The Mexican American War - Airdate

Shane Ross

Shane Ross

Veteran
Waayyyyy back in January we started shooting this History Channel documentary on the Mexican American war using the Panasonic Varicam...and two of the new HVX-200 cameras. We received the first two cameras on the west coast, and 2 days later were shooting with them.

Back in March a press release about us was circulated, and DVXUser was the first to post it:

http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?t=51378

I have been working on it for 9 months (a record for me...longest time on one show) and now it will finally air. The title is THE MEXICAN AMERICAN WAR.

Friday, Sept 29 at 8:00PM ET/PT on The History Channel.

This project mixed Varicam footage and P2 footage from the HVX-200 camera. Was shot 720p 23.98 and delivered 1080p 23.98 on D5. This show was cut with FCP at full DVCPRO HD resolution using 2 G-Raid 500GB drives, an internal 250 SATA drive and a Popsicle Stick Raid.

I color corrected using the 3-way color corrector, did moves on stills with FCP and After Effects and did green screen comps (with the expert help of Patrick Sheffield) with Shake. I output at The DR Group in Los Angeles to D5 and delivered...well, LAST week be the show was kicked back for a few technical issues that we spent the last week fixing and have since returned the tapes to the network.

Set your Tivo. Especially if you are a Neilson family.

For information on my workflow, visit my blog at www.LFHD.net

The teaser trailer can be found here...not color corrected:

http://homepage.mac.com/comeback/professional/iMovieTheater36.html
 
Shane, that's great news, congrats! I bookmarked the press release when it first came out in March/June, and actually made an alarm in iCal to remind myself to check for airtimes in the Fall. Just last week, I checked for an air date on The History Channel's web site, and couldn't find one, but now I've got it.

At any rate, I will definitely be catching the show, and can't wait to see how the HVXs performed. From what I remember, you guys used the HVXs for battle re-enactments, but still did interviews on the Varicam. Did you guys stick to that plan 100%? How do you think an HVX would have handled other work in the project, like interviews and establishing shots?

Anyway, congrats again. Looking forward to show...
 
Excellent news and congrats! I know hoe much work it is to do a project of that magnitude for a broadcast network.

Kudos on the great work!
 
Thanks guys.

The plans changed slightly, as they changed the delivery specs on us mid stream, but that was a minor thing. From 720p 59.94 D5 to 1080p 23.98 HDCAM or D5. But that didn't change too much. And yes, we had two HVXs on the recreations, as well as the Varicam. At several times they were all at different locations shooting different setups as to get the most done in the shortest amount of time. This means that over 50% of the recreations are HVX...easily more.
 
Actually, I just discovered a news item that History will be broadcasting HD at some point in 07. Yet another example of how shooting HD future-proofs projects.

Ned
 
Im guessin in 07' it will air on Discovery HD? I LOVE watching history documentaries on Discovery HD, they are just awesome and so cinematic, all that stuff interests me, and in HD, its even better!
 
Ned...know something that the History Channel head engineer doesn't? Well, that won't be too surprising. I KNOW more than he does when it comes to HD. He indicated that he didn't know when they were going to switch to airing everything HD. But he did indicate that they were going to start requiring Sony IMX masters instead of digibeta tapes. So that means even MORE SD for the future.

sigh.
 
IMX maters??? What a hoot... You would think that they would want HDCAM or D5 masters and downrez for broadcast. Anyway, we've got it set on the DVR on our SD TV and look forward to watching it.

Ned
 
Shane Ross said:
Nope...not in this one.
Click to expand...

Damn, and I was really looking forward to seeing if you look at all like your avatar!

Congrats on completion of your project.

P.S. and thankfully, for those of you that missed it, it is being broadcast again today -- 5pm on the East Coast . . . check your local listings.
 
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My DirecTivo caught it last night, now I just need to figure out what was shot with what...
 
Yeah, I know. I'm trying to pick out the HVX footage.

I'm some cases that should be easy because of the camera angle and shooting situation. I haven't had time to watch the whole program yet.
 
Hee. The whole point is that we don't want you to be able to tell the difference. No matter WHAT was shot.

Ask me which shots you suspect and I'll let you know. Shouldn't be TOO tough...a majority of the recreations were shot with the HVX. How about you point out a Varicam shot or two and I'll let you know as well.
 
If it's being broadcast SD, I imagine it'll be pretty hard to tell save perhaps for the Varicam's higher lattitude (8 vs 10 stops) and shallower DoF.
 
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