We all know the wolves footage by now.. its one of my favorites.. Here is a little more info about the shoot:
SECAUCUS, NJ (May 10, 2006) - Nature and wildlife videographer Kevin Railsback discovered the wild side of the Panasonic’s AG-HVX200 solid-state HD camcorder when he took it to northern Minnesota to shoot wolves for his new company’s HD stock footage library. With partner Julie Cox, he recently launched Silver Phoenix, LLC, a production company located in Fairfax, Iowa and Bozeman, Montana, which is currently building an HD stock library based on HVX200 acquisition.
Railsback also heads Fairfax-based Pawprint Productions which produces documentaries and narrative videos and sells standard definition video stock footage.
“Through Pawprint, I was getting a number of calls from people looking for footage in HD,” says Railsback. “They saw my SD clips and said, you’ve got to have this in HD. Silver Phoenix is a direct result of my getting the HVX200. When I heard that Panasonic was introducing the camera, I took it as a matter of faith that the company would deliver HD on a par with the DVX100 series’ performance in SD, and placed my order with Abel Cine Tech.”
The HVX200 uniquely combines multiple high definition and standard definition formats, multiple recording modes and variable frames rates, and the vast benefits of P2 solid state memory recording in a rugged, compact design. The DVCPRO HD P2 camcorder offers contribution-quality HD with independent intra-frame encoding, 4:2:2 color sampling, and less compression, making HD content easier and faster to edit and more able to stand up to image compositing versus long GOP MPEG-2 systems.
Railsback has been interested in documenting nature and wildlife since childhood. In the era before camcorders, he slung a two-piece Panasonic camera and VCR over his shoulder and took to the field. Working for General Mills’ Cedar Rapids plant as a production operator, he shot product safety and training videos for the package-goods giant. But his real love remained outdoors.
Railsback wrote, shot and edited the documentary Ghosts Among the Corn about the mountain lion’s return to Iowa shortly before his HVX200 was delivered in February. He had been planning a trip to northern Minnesota to capture wolf footage and was eagerly awaiting his new camcorder’s arrival.
“I was a little nervous because I hadn’t come up through the DVX ranks,” he explains. “I had used the DVX100A on jobs on a rental basis but didn’t have a great depth of knowledge about it. Would there be a learning curve with the HVX200?”
As it turned out, Railsback had nothing to worry about. He left for Minnesota two weeks after his HVX200 arrived and succeeded in getting “phenomenal stuff -- some really jaw-dropping footage,” in the wild.
Railsback found -9 degree F. temperatures waiting for him north of Duluth. “That wasn’t listed as an acceptable operating temperature for the HVX200,” he notes, “so I was a bit concerned until I started shooting. There was no huge battery drain, no worry about variances in the tape drive with the solid-state electronics. The camera worked flawlessly. The only weather-related thing that happened was the LCD screen started to freeze on the coldest morning so I just shut it down and used the eyepiece.”
The dark tones of the wolves’ coats and the crisp whiteness of the snow on the ground provided the “ultimate test in contrasts” for Railsback. “Should I expose for the snow and let the subject go dark or vice versa?” he mused. “I turned the sharpness down to -3, the detail coring up to +7, the master pedestal down to -4 and the chroma up to +2. I set two zebra-pattern settings to 100% and 90%, opened up the camera iris until the snow blew out at 100% then backed down a bit, and it turned out perfectly. The HVX200’s incredible dynamic range gave me detail in the snow and in the wolves, and nothing burned out. I couldn’t have asked for anything better.”
When it started to snow on one of his first days out, Railsback thought it would be a good opportunity to try the camera’s variable frame rates. He found a pack of wolves feeding on a deer carcass in the snow and dialed up to 60fps. “When I played back that footage, what had been very brutal to watch was actually poetic and beautiful, thanks to the slow motion,” he reports.
“I shot a lot of footage on that trip at 60fps. Things happen so fast with wildlife that 60fps gave me the opportunity to really study the animal. I love to shoot 60fps at 720/24pn -- it’s one of the camera’s best features. What makes it so nice is how effortless it is to switch back and forth from slow motion to normal speed.”
Railsback’s camera package includes a Bogen video tripod, Chrosziel matte box and a Sennheiser ME 66 shotgun mic, boom pole and zeppelin for interviews.
Railsback is scheduled to head to Moab, Utah for his next stock footage shoot. “I’ll be taking the HVX200 from the freezing cold to a hot, sandy, desert environment,” he points out. “I’m not a bit concerned! After jostling around Minnesota the camera appears to be quite rugged and robust.”
He adds that, with the HVX200, “you can get extremely saturated colors without worrying about bleeding into other colors. Or, if your tastes are more neutral, you can dial down the settings for a more desaturated image.”
Railsback has invested in five 4GB P2 cards for his location work. “I take my Mac G4 PowerBook with me, and if things are getting tight I will offload right away and re-format the P2 cards in the field,” he explains. “Otherwise, I’ll wait until I get back to the hotel to offload all the cards and get ready for my next outing. It’s fairly painless to offload in the field although I’m looking at purchasing a P2 Store, which will enable me to shoot-and-dump all day long.”
As his PowerBook fills, he downloads to a portable 80GB FireWire drive. Once home, he burns data DVDs of the P2 folders for editing with Apple’s Final Cut Pro or offering clips to clients.
“I’m not concerned that P2 is new technology,” says Railsback. “I’m aware of the strict requirements that Panasonic insists on for the manufacture of its P2 cards. I’ve completely embraced P2 technology. I have no intention at all of using tape unless I have to dub to tape for a client.”
Railsback particularly likes the HVX200’s pre-roll feature which is “very handy to have for wildlife. You can be sitting there all day and nothing happens, but the second you take your eye away something occurs. With pre-roll you can put three seconds at a time in the buffer -- that’s great! I’m also looking forward to using the looping feature where you can write over top of a full P2 card. Again, that’s a really handy thing to be able to do when you’re waiting for something to happen in the field.”
Railsback also likes the HVX200’s interval timer which enables him to set up a time-lapse sequence, walk away and return to find it accomplished.
Railsback says, “Shooters are missing out on a fantastic opportunity if they don’t have an HVX200. The camera feels good in your hand, is easy to work with and performs fantastically. And the P2 workflow is head-and-shoulders above linear videotape: I can take 10 minutes of footage off the card and into my computer and in three minutes I can be editing!”
For more information about Railsback’s production company and to view his HD footage, visit www.silverphoenixllc.com.
SECAUCUS, NJ (May 10, 2006) - Nature and wildlife videographer Kevin Railsback discovered the wild side of the Panasonic’s AG-HVX200 solid-state HD camcorder when he took it to northern Minnesota to shoot wolves for his new company’s HD stock footage library. With partner Julie Cox, he recently launched Silver Phoenix, LLC, a production company located in Fairfax, Iowa and Bozeman, Montana, which is currently building an HD stock library based on HVX200 acquisition.
Railsback also heads Fairfax-based Pawprint Productions which produces documentaries and narrative videos and sells standard definition video stock footage.
“Through Pawprint, I was getting a number of calls from people looking for footage in HD,” says Railsback. “They saw my SD clips and said, you’ve got to have this in HD. Silver Phoenix is a direct result of my getting the HVX200. When I heard that Panasonic was introducing the camera, I took it as a matter of faith that the company would deliver HD on a par with the DVX100 series’ performance in SD, and placed my order with Abel Cine Tech.”
The HVX200 uniquely combines multiple high definition and standard definition formats, multiple recording modes and variable frames rates, and the vast benefits of P2 solid state memory recording in a rugged, compact design. The DVCPRO HD P2 camcorder offers contribution-quality HD with independent intra-frame encoding, 4:2:2 color sampling, and less compression, making HD content easier and faster to edit and more able to stand up to image compositing versus long GOP MPEG-2 systems.
Railsback has been interested in documenting nature and wildlife since childhood. In the era before camcorders, he slung a two-piece Panasonic camera and VCR over his shoulder and took to the field. Working for General Mills’ Cedar Rapids plant as a production operator, he shot product safety and training videos for the package-goods giant. But his real love remained outdoors.
Railsback wrote, shot and edited the documentary Ghosts Among the Corn about the mountain lion’s return to Iowa shortly before his HVX200 was delivered in February. He had been planning a trip to northern Minnesota to capture wolf footage and was eagerly awaiting his new camcorder’s arrival.
“I was a little nervous because I hadn’t come up through the DVX ranks,” he explains. “I had used the DVX100A on jobs on a rental basis but didn’t have a great depth of knowledge about it. Would there be a learning curve with the HVX200?”
As it turned out, Railsback had nothing to worry about. He left for Minnesota two weeks after his HVX200 arrived and succeeded in getting “phenomenal stuff -- some really jaw-dropping footage,” in the wild.
Railsback found -9 degree F. temperatures waiting for him north of Duluth. “That wasn’t listed as an acceptable operating temperature for the HVX200,” he notes, “so I was a bit concerned until I started shooting. There was no huge battery drain, no worry about variances in the tape drive with the solid-state electronics. The camera worked flawlessly. The only weather-related thing that happened was the LCD screen started to freeze on the coldest morning so I just shut it down and used the eyepiece.”
The dark tones of the wolves’ coats and the crisp whiteness of the snow on the ground provided the “ultimate test in contrasts” for Railsback. “Should I expose for the snow and let the subject go dark or vice versa?” he mused. “I turned the sharpness down to -3, the detail coring up to +7, the master pedestal down to -4 and the chroma up to +2. I set two zebra-pattern settings to 100% and 90%, opened up the camera iris until the snow blew out at 100% then backed down a bit, and it turned out perfectly. The HVX200’s incredible dynamic range gave me detail in the snow and in the wolves, and nothing burned out. I couldn’t have asked for anything better.”
When it started to snow on one of his first days out, Railsback thought it would be a good opportunity to try the camera’s variable frame rates. He found a pack of wolves feeding on a deer carcass in the snow and dialed up to 60fps. “When I played back that footage, what had been very brutal to watch was actually poetic and beautiful, thanks to the slow motion,” he reports.
“I shot a lot of footage on that trip at 60fps. Things happen so fast with wildlife that 60fps gave me the opportunity to really study the animal. I love to shoot 60fps at 720/24pn -- it’s one of the camera’s best features. What makes it so nice is how effortless it is to switch back and forth from slow motion to normal speed.”
Railsback’s camera package includes a Bogen video tripod, Chrosziel matte box and a Sennheiser ME 66 shotgun mic, boom pole and zeppelin for interviews.
Railsback is scheduled to head to Moab, Utah for his next stock footage shoot. “I’ll be taking the HVX200 from the freezing cold to a hot, sandy, desert environment,” he points out. “I’m not a bit concerned! After jostling around Minnesota the camera appears to be quite rugged and robust.”
He adds that, with the HVX200, “you can get extremely saturated colors without worrying about bleeding into other colors. Or, if your tastes are more neutral, you can dial down the settings for a more desaturated image.”
Railsback has invested in five 4GB P2 cards for his location work. “I take my Mac G4 PowerBook with me, and if things are getting tight I will offload right away and re-format the P2 cards in the field,” he explains. “Otherwise, I’ll wait until I get back to the hotel to offload all the cards and get ready for my next outing. It’s fairly painless to offload in the field although I’m looking at purchasing a P2 Store, which will enable me to shoot-and-dump all day long.”
As his PowerBook fills, he downloads to a portable 80GB FireWire drive. Once home, he burns data DVDs of the P2 folders for editing with Apple’s Final Cut Pro or offering clips to clients.
“I’m not concerned that P2 is new technology,” says Railsback. “I’m aware of the strict requirements that Panasonic insists on for the manufacture of its P2 cards. I’ve completely embraced P2 technology. I have no intention at all of using tape unless I have to dub to tape for a client.”
Railsback particularly likes the HVX200’s pre-roll feature which is “very handy to have for wildlife. You can be sitting there all day and nothing happens, but the second you take your eye away something occurs. With pre-roll you can put three seconds at a time in the buffer -- that’s great! I’m also looking forward to using the looping feature where you can write over top of a full P2 card. Again, that’s a really handy thing to be able to do when you’re waiting for something to happen in the field.”
Railsback also likes the HVX200’s interval timer which enables him to set up a time-lapse sequence, walk away and return to find it accomplished.
Railsback says, “Shooters are missing out on a fantastic opportunity if they don’t have an HVX200. The camera feels good in your hand, is easy to work with and performs fantastically. And the P2 workflow is head-and-shoulders above linear videotape: I can take 10 minutes of footage off the card and into my computer and in three minutes I can be editing!”
For more information about Railsback’s production company and to view his HD footage, visit www.silverphoenixllc.com.
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