What cameras do discovery and such channels shoot their documentaries on ?

P

plainman007

Well-known member
Hi,

Im interested in knowing what cameras / format channels like Discovery, Animal Planet, etc shoot in. And of the formats popularly used which are Vegas NLE compatible workflows.

Also i really wonder, are there people who shoot pro widlife docu films in HDV ?

Thanks..
 
They have GOLD, SILVER, and BRONZE level broadcasting.

I shot a season of "Solved" with a set of Sony Z1U's. Was hoping to get them up to a Z5U but it never happened. This would be considered bronze level.
 
You mean they have 3 levels of shooting quality ?

So their 3rd level is HDV.

What are the formats for their 1st and 2nd levels ?
 
Gold = cameras like the HPX3700.

Silver = unrestricted acquisition; cameras like the HPX500.

Bronze = limited acquisition, cameras like the HDV or HVX200. No more than 15% of a total HD program can be shot on Bronze level cameras.
 
So for shows like Mythbusters where they use just about every video cam known to man, does that count as Gold, Silver, or Bronze?
 
Barry_Green said:
Gold = cameras like the HPX3700.

Silver = unrestricted acquisition; cameras like the HPX500.

Bronze = limited acquisition, cameras like the HDV or HVX200. No more than 15% of a total HD program can be shot on Bronze level cameras.
Click to expand...

"Solved" airs on I.D. (Investigation Discovery) and TLC. The season I worked on (2009) was 100% HDV.
 
Tim Joy said:
So for shows like Mythbusters where they use just about every video cam known to man, does that count as Gold, Silver, or Bronze?
Click to expand...
Just an asumption but I'd assume Mythbusters is bronze judging from the 'visual' quality of it. It's driven by character content and explosions so no need to shoot it on a hpx3700. However they are getting big money for it.

Last year Storm Chasers had the higest rating for a series ending on a Sunday night (their big night) since Planet Earth beating Deadliest Catch, Storm Chasers is shot on HDV Sony Z7's and is bronze but the money they get for it is gold + more.

The finally is this Sunday night and I expect ratings to be biger than last year. When you see Reed get hit by a tornado in his dominator I was 100 feet behind him in an unarmored suv thinking I was going to die for the 5th time in 3 months. It was in Nebraska. This Sunday is by far the best show of the series, you should watch it, Sony Z7's look really good (my hvx's do look better when dialed in right), my only complaint is the rolling shutter when it lightnings but it does add to the drama. It's a good show to watch to learn from if you shoot with small handhelds. It really is what a handheld run n' gun show is all about.

You don't need the best camera to make the best show. If ratings are there you can get gold money + for a bronze show.
 
Barry_Green said:
Bronze = limited acquisition, cameras like the HDV or HVX200. No more than 15% of a total HD program can be shot on Bronze level cameras.
Click to expand...

Okay, and maybe this has been explained elsewhere, but how is this compatible with one of Discovery's best (IMO) shows, Deadliest Catch, which is (as far as I can tell, even after seeing some BTS stuff) 100% shot with Sony HDV cams? I've never seen Storm Chasers, but I've always guessed (and Chip seems to confirm) that it's shot much the same way, and they certainly are advertising the crap out of that show (with Sony HDV cams prominently featured in many of the ads, including the one for the finale this weekend). It just seems like Discovery's rules for shooting shows for them don't actually reflect some of their most popular shows...
 
Captain Pierce said:
Okay, and maybe this has been explained elsewhere, but how is this compatible with one of Discovery's best (IMO) shows, Deadliest Catch, which is (as far as I can tell, even after seeing some BTS stuff) 100% shot with Sony HDV cams? I've never seen Storm Chasers, but I've always guessed (and Chip seems to confirm) that it's shot much the same way, and they certainly are advertising the crap out of that show (with Sony HDV cams prominently featured in many of the ads, including the one for the finale this weekend). It just seems like Discovery's rules for shooting shows for them don't actually reflect some of their most popular shows...
Click to expand...
Those are the rules that Discovery has stated. Those rules apply to commissioned shows, where if you're pitching them the idea, they will require you to adhere to certain standards.

Discovery is free to change their rules whenever they want; I know they commissioned a six-hour show on the Iditarod that was filmed entirely with HVX200 cameras, and the deliverable media was a hard disk (a first for Discovery, as far as I know).

If you're not commissioned through them, but are instead producing the show yourself and hoping to sell it to them when it's done, you can probably use anything you want. But if you're pitching them the idea, they'll send you their producer's guidelines sheet, and you'll see the list of acceptable cameras and ratings on it.
 
ChipG said:
The finally is this Sunday night and I expect ratings to be biger than last year. When you see Reed get hit by a tornado in his dominator I was 100 feet behind him in an unarmored suv thinking I was going to die for the 5th time in 3 months. It was in Nebraska. This Sunday is by far the best show of the series, you should watch it, Sony Z7's look really good (my hvx's do look better when dialed in right), my only complaint is the rolling shutter when it lightnings but it does add to the drama. It's a good show to watch to learn from if you shoot with small handhelds. It really is what a handheld run n' gun show is all about.
Click to expand...

One of my cameras is a Z7U and I am a huge fan of Storm Chasers. I think it's one of the best examples of breaking the annoying stereotype that HDV is a second-rate HD format. But a lot of the magic has to happen during post. If I might inquire -- I am very curious as to what post methodology Storm Chasers employs. Do they edit HDV native? Any HDV-specific cleaning tricks used? The end result is stunning.

John
 
Captain Pierce said:
Okay, and maybe this has been explained elsewhere, but how is this compatible with one of Discovery's best (IMO) shows, Deadliest Catch, which is (as far as I can tell, even after seeing some BTS stuff) 100% shot with Sony HDV cams?
Click to expand...
Discovery (including Discovery HD) and Discovery HD Theater have different requirements. AFAIK, Deadliest Catch is not an HD Theater show.
 
Kellar42 said:
Aren't the XDCAM EX series cameras also rated Silver?
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AFAIK, some people have claimed it, but I've never seen any documentation or proof that it is accepted. So maybe it is, but I haven't seen it tge list in quite a while. I know that for a while Canon advocates were saying the XLH1 was approved for unlimited acquisition, but that was never (AFAIK) codified by Discovery as actually being true. So if anyone who has the current list wants to verify that the EX cams are actually on there, we'd all be glad for knowing the truth.
 
It would be nice if someone can digress on Jameyers ending part of his question. Are there any cleanups or DI workflows adapted to the HDV that these channels use or do they edit in native HDV ?

Thanks
 
jameyers14 said:
One of my cameras is a Z7U and I am a huge fan of Storm Chasers. I think it's one of the best examples of breaking the annoying stereotype that HDV is a second-rate HD format. But a lot of the magic has to happen during post. If I might inquire -- I am very curious as to what post methodology Storm Chasers employs. Do they edit HDV native? Any HDV-specific cleaning tricks used? The end result is stunning.

John
Click to expand...

Corwins crew is THE best example of a fun action adventure crew that is just like DELTA FORCE, (they smile alot, don't brag and get the shi* done!) funnest crew I have ever met in my life! Good peeps.

Take it for what you want but my point is give good people any cam you want and they will have a disco show on 20 year old vhs cams.
 
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plainman007 said:
It would be nice if someone can digress on Jameyers ending part of his question. Are there any cleanups or DI workflows adapted to the HDV that these channels use or do they edit in native HDV ?

Thanks
Click to expand...

I have a feeling they don't DI at all and make use the Z7's true 30p mode. But it would be nice to hear some of the techie details of how their workflow.
 
Storm Chasers is shot in 1080 24p, I know they edit it on Avid, dunno about any DI cleanup for this show, I doubt it. Audio is really cleaned up, the LOUD road noise when they are in the suv's is barley noticable, they did an awesome job on that side of it. Lots of ADR, now that I sad that you'll be able to tell.

The tapes go to one office on the west coast and the hard drives from the CF media go to New York. Being able to record to both tape and solid state media at the same time is very productive for a show like this with lots of cameras and hundreds of hours of footage (prob closer to 1,000) so I'm sure that is a big factor on why they like the z7.

I think Les Stroud used EX-1's (as the main cams) xdcam for the final season of Survivorman on Disco.

Z7 is Discovery's workhorse handheld camera for most of it's new 'adventure' shows.
 
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ChipG said:
J

Last year Storm Chasers had the higest rating for a series ending on a Sunday night (their big night) since Planet Earth beating Deadliest Catch, Storm Chasers is shot on HDV Sony Z7's and is bronze but the money they get for it is gold + more.

The finally is this Sunday night and I expect ratings to be biger than last year. When you see Reed get hit by a tornado in his dominator I was 100 feet behind him in an unarmored suv thinking I was going to die for the 5th time in 3 months. It was in Nebraska. This Sunday is by far the best show of the series, you should watch it, Sony Z7's look really good (my hvx's do look better when dialed in right), my only complaint is the rolling shutter when it lightnings but it does add to the drama. It's a good show to watch to learn from if you shoot with small handhelds. It really is what a handheld run n' gun show is all about.

You don't need the best camera to make the best show. If ratings are there you can get gold money + for a bronze show.
Click to expand...

That episode last night was EPIC! Reed is insane for getting into that beast and you are just plain crazy for being anywhere near it. Thank you both for doing that so I could live vicariously through you.

How does Sean Casey’s IMAX film compare to the cameras Reed’s team uses? I have often wondered if it is really worth using a $100K IMAX camera over something else?

I also hear Sean say that they can’t chase once it starts getting dark because he needs light for his shot. Wouldn’t he be better off using something like the Canon 1Ds MKIV for low light shots?

Just wondering if the IMAX camera really is still the Holy Grail that it once was considered to be?
 
mpgxsvcd said:
That episode last night was EPIC! Reed is insane for getting into that beast and you are just plain crazy for being anywhere near it. Thank you both for doing that so I could live vicariously through you.

How does Sean Casey’s IMAX film compare to the cameras Reed’s team uses? I have often wondered if it is really worth using a $100K IMAX camera over something else?

I also hear Sean say that they can’t chase once it starts getting dark because he needs light for his shot. Wouldn’t he be better off using something like the Canon 1Ds MKIV for low light shots?

Just wondering if the IMAX camera really is still the Holy Grail that it once was considered to be?
Click to expand...

I'm not affiliated with that show, I have my own team. Everybody knows everybody, we all end up at the same gas stations, restraunts and bars.

You have to have an IMAX camera to make an IMAX film.

I'd NEVER use a 1DsMk4 for this type of production, you'd get your ass kicked so fast from missing shots, no time code etc.

Who's Enzo in your youtube video? A family member has one in LA, it's pretty funny because there are 8ish of them in thier neighborhood (that I know about), I'd bet I know who's it is if it's an LA car.
 
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