My Behind-the-scenes HVX package

benhuddleston

benhuddleston

Well-known member
Hello,

I've been gleaning info off of this site for a bit now, and I would like to thank all of you who have given so much of your knowledge and wisdom to help acquaint the rest of us with the world of the HVX. What a great camera.

I made a proposal to a major studio to produce behind-the-scenes and various video marketing segments in HD for a large motion picture, and they accepted it.

I thought I would post a few pics of the package I put together thanks in part to all of your experiences.

This first pic is the camera set-up. I picked up the Century wide for it, and have used it extensively. I went with a different shotgun than many have recommended (in the now-famous "top five" list): a Sanken CS-1. I have a friend who mixes professionally who said I couldn't do better for the money, and for an on-board, the sound from this mic is stellar. It is short, robust, and perfect. Highly recommended ($750).
1173212316.jpg



The following pic shows pretty much everything I need to be a one-man show, save the computer. It's the camera and the DVXuser-praised tripod combo (which is amazing, never to be regretted). The backpack next to the tripod is a Kata BP-502, a great pack to carry an HVX and all necessary accessories from here to Timbuktu on your back. I love it. It's just small enough to beg your way into the cabin of most airlines' planes. The black suitcase holds twenty-four 320Gb hard drives. I know that sounds like a lot, but I'm making 2 copies of everything, and I'm in Romania where hard drives are a little hard to come by. (The Portabrace has a PD-150 for locking off 8-week time lapses of sets being built, shot in, and struck, etc.)
1173212363.jpg




And, finally, the laptop, mirrored RAID drive, and P2 drive. I haven't heard a lot of people using the 5-bay P2 Drive, but you all should. It's great. Also there's an iPod in case I need an on-the-fly iStore, which I've avoided thus far. Today is day 8 of a 63-day shooting schedule. I'm tired already, but here I am posting this at 11pm when I have to wake up in 5 hours.

1173212388.jpg




Good night, and thank you all.



Ben.
 
That's really great Ben!

"The black suitcase holds twenty-four 320Gb hard drives."

I'm guessing that these are what you are laying off your footage to from the camera. Are you having to bridge these with the laptop or are they self contained FW/USB from the camera? Brand/model?

Thanks, and drink lots of Red Bull to keep your energy up! :)
 
I would second Ben's choice of the Sanken CS-1. I use one with my HVX and it really is a fantastic mic. All the sound guys I've worked with on my current project have raved about it.

Be warned though, it doesn't fit the mic mount on the HVX as it is too thin. You have to either adapt it (with blu tac or rubber bands), or instead rig it with a seperate mount like Ben has in the picture.
 
Yeah, that is the Century wide adapter, and I must say that I'm not super thrilled with the sharpness, but I think it really boils down to the critical precise focus it requires. Of course when you're pulling your own, and you are using the LCD to do it, it's a lot of work. The focus will be on "macro", but a degree or two off in either direction will soften the image noticably.

As far as the flow, I am piping the footage directly from the pcd20 P2 drive, throught the laptop onto the hard drives, all via USB, using P2 Genie. It is a nice little system to "set it and forget it." I typically shoot less than 100 min. per day, which is five 8Gb P2 cards in 720p 24pN, so at the day's end I slam all 5 cards in the drive, push one button, and leave. I come back an hour and one pint of Ursus later, and the deed is done. Of course I random spot check everything, and then let P2 Genie erase the cards for me, and I'm ready to roll the next morning.

The hard drive enclosure is made by SansDigital, and came highly recommended by a computer savvy friend of mine; it's compact, reliable, runs on any voltage (100-240), is a hardware RAID (so I automatically get two copies of everything, in case a drive ever fails), and performs routine disk diagnostics to check for problems. So far I love it for it's simplicity and comprehensiveness.

The drives themselves are all the latest Seagate Barracuda 320's. They seem to be getting the best reviews for the money; they cost 30 cents US per Gb. So far no problems. (And yes, I did just knock on wood.)

As far as getting the gig... it's not easy, unless you know a guy. I knew a guy. It didn't guarantee me that the studio would accept my proposal, but it did get my foot in the door to hand the proposal to someone who would actually read it and give it consideration. They liked my fresh approach. :beer:

Cheers. It's nice to have my package admired.:dankk2:
 
Ben,
You've done your homework well. Tell us how you chose your wireless freq. and why Lectro over Sennheiser radios. What do you plug into your wireless? Was the pelican case over 50lb airline weight limit ? How did you pack tripod on plane etc. ?

Also , how do you attach lectro receiver to camera since hot shoe is used by your shotgun?

Don't spill beer on your keyboard.
 
The movie's called, "The Dark is Rising," based on a 1965-ish book of the same name by Susan Cooper. 20th Century Fox and Walden Media are making it. It's targeting the Harry Potter audience, I think. Script is pretty good.

Concerning my choice of the Lectrosonics wireless over the Sennheisers, I base all of my audio decisions on the advice of a mixer buddy of mine, who happens to be the RF king. He's mixed tons of reality shows like Fear Factor and the Apprentice, and reality TV relies heavily on wireless for audio. So I asked him what to get, mentioning that I was leaning toward the Senn. G2 Evolution ($500), and he said, "I wouldn't go anywhere near that G2 piece of shi*." He then qualified his comment: "Well, it'll get you good sound, with the right lav, but a.) it'll die in a couple of years and b.) you don't look like a pro. The big boys all use Lectrosonics, which last a long time. Period." I mulled it over for a day, sighed, and forked out more than double the cost for the Lectro, with a Tram TR-50 lav. I hate replacing things because I cheaped out the first time.

To attach the receiver to the camera I have a bracket that mounts to the bottom of the camera. However, the last two times I just velcroed it to the top of the stock matte box, and away I went. I think I'll do that again too.:)

The only thing that Pelican 1600 holds is the hard drive enclosure, the Panny P2 drive, and assorted small 'n fragiles. It weighs in at 50 lbs. I also have a hard-shell golf club case for the tripod, my Gitzo CF boom pole and a couple other things. It weighs 50 lbs. I really could consolidate better, and I would if I had to pay the overage fees. BTW, I carry on the Kata bag with the camera, P2 cards and shotgun inside. You never know when you'll want to roll, right? Also, the airlines will only pay up to like $20 per kilo if they permanently lose or destroy your luggage.
 
Wow, I really like your package. Great level of redundancy, the sheer number of hard drives will surely save your butt should anything fail. The only risky part to me seems when you rely on your system to capture your P2 card and erase them afterwards. Even with spot checking, just imagine if something goes wrong while capturing!
This is why I always watch while I capture my tapes...

Great setup, though...
 
True. I have tried to think up ways to feel more secure that all of the footage makes it to the hard drive without any glitches, but I can't think of any that aren't extremely time-consuming. P2 Genie is supposed to verify the transfer before it erases the cards, and I really hope it does.

So far, the folders P2 Genie creates on my ext. drive contains EXACTLY the same amount of information as the P2 cards themselves (7.22 Gb if full), and that is a bit reassuring. Of course I know the only way to tell for sure that the cards were copied without any funky artefacting or dropped frames is to actually look at all the footage from the HDD, and I just don't have anywhere near enough time for that.

Here's hoping. I'll post results after the show is over as to whether there were any unforeseen issues or massive failures.
 
Thought I would give a little update: Halfway through the show now, and the weariness is setting in. Anyone who's been on one of those 16-hours-a-day shows for awhile knows what I'm saying....

No major disasters yet, and having shot around 800 Gb of 720p24pN footage so far, I haven't had any p2 issues, errors, or really anything noteworthy. Knocking right now.... Editors back in L.A. are furiously cutting away, and no doubt cursing those aforementioned 800 Gb.

Here's a little pic of me and my assistant Jordan, in front of a major landmark in Bucharest called the Palace of Parliament. It is the second largest building in the world (in volume), second only to the Pentagon. We were shooting various shots for an establishing Bucharest montage piece.

1175772875.jpg
 
Very cool Ben! Great to hear things are going well. Assistant... I remember those days... seems like so long ago when I had one of those. :) Actually he looks more like security than an assistant!
 
Ben, Ben, Ben - Your assistant should be the one carrying the gear in the photo. Or is that you in the background emptyhanded ?

Have Fun,

chris/wash. dc
 
benhuddleston said:
True. I have tried to think up ways to feel more secure that all of the footage makes it to the hard drive without any glitches, but I can't think of any that aren't extremely time-consuming. P2 Genie is supposed to verify the transfer before it erases the cards, and I really hope it does.

So far, the folders P2 Genie creates on my ext. drive contains EXACTLY the same amount of information as the P2 cards themselves (7.22 Gb if full), and that is a bit reassuring. Of course I know the only way to tell for sure that the cards were copied without any funky artefacting or dropped frames is to actually look at all the footage from the HDD, and I just don't have anywhere near enough time for that.

Here's hoping. I'll post results after the show is over as to whether there were any unforeseen issues or massive failures.
Click to expand...

P2 Genie will verify the file-transfer based on the number of files and bytes copied from source to destination. Then it will enumerate and count files on the source and destination again and check that everything is the way it's supposed to be. That's a pretty good way of verifying. For the next release we will however use true MD5 checksum verification which is supposed to be the best way to verify that the source and destination is the same :-) Only problem is that this approach can't be used if you use the single folder feature - but that's a challenge we're looking into at the moment. Being able to trust P2 Genie 100% is an absolute critical thing for us! :-)
 
Very nice rig, Ben. Bucharest been hospitable?

I'm starting to shoot for a documentary on a local artist, a painter, who went [mostly] blind twenty years ago and continues to paint and build. He doesn't tend to face me, or any one direction, for very long when interviewed and I've been considering a lav mic to compliment the one mounted on my HVX.

How has your experience with the Lectrosonics system been?

Cheers,

Austin
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top