Iditarod Sled Dog Race On Discovery Channel Last Night

C

ChipG

Carbonite Member
Did anyone watch the first episode of Iditarod last night on Discovery Channel?

It was shot on hvx's in 720 24p and am curious to hear what you guys thought.

I liked the show but was dissapointed with the finnishing of it. I didn't see any hvx's matching in chroma, white balance, knee etc. It was all over the board. I'm sure these are things that could be fixed in post but why didn't they?

Maybe they just rushed to get the first episode out and hopefully the following episodes will be finnished better.

The overall look I liked and it was very refreshing to see less sharp and more filmic images on Disco, just thought they should have spent more time in post color correcting.

Any thoughts?
 
Last edited:
Hey Chip,

I agree, there were a lot of yellow highlights.

I also noticed some shooters with HPX-500s, so I don't think the entire show is on HVX-200s.

The slow-mo shots early in the show when the sleds were riding down main street were coming from a HPX-500 shooting on a low tripod I could see from another shot.

The image detail varied a lot as it looked like a full gamut of cameras were used in the production.
 
I did see the shoulder mounted hpx-500's but just assumed they were camera guys from another crew or news station.

I thought the Panasonic brochure said it was shot entirely on hvx's.
 
Last edited:
So did I, but I noticed they cut to the HPX on that sequence a few times and the image quality went up each time they cut to it.
 
I am fairly sure that Alton Brown's "Feasting on Asphalt" that was shown over the Spring of this year on Food Network was shot entirely on HVX200s, except for Alton's helmet camera. I really dug the look of that show. They had plenty of shots cutting between all two or three camera ops and they all had HVXs.

Dan
 
puredrifting said:
I am fairly sure that Alton Brown's "Feasting on Asphalt" that was shown over the Spring of this year on Food Network was shot entirely on HVX200s, except for Alton's helmet camera. I really dug the look of that show. They had plenty of shots cutting between all two or three camera ops and they all had HVXs.

Dan
Click to expand...

Whoooo, slow down...

Is that the show that utilized 4:3 ?

If so very well done!
 
ChipG said:
Whoooo, slow down...

Is that the show that utilized 4:3 ?

If so very well done!
Click to expand...

Can't recall, I have an episode on DVD around here somewhere. It was the show that had Alton and his crew riding coast coast on motorcycles, sampling different regional cuisine. Great show, very entertaining and a nice looking show at that.

When I saw that show, that's when I said screw it, I am going to shoot all of my pilots with the HPX170s (I still need to buy a few more of them), I am not going to rent 2/3" cameras. If someone wants to buy one of my shows and requires me to shoot it on 2/3" cameras, as long as they are paying enough for it, I will. But I can tell you that everyone I am pitching to could give a crap what camera it is shot on, they care about the content, talent, locations and writing.

Anthony Bourdain No Reservations shot on 1/3" HDV on Sony V1U
Bizarre Foods shot on 1/3" HDV Sony Z1U

To me, No Reservations looks pretty decent usually and Bizarre Foods looks terrible but who cares? They are both really successful cable shows and make a ton of money for Travel Channel. The budgets are minscule, my friend has been shooting Bizarre Foods. That is the reality of cable programming these days. And look at Survivorman, great show, all shot on single chip consumer cams.

The walls are breaking down and content is king these days. Budgets are terrible so you do what you can afford to do. Shows have to be made on a shoestring so I can see a lot of newer shows are going to be shot on 1/3" chip cameras like the 170.

Dan
 
I do remember the guys on motorcycles, that show was pretty well done.

I was watching Anthony Bourdain a couple weeks ago, the episode where the cameraman knocked over the whole shelf of dishes in the 3rd world restraunt (they thought they were going to be killed) and it showed him with an HVX-200.

Do you know if they were just testing out the hvx on one episode or what the deal is with that?
 
ChipG said:
I do remember the guys on motorcycles, that show was pretty well done.

I was watching Anthony Bourdain a couple weeks ago, the episode where the cameraman knocked over the whole shelf of dishes in the 3rd world restraunt (they thought they were going to be killed) and it showed him with an HVX-200.

Do you know if they were just testing out the hvx on one episode or what the deal is with that?
Click to expand...

Not sure about currently shooting episodes but a couple of the magazines did features on last season and last season was definitely V1U.

Dan
 
ChipG said:
I could be wrong but I think the Sony V1U is a 1/4" cmos chip camera and not 1/3"?
Click to expand...

I think that you are correct. I have never used one but I seem to recall having read that when the V1U first came out. Smart move Sony, yes, lets see if we can eventaully put in chips small enough to where everything from 1" to infinity is always in focus.

Dan
 
I assume they have masses of footage to sift through so even though they had a lot of time maybe they didn't have enough staff working on it in the editing room. Also I think they were praising the hvx's because they worked well in the environment and didn't have to worry about moving parts.
 
I find these days that many shows I am producing and shooting for cable and DVD are going out without an audio sweetening pass and without comprehensive color correction. Budgets are just getting tighter and tighter and I am constantly told, "we just don't have time/budget to fix that/do that to the level you want."

It's sad but a sign of the times. Truth be told, if you watch many top cable shows, you will see bad focus shots, lousy color correction or no color correction and a terrible audio mix. I won't name names but just watch the top shows on Travel , TLC, Discovery, etc. and you will see a lot of shoddy "workmanship". I don't think that it's the show producers, I think it comes from the executive producers who control the budgets and the from the clients.

If a show gets ratings, nobody at the top gives a ess hit if the show is polished or not.

Dan
 
mcgeedigital said:
Feasting on Asphalt was great until Alton took the show's title literally!
Click to expand...


Yeah, when I saw that, it reminded me of why after an entire childhood of racing motocross, I have never ridden a street bike although if I recall, didn't he eat it on a dirt road in the boonies?

Motorcycling is dangerous. Fun, but dangerous.

I dig Alton, he is a really good on-camera talent and a smart guy.

Dan
 
What shoulder mount system is he using in this pic?


Brown_with_P2.jpg
 
Alexg said:
I assume they have masses of footage to sift through so even though they had a lot of time maybe they didn't have enough staff working on it in the editing room. Also I think they were praising the hvx's because they worked well in the environment and didn't have to worry about moving parts.
Click to expand...

Barry said 800 + - hours of footage. One thing Original Productions has is MONEY & TALENT, (more editors / cc guys than a top 5 film studio) they are now prime time with two shows.

I'm still trying to figure it out...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top