Playing Catch-up on a Shoe-string

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psibbald

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I’m probably setting out to do the impossible in trying to get up to speed from stills to video with a filmic sensibility and a minuscule budget, and in a big hurry.

I have a couple of indy docs in the works which will be my training ground but for which I have yet to gear up. I’m probably good for audio gear as I’ve been doing audio for a while to augment my stills, but for video I have at least 2 more obstacles than the usual ones and my steep learning curve:

One key hitch is that I’m still working on a Dual Core G5 (8GBRam) which is perfectly adequate for everything else I do but underpowered for video and as far as I can gather precludes my use of less expensive AVCHD cameras, including the wonderful little GH1 or the HMC150P. Due to a complex back-story on my history with computers, completely aside from the cost I’m not anxious to be getting into a new computer right now.

My other limitation—hopefully easier to solve—is that I seem to have missed the FCP updates. I own 6.01 (Part of FC Studio 2) purchased a while ago for another project that was stillborn, and for which I never bothered to update it since I wasn’t doing video. But now, the latest update is 6.06 which requires that 6.05 already be installed… but where to download the 6.05 update from? Apple has eliminated its legacy updates from their support downloads and all roads seem to lead to 6.06. Does anyone know where to find those interim updates? I believe I’d need at least 6.02 installed to view tests from the HM100U.

Notwithstanding those obstacles I’m looking to ensure, if at all possible, that I still have full 1080p so that if my content transcends my neophyte film-making, the project has a modest chance of broadcast play nonetheless… at least not to be precluded because I captured too low-res . As a photographer I appreciate the value of good tools, solid ergonomics. The pro-sumer Panasonics immediately feel balanced, satisfying and logical in hand, even if heavy for the long days of handheld work ahead of me, but I don’t probably want to cross back over the DV/HD line to the smaller 100; the 150 is out because AVCHD, the 170 too darn expensive and from what I hear really native 720 not full 1080 (though all these ambiguities are so confusing to a neophyte… so I may have this wrong). I may be able to get my hands on and HVX200 (not 200A), though I’m not enthusiastic about the cost of P2 cards, even the new ones…

There’s a lot of rapid horizontal action in one of my docs and so if I’m understanding the landscape correctly I really need 1080p, not 1080i and preferably on CCDs not CMOS. (This action—and my requisite manoeuvrability— and intense daylight militate against the 5D MkII due to viewfinder and rolling shutter issues.)

My cinematic inclination would point me toward 24p and I’d be moving to a 35mm adaptor for my old Nikkor or Leitz glass as soon as I can afford to. And as money is tight, despite my best wishes I may need to go in the interim with compromises such as the palm cam like an HV40 or presumably better, the HM100U. However I’m not even sure if my computer will be able to handle the data the HDV from the HV40 or the .mov HD files from the HM100U.

Any and all advice would be most welcome.
 
You do not need 6.0.5 to be installed to update to 6.0.6. Just use the software update in the Apple menu to download the necessary components for the professional applications to get to 6.0.6.

Also, while your information is interesting, it might be best to distill it to some specifics questions.

Don't get hung up on true 1080p. Evaluate the video itself by renting a cam.

From what I've read in your post, a solid used HVX200a should meet your needs.
 
Hi David,

Thanks for that. Yes, I would have expected to get auto updating of FCP via Apple Software Update as I do regularly with the OS updates but it is as though that feature has become de-linked and the computer is not recognizing that I have FCP installed.

It was late last night when I wrote that message. Your point is well taken about the lack of clarity of my post. I will try to break it down into succinct questions in a subsequent post, this evening if I can. I'm just so overwhelmed with this stuff... my head hurts, literally. It's been a very steep learning curve—2 weeks ago I basically knew nothing about this world at all.

-Peter
 
Aaaahhhh Haaa. Solved the Software Update Issue. Studio sub-aps needed to be loose in my applications folder., doh. I'd squirrelled them away neatly in one FC Studio folder.
 
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OK, so a whack of focused questions

OK, so a whack of focused questions

I know this is a lot of questions at once, but my sense from having explored this forum for a while is that it is a community full of wisdom, experience and generosity of spirit (even if also a few prickly personalities). So, I'd be grateful if people even answered only some of them. BTW, I'm placing it also under the GH1 discussion list as it seems to be particularly active right now and that with the exception of the AVCHD issue, it seems a likely candidate for my needs as well as the HV200s..

1. Is there any sort of practical work around that will allow AVCHD to be edited on a PowerMac G5 (Dual Core 2 GHz w 8 GB Ram) or is one simply best either to avoid cameras using that codec (and hence many of the newer style SDHC solid state media capture devices) or bite the bullet and give in to a major computer upgrade?

2. Am I crazy to be thinking about trying to edit HD in any form on my trusty PowerMac G5, even if it comes in, for example, as native .mov encoding for FCP from the HM100U?

3. Am I correct in my understanding that if there’s a lot of rapid horizontal action in my subjects, it is best to aim for 1080p, not 1080i, shot preferably on CCDs not CMOS?

4. Am I correct in my understanding that rapid subject action and the need for rapid camera panning militate against the 5D MkII due to viewfinder and rolling shutter issues?

5. If one can get a used/refurb/demo HV200, is it significantly inferior to the HV200a version? What are the benefits of the later model?

6. Do P2 cards wear out?

7. Is there any way to avoid the painful cost of P2 other than not to indulge those cams in the first place?

8. I've read elsewhere about indie-docs that had successful releases in the theatrical/festival milieu but couldn't break through into broadcast due to some technological shortcoming perceived by some buzz-smitten network exec who demands nothing short of Red One to air on his network. I assume there’s nothing one can say (other than to lie ☺) to sway such folks. The HV200 series cams are "below" the Red, and frankly, budget is an issue such that even an HV200 (version “a” or not) with a bunch of P2 cards, although possibly optimal, is rather a stretch.

Assuming however one is faced with a more reasonable exec and assuming that AVCHD won’t work for my post-production set-up, is it a plausible to plan to augment a consumer HDV cam (eg. an HV40 with 24p setup) decked out with add-ons such as a 35mm adapter, good fast glass, and a Beachtek type XLR with inputs control adapter (although I realize there is still no way to override the auto-audio gain in the camera) or perhaps better, a separate audio capture on eg. an H4n combined —in both cases, with a good mic (eg. a 416)? Can one achieve a base-line technical standard that will pass muster in the broadcast world, at least the public broadcaster world?

BTW, given the inherent violence and risk to gear of one of my projects there perhaps is some intrinsic value of sacrificing some of the manual controls to have a unit (and for that small cost therefore, a back-up unit) that is physically more disposable ( a "disposa-cam")), not to mention the intrinsic benefit of smaller size and weight for greater agility to get out of the way of trouble in the first place.

9. Again with the caveat implied in point 8 above, with the technology marketer’s push of full 1080p, assuming one is working with a good sensor and not overly compressed codec, is 720p just fine now or in the foreseeable for broadcast? I ask this because it appears that there may still be good deals to be found for “last year’s” shoulder-mounted 720 units.

10. One-person ENG units are ever more common in foreign and remote coverage situations because of increased travel costs and diminishing media budgets, and the enablement of miniaturization and computerization of gear, but in the documentary milieu where money is also tight yet higher production values may be expected/needed to meet end user expectations, what are the upsides and downsides of going it alone?

11. Can one person even manage physically and mentally all that A/V gear (along pads of release forms etc. as well as, in my case, with stills camera gear ), let alone do so successfully or is that scenario as much of a holy grail as the fabled anti-gravity camera? Perhaps it is only the province of some sort of film-making super hero, who most undoubtedly, I am not.

12. Presuming a documentary subject is intrinsically scintillating enough to carry the day and that one’s skills are not totally awful, has anyone on this forum done one person documentary unit thing successfully and/or otherwise worked out some form of bare-bones grunge indie up-close-and-personal style/ solo documentary approach that could pass muster for broadcast presentation? If so could you share your key lessons learnt?

13. In that case, what are the up sides—but in particular down sides—to this approach that were surprises for you to learn and that presumably I may not yet have discovered/thought of?

14. Am I biting off more than I can chew given the evident steepness of my learning curve?


-Peter
 
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