Cabella Iditarod Special on March 18th

David Saraceno

David Saraceno

Moderator
Staff member
It was shot for the 2007 race?

Was this the HVX200, et al. shot special on Discovery HD last night?

If so, wonder why it was scaled.
 
I saw a show called Iditarod 2007 on the Versus Network (I believe it use to be the outdoor network). Not sure if this was the stuff shot with the HVX but the footage did look video and, to be honest, it lost something. The image quality wasn't that great. Things looked washed out and flat and there was a significant amount of noise in much of the footage.

Also, the editing was horrendous. The editting coupled with the slightly off-putting image made for a nauseating viewing experience.

Maybe it was just this show but it didn't look good when compared to other shows produced for things like this.
 
I don't know about the Cabella's thing.

Versus did shoot the Iditarod this year. They were using a Varicam for some of it, and I believe they shared their footage back and forth with the Iditarod production team. I haven't seen what they shot.

The P2/HVX/HPX2000 stuff will primarily be featured on the Iditarod organization's website and on the DVD that they produce.
 
I do know that Versus had their own settings for the Varicam that they liked, and used, so I do believe that because of who they are, they would like the VIDEO look more. I did hear also that their "look" was much different that the P2 Cameras.

Hope that helps,

Jan
 
We calibrated the Iditarod production team's HPX2000s and HVX200s together, but as Jan said, the Versus guys ran their own way with the VariCam, etc. Iditarod shot everything 720/24p. Don't know if Versus did the same, or if they did some "live" stuff... ? I'd have to see the finished show to have a better idea of what you saw.
 
Much of the stuff that was nauseating was from stuff shot by helicopter. Its hard to get a vast landscape covered in snow to standout but it looked like there was a lot of haze in the footage. Also, the night footage was what was noisy.

The stuff on the ground during the day looked good and vibrant. Though the editing was horrible throughout the show (not a camera issue here).

It was on last night on Versus network not sure when it will be on again.
 
Just had a look on their site, next show times:

IDITAROD TRAIL SLED DOG RACE (TV-NR) 2007 IDITAROD
Witness an event unlike any other event in the world. In a race of over 1150 miles, from Anchorage in south central Alaska, to Nome on the western Bering Sea coast, teams of 12 to 16 dogs and their musher cover miles of the most extreme terrain known to man. They have a period of 10 to 17 days to cross mountain ranges, frozen rivers, dense forests, desolate tundra and windswept coastline. Add sub-zero temperatures and blinding winds, and you've got the makings of a legendary competition. The 2007 Iditarod features over 60 Iditarod race veterans and a field of about 40 rookies, considered to be one of the strongest groups in race history.

Thursday, March 22, 2007
6:00PM - 7:00PM
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Sunday, March 25, 2007
7:00PM - 8:00PM
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Sunday, March 25, 2007
10:00PM - 11:00PM
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Thursday, March 29, 2007
6:00PM - 7:00PM
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I DirecTivo'd it on Sunday, but haven't looked at it yet. I'm amazed how quickly they put that on the schedule, the race just finished. :shocked:
 
I was VERY disappointed in how the interviews looked. And, yes, it was scaled down, not HD. I don't know how the interviews were shot, but I sure hope they looked better going to broadcast than they looked after Comcrap, my local cable provider, got through compressing the life out of 'em.

Regards,

Cre8tive
 
As I understand the Versus workflow, they have the tapebased workflow as they have an older Meridian-based Avid system and didn't want to go with the FCP solution. As for the downsize to SD, well they may not have realized just how much HDD space was needed to work in uncompressed HD. Who knows. I'll ask the folks at the Iditarod to see if they know the problems over at Versus.

Thanks,

Jan
 
Well not sure when the Iditarod team's stuff will show as theirs will be a big cocumentary and will end up over on PBS or Discovery. The Versus stuff for the most part was shot with their VariCam set up by them. I wil try to look at the next showing to see if I can tell what if any of the Iditarod footage was from the 200s or the 2000s.

Best,

Jan
 
I watched the show last night, and the thing that irritated me the most was the inconsistent color rendition. Some scenes looked the part (they felt cold), and the mext one looked like it had been run through a warming filter. It seems like the shooters played with the scene files, it must have been a nightmare to CC.

I love the organic film look, but the harsh, super-crisp, cold feel of video is what this show needs.
 
Since there are dial scene files in a Varicam, only brought up by menu and conscius choice, they may have forgotten to white balance? All of the HVX scene files were set the same except for frame rates, so not sure what you saw and what it was shot with but, my bet is WB or lack thereof.
 
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