On Location External Hard drives/Mac/HVX200?

indybones

indybones

Well-known member
Hi Guys and gals...

Could do with a bit of advice here please.

The next film I am going to be shooting will be in the Tabernas Desert in Spain.
I am shooting on andHVX200.
Doing research into the best work flow, at the moment someone has suggested to me that I shoot on P2 cards rather than a firestore because firestore will add to much extra weight to steadycam and hand held camera work, then when P2 cards are full download off into a Mac laptop running FCP onto an external Hard drive such as the Lacie Rugged.

I won't have access to power so everything will have to run off batteries ie, HVX200 off the battery, mac off the battery, however what happens with the Lacie External drive?

What do people think, any suggestions or other work flows?

Thank you for your advice. :dankk2:

Indy
 
Sorted... the Lacie Rugged External Hard drive can run off of the power supplied by the USB which is connected to the Mac Book.... Result :thumbup:
 
You might also look into bringing at least one extra laptop battery with you. Offloading that way will work, but you'll likely burn through battery juice pretty quickly. Run some tests beforehand to make sure you can offload as much as you'll need to on the battery power you have available.
 
The firestore is a good solution...don't listen to whatever advice you've gotten.

while going handheld put it on a belt or in a pouch, and while using a Steadicam it can be easily integrated into the top stage or battery area.

All this said I would still go with P2 if you have the people and power(battery, mobile, or hard line).

Be sure to have LOTS of power...I'm unsure how long you're planning on being away from a plug, but remember that if you go P2 you need enough battery to run the camera, laptop, hard drive, etc, etc.

With the firestore you could possibly not have to bring the laptop with you, hard drives, or all the extra batteries for this...you'd just need the firestore and batteries for it.

And by bring with you, I mean to the location....you should still have the laptop and drives back in your hotel room, house you're staying at, whatever.

Also I don't know if you're going to have vehicles, but you should also consider the possibility of using a car to power an inverter for dumping footage to the laptop...it's not the most elegant solution, but it works.
 
Nick Walters said:
The firestore is a good solution...don't listen to whatever advice you've gotten.

while going handheld put it on a belt or in a pouch, and while using a Steadicam it can be easily integrated into the top stage or battery area.

All this said I would still go with P2 if you have the people and power(battery, mobile, or hard line).

Be sure to have LOTS of power...I'm unsure how long you're planning on being away from a plug, but remember that if you go P2 you need enough battery to run the camera, laptop, hard drive, etc, etc.

With the firestore you could possibly not have to bring the laptop with you, hard drives, or all the extra batteries for this...you'd just need the firestore and batteries for it.

And by bring with you, I mean to the location....you should still have the laptop and drives back in your hotel room, house you're staying at, whatever.

Also I don't know if you're going to have vehicles, but you should also consider the possibility of using a car to power an inverter for dumping footage to the laptop...it's not the most elegant solution, but it works.
Click to expand...

Great, some really sound advice there..thanks Nick...:dankk2::thumbup:
 
Nick Walters said:
... but you should also consider the possibility of using a car to power an inverter for dumping footage to the laptop...it's not the most elegant solution, but it works.
Click to expand...
This will save your life. You can connect a power bar to the inverter (watch your total load ...) and charge any/all of your gear on breaks or as you are alternating equipment through the shoot day. Its a MUST in my work-flow.
 
Beware of the Western Digital drives. I had one that I used to store P2 footage backups. I was using it with my MacBook Pro. I took it in my carry-on for some location shooting, for off-loading. After a day of shooting, I go to off-load, and the MAC acts like it has never seen the drive before. It kept asking to format, which would trash all my footage backups. I went out and bought another drive at the local Wal-Mart, and brought the WD drive back home after the trip. When I tried it again, everything was fine. Anybody seen that one before?
 
KawkwaWarrior said:
Beware of the Western Digital drives. I had one that I used to store P2 footage backups. I was using it with my MacBook Pro. I took it in my carry-on for some location shooting, for off-loading. After a day of shooting, I go to off-load, and the MAC acts like it has never seen the drive before. It kept asking to format, which would trash all my footage backups. I went out and bought another drive at the local Wal-Mart, and brought the WD drive back home after the trip. When I tried it again, everything was fine. Anybody seen that one before?
Click to expand...
Have not seen that, but obviously you now know that Murphy's Law applies directly to filmmaking. "Whatever can go wrong, will go wrong."
 
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