HVX Production Equipment Advice

L

Lightfeat

Member
I am embarking on an HD feature for £10K, and trying to budget, and get a clear idea of equipment requirements and formats, and despite being pretty technical and reasonably knowledgable about film, I am not an HD expert, but here's my plan so far:

I plan to shoot on HVX - either 720p or 1080p. I haven't bought the camera yet, but it seems to have the best range of options. However, out of these options a single format must be chosen for the film, and several issues spring to mind. If I go for all out, cinematic release quality, with 1080 24p, (I'd actualy chose 25p) what kind of aditional editing requirements will that face me with? Can I buy a £500 terabyte Firewire 800 hard-drive with RAID-0 and expect it to cope with that level of streaming, or isn't it enough. That's all I'd budgeted for, and a G5 dual running FCP.

How on earth can I digitise from P2 cards into a G5 desktop computer? I can't find a reader for these P2 things anywhere. Do I have to get a Powerbook for another £1K?

If I shoot 720p, will I massively reduce our chances of a cinematic release? How do the distributors regard 720p originated features (assuming it's good enough). Will 720p sell to TV companies? If I plan to shoot 720p, wouldn't i be better off with a Canon HD1, or is the colour depth worse on that camera? Can I shoot 720p onto tape, as my film may well involve 4 weeks of improvising and filming?- ah yes - should have mentioned that earlier - relevant to the decision, I'm sure you'll agree. Pauses are not helpful workflow for this particular production.

I know I should buy Barry's book, but before I decide on my path, can anyone please help me with consumer advice.

Many thanks

Lucas
 
You can't shoot 720 onto tape, just DV. You need to shoot to p2 for HD and if you have 2 8G cards -- 720PN = 40 minutes of recording time. This would be the advantage (including variable frame rates) in shooting 720pn v. 1080p with this camera. Native mode only in 720p.

It sounds like you need to do a bunch of research on workflow to decide what you will be comfortable with as far as cost, time and redundancy. There are many variables depending on which one you chose and there is no easy way to figure this out except by diving in. To summarize as a jumping off point there are the following:

P2 Store - the choice of many using FCP
Firestore - good for improv bc long run times, mixed reviews as far as workflow.
PC laptop with pcmcia slot -review dailies, transfer to mac later.
PC laptop streaming with appropriate software. No native mode when streaming.
Downloading P2 from the camera to a laptop (Mac, PC) using the camera as a driver.
Streaming to an Mac laptop using FCP.
Using an older mac that has a PCMCIA slot
Cineporter - I believe not released yet

Probably missed something, but this is a start for your search and I would buy Barry's book to save a ton of time. 720 is the HD format of choice in Europe. Considering DVX100 films have been released in the sates (Lonesome Jim) I wouldn't worry about the format knocking you out of the box if the quality of the story, acting, composition is there.
 
Thanks for the reply Bosindy. So, I have this:

720pN on HVX200
2x 8 Gb P2 Cards
Transfer using camera as P2 port to G5 desktop via firewire
G5 Dual 2Ghz saves files to:
External 1Tb RAID-0 Firewire-800 Lacie HDD
FCP Studio, latest version to edit

What else, in hardware terms, do I need to make a workflow that works?

Is this a good budget set-up?

Will it work? Is it good to go? Shall I put my order in?

Many thanks
Lucas
 
To view HD footage for playback when editing I suggest 2 Apple cinema displays because you can output to one of those monitors in real time for editing like editing DV footage. You dont need any other cards to do this just hook up the LCD screens and set output to cinema displays in FCP. It rocks and saves time if you are going to edit in HD then down convert to SD. Just a thought. By the way I bought 2 of the LCD's on smalldog.com for $300.00 factory refurbs and its the best investment I have found.
 
Thanks visulfx

Will good CRT monitors do? I have a Mitsubishi Diamond Pro and it is better than any TFT I've ever come accross - generally brighter, more pixels, smaller pixels, blacker black.

Is Firewire 800 fast enough to store 720p and edit it, and add effects and colour correction? I ask because I don't know how compressed it becomes, or how big the file sizes become. How about editing 1080 25p through firewire 800? Possible?

Many thanks
Lucas
 
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