output
if material has been shot in HDV will it? At present I have to use the
Convergent
Design HD-Connect to convert my HDV footage but maybe Canon have incorporated
that feature but I doubt it. Also can I ask if it is thought that the solid
state media storage systems will be time proof as we all know that burnt
DVD's are very fragile in this respect. There would be no point in shooting
on disc and then having to archive on tape! Mind you the BBC say they will
be tapeless by, I believe, 2010.