Charlie Anderson
Not so clever
Here’s what I can tell you, right off the bat, do you have pristine organizational skills and the ability to work under pressure even when sh*t hits the fan? If you do and you have a love for filmmaking I can tell you that this will work out for you.
Loading is a necessity for this day and age with everything going digital. From P2 to Compact Flash, today’s instant gratification of “I want it NOW” is attainable because of the ability to see digital footage INSTANTLY. It’s really a blessing or a curse depending on how you look at it.
Digital Media Loading is a new innovative position as it gives way to new opportunities. Much like a film loader you’re tasked with making sure you have each reel logged and safely secured in order to be processed, except there is no processing with digital it’s all about the backup.
A good rule of thumb is to have everything backed up twice, at the very least. I normally have original files backed up 3 times, on one as an archive and on two active drives so that I can access and transcode media as needed. Loading in itself is an easy task, but it’s the organizational skill set that really makes you valuable in terms of helping with post. IF you know where every shot is from every day at all times you can REALLY make sure you have everything where it needs to be. It really helps out when you’re going for pickup shots as you can pull up shots IMMEDIATELY to check them out for continuity and such. Trust me I have done this a dozen times over in the past 14 days on set so far and my method of organization has really saved my ass. I’ll say this, as it’s extremely important: ORGANIZATION IS KEY!!!!!!
Depending on what you’re skill set is and how familiar you are with the editing software being used to cut the final product, you might find yourself in an assistant editor position as well when you’re working as a Loader. In my case I’m working as a P2 Loader, an assistant editor, and also an assistant to the camera when they need additional help and when I have downtime as well.
My organization method carries over from the file system to FCP (or whatever system the movie ends up being cut on) in terms of how days are filed and how scenes are broken up by day, camera, batch (aka card dump), and then scene. This is purely for my organization in case I miss a shot that I didn’t encode or if we need to reshoot something from a particular day. I make a daily FCP project and then pass that along with the transcoded files over to him so he can pluck the bins he needs to be able edit the scenes for him. By giving him the daily breakdown of scenes that are ALREADY transcoded, he doesn’t have to worry about sitting and waiting for files to transcode and twiddle his thumbs waiting on files, this increased productivity for the entire shoot, especially if we have an editor cutting on set. I’m always transcoding as the director may come up immediately and say “let me see that shot real quick, I want to watch playback to see if X is wrong” or something like that.
FORMATTING CARDS
I want to take some time and explain exactly why I do what I do for this part. It may seem self-explanatory and common sense but you’d be amazed at how people don’t think about HOW IMPORTANT your position is. After all, you have ALL OF THE FOOTAGE in your hands and it is up to you to make sure you have EVERYTHING backed up safely. With that being said let me go into detail what I do before I even consider formatting cards.
I always make sure I have the cards backed up AT LEAST twice before I even flip off the write protection lock on P2 cards. I have 2 harddrives hooked up to my Macbook Pro, one that I consider a “transfer” drive (which floats between myself and the editor so he can copy transcoded files onto his harddrive to begin editing clips) and my main capture drive. I copy ONE CARD onto BOTH DRIVES at the SAME TIME. I do NOT copy one card onto one drive and then copy those files onto a second drive. Why? Well what if somewhere a file got corrupted or misplaced and you have already formatted the card and all you have is the one copy that you copied onto another drive? Yep you are screwed. I copy the one card onto two drives to ensure that I have the original data backed up at LEAST twice, then I can be put at ease.
I do not format ANY cards until I have everything transcoded from the files that I copied onto one of the harddrives. Why? That way I can make sure that those files that I copied over are definitely error free and hold all of the original data that the cards hold. Make sense? I want to make sure that all of the footage on the card matches what I have on the harddrives as well. Once all of the footage is copied over to two harddrives and the footage is transcoded and error free, I then take the card and mark it with the following information: “Batch 1 A” and put a huge T on it so that I know I have the footage transferred and transcoded.
Wait, you haven’t formatted yet? EXACTLY! I wait until I absolutely have to format before I give a card back. For this film I’m working with 5 16gig cards per camera (10 total) and they are marked A1, A2, etc for each camera. The card numbers don’t mean anything as I label the cards on the back as to what batches they are but it helps me keep track of which card came out of which camera.
Here’s a little trick, in case you didn’t know this: Flip over your P2 card. See the white block there? That’s a dry erase section that you can use. However, dry erase comes off VERY easily when you’re handling cards all the time. So here’s a trick that I use. I USE PERMANENT MARKER ON THAT PART TO MARK ALL OF MY CARDS! But isn’t that permanent? Nope! If you take a dry erase marker and go over the permanent marker and then ERASE it, the permanent marker ERASES. How awesome is that? Very. That’s how I mark all of my cards once I transfer them so that I know what I have and have not transferred yet. There are days where I can’t transfer all of the cards before they call wrap and I’m forced home, so that REALLY helps in terms of knowing what’s transferred and what’s not.
This may be redundant information but I have to say it nevertheless. What ever you do, no matter what method you use to transfer be it PCMCIA, Firewire, USB, whatever…
DO NOT CONNECT THE P2 CARD TO YOUR COMPUTER WITHOUT FIRST LOCKING THE CARD!!!!!!!!
I cannot stress that enough. YOU WILL LOSE FOOTAGE if you don’t follow that simple step due to random corruption. Get into the habit of doing that when you take cards out of the camera, heck use it to mark what has footage on it when you’re transporting cards, it will help you in the long run.
I hope this has been helpful, feel free to ask me questions, as I’m more than happy to help out as much as I can. This whole write up has been the product of 6 weeks of production and preproduction methods developed with myself, the editor, and the DP. Feel free to email me as I respond best to emails, especially since after this shoot I’ll be working as a loader on a RED, which I’ve never done before but I’m still going to use these methods in terms of organization. I’ve attached some pics as well in hopes to help explain in a visual sense what I’m talking about in terms of organization.
http://images.stratatekstudios.com/Workflow_Screengrab.png
Loading is a necessity for this day and age with everything going digital. From P2 to Compact Flash, today’s instant gratification of “I want it NOW” is attainable because of the ability to see digital footage INSTANTLY. It’s really a blessing or a curse depending on how you look at it.
Digital Media Loading is a new innovative position as it gives way to new opportunities. Much like a film loader you’re tasked with making sure you have each reel logged and safely secured in order to be processed, except there is no processing with digital it’s all about the backup.
A good rule of thumb is to have everything backed up twice, at the very least. I normally have original files backed up 3 times, on one as an archive and on two active drives so that I can access and transcode media as needed. Loading in itself is an easy task, but it’s the organizational skill set that really makes you valuable in terms of helping with post. IF you know where every shot is from every day at all times you can REALLY make sure you have everything where it needs to be. It really helps out when you’re going for pickup shots as you can pull up shots IMMEDIATELY to check them out for continuity and such. Trust me I have done this a dozen times over in the past 14 days on set so far and my method of organization has really saved my ass. I’ll say this, as it’s extremely important: ORGANIZATION IS KEY!!!!!!
Depending on what you’re skill set is and how familiar you are with the editing software being used to cut the final product, you might find yourself in an assistant editor position as well when you’re working as a Loader. In my case I’m working as a P2 Loader, an assistant editor, and also an assistant to the camera when they need additional help and when I have downtime as well.
My organization method carries over from the file system to FCP (or whatever system the movie ends up being cut on) in terms of how days are filed and how scenes are broken up by day, camera, batch (aka card dump), and then scene. This is purely for my organization in case I miss a shot that I didn’t encode or if we need to reshoot something from a particular day. I make a daily FCP project and then pass that along with the transcoded files over to him so he can pluck the bins he needs to be able edit the scenes for him. By giving him the daily breakdown of scenes that are ALREADY transcoded, he doesn’t have to worry about sitting and waiting for files to transcode and twiddle his thumbs waiting on files, this increased productivity for the entire shoot, especially if we have an editor cutting on set. I’m always transcoding as the director may come up immediately and say “let me see that shot real quick, I want to watch playback to see if X is wrong” or something like that.
FORMATTING CARDS
I want to take some time and explain exactly why I do what I do for this part. It may seem self-explanatory and common sense but you’d be amazed at how people don’t think about HOW IMPORTANT your position is. After all, you have ALL OF THE FOOTAGE in your hands and it is up to you to make sure you have EVERYTHING backed up safely. With that being said let me go into detail what I do before I even consider formatting cards.
I always make sure I have the cards backed up AT LEAST twice before I even flip off the write protection lock on P2 cards. I have 2 harddrives hooked up to my Macbook Pro, one that I consider a “transfer” drive (which floats between myself and the editor so he can copy transcoded files onto his harddrive to begin editing clips) and my main capture drive. I copy ONE CARD onto BOTH DRIVES at the SAME TIME. I do NOT copy one card onto one drive and then copy those files onto a second drive. Why? Well what if somewhere a file got corrupted or misplaced and you have already formatted the card and all you have is the one copy that you copied onto another drive? Yep you are screwed. I copy the one card onto two drives to ensure that I have the original data backed up at LEAST twice, then I can be put at ease.
I do not format ANY cards until I have everything transcoded from the files that I copied onto one of the harddrives. Why? That way I can make sure that those files that I copied over are definitely error free and hold all of the original data that the cards hold. Make sense? I want to make sure that all of the footage on the card matches what I have on the harddrives as well. Once all of the footage is copied over to two harddrives and the footage is transcoded and error free, I then take the card and mark it with the following information: “Batch 1 A” and put a huge T on it so that I know I have the footage transferred and transcoded.
Wait, you haven’t formatted yet? EXACTLY! I wait until I absolutely have to format before I give a card back. For this film I’m working with 5 16gig cards per camera (10 total) and they are marked A1, A2, etc for each camera. The card numbers don’t mean anything as I label the cards on the back as to what batches they are but it helps me keep track of which card came out of which camera.
Here’s a little trick, in case you didn’t know this: Flip over your P2 card. See the white block there? That’s a dry erase section that you can use. However, dry erase comes off VERY easily when you’re handling cards all the time. So here’s a trick that I use. I USE PERMANENT MARKER ON THAT PART TO MARK ALL OF MY CARDS! But isn’t that permanent? Nope! If you take a dry erase marker and go over the permanent marker and then ERASE it, the permanent marker ERASES. How awesome is that? Very. That’s how I mark all of my cards once I transfer them so that I know what I have and have not transferred yet. There are days where I can’t transfer all of the cards before they call wrap and I’m forced home, so that REALLY helps in terms of knowing what’s transferred and what’s not.
This may be redundant information but I have to say it nevertheless. What ever you do, no matter what method you use to transfer be it PCMCIA, Firewire, USB, whatever…
DO NOT CONNECT THE P2 CARD TO YOUR COMPUTER WITHOUT FIRST LOCKING THE CARD!!!!!!!!
I cannot stress that enough. YOU WILL LOSE FOOTAGE if you don’t follow that simple step due to random corruption. Get into the habit of doing that when you take cards out of the camera, heck use it to mark what has footage on it when you’re transporting cards, it will help you in the long run.
I hope this has been helpful, feel free to ask me questions, as I’m more than happy to help out as much as I can. This whole write up has been the product of 6 weeks of production and preproduction methods developed with myself, the editor, and the DP. Feel free to email me as I respond best to emails, especially since after this shoot I’ll be working as a loader on a RED, which I’ve never done before but I’m still going to use these methods in terms of organization. I’ve attached some pics as well in hopes to help explain in a visual sense what I’m talking about in terms of organization.
http://images.stratatekstudios.com/Workflow_Screengrab.png
