AV Specialist - Africa Edition Vol 92 - (Page 23)

extras. Fortunately we had great support from the SA Navy and their enthusiasm helped us overcome many unforeseen problems.” Protracted delays Unfortunately, protracted contract negotiations with the SABC delayed the planned shooting dates from August when the weather is more kind to late October when the South Easter is blowing hard to prepare the Cape for the Vaalies . “Since the series was scheduled for broadcast in February 2007 this delay put serious pressure on our production and post-production workflow and we had to select our medium carefully to streamline the post process,” says van Rensburg. “With 352 scenes including a lot of swimming in windy oceans, underwater scenes, a car chase resulting in a harbour crash, flashbacks in Transkei and endless PT sessions, we had our work cut out. So why not pick a brand new production medium… that will surely keep us on our toes.” “When we started using our new XDCAM camera it quickly became apparent that we were experiencing the end of linear media,” says JJ van Rensburg from edit café. “This was no longer a camera but a sophisticated computer with a lens bolted on the front.” camera, but a sophisticated computer with a lens. Secondly, the end of linear media is here.” The XDCAM format immediately changed many years of linear thinking. “When the camera arrived at our office I was busy assembling the video footage for the World Amateur Golf Championship where all the cameras were shooting on ‘time of day’ timecode,” says van Rensburg. “I had to retrieve material from two tapes for each golf shot - from two angles. As any editor will know, there are huge jumps in time code each time the record button is used. For a typical 10minute programme, it can take up to 5 hours to digitise all the material from the various cameras before we can start editing. Compare this with the production process that’s used with XDCAM. Since it’s a clip-based system, each time you use the record button on the camera a new clip is created and time-stamped. Now I can select all the desired clips from each camera and simply drag them into the edit system at the same time. This happens at faster than real-time so while I’m ingesting the master takes from one disk, my client can search for their reverse shots on the second disk on their laptops. The same 5-hour digitising session will now take less that 1 hour.” Eeny meeny miny mo! When van Rensburg and Jacobs purchased their first PD150 they had to endure many months of relentless ridicule about this new ‘toy’ camera. “Most directors and cameramen wouldn’t allow us on set in fear of their image being shattered in front of their clients,” says van Rensburg. “DVCAM may be an accepted broadcast format now but back in 1999 it really was seen as a toy. I guess what I am trying to say is that we are not afraid to use a new medium, and after many months of serious research we decided to shoot Divers Down on the new Sony XDCAM camera.” The duo purchased a Sony PDW 510P XDCAM camera with an excellent Canon KRS20 2x IF lens. They also purchased a PDW-F30 deck and upgraded their edit suite to an Avid Media Composer running on an HP 8200 computer. “Two things became clear, even before I started using the XDCAM camera,” says van Rensburg. “First was the realisation that this is no longer a OK?” The second panic surfaced when the time code reached 02:00:00:00 on the first disk and they still hadn’t changed discs. “Operating in DVCAM-25 mode you can record up to 85 minutes of footage per disk,” explains van Rensburg. “The significance of this is that we no longer started each disk with a time code representative of the reel number because each clip gets a unique name linked to the disk number when digitised.” The shooting went well and the biggest surprise came on the first evening during the ‘rushes’ viewing. “We could instantly skip through clips at the push of a remote button and the engineer fell asleep soon after he realised that video dropouts are almost impossible,” enthuses van Rensburg. “We also did not have to worry about damaging the tape, as there is no physical contact between the disc and the reading lasers. Phew!” Van Rensburg was initially sceptical about the complete integration of XDCAM into the Avid editing software but was soon blown away by the simple workflow. “To get myself going, I ignored the fact that it is a new medium and opened my first project as if I was still working with tape,” he says. Tight integration with Avid “I shoved the first disk into the deck and voila! A window popped up to ask me if I would like to import the proxy files. We decided to work straight with the high quality clips on my 1.5 TByte disk space and politely responded with a ‘no thank you’. Importing the video clips was easy. You just open a new bin, select your clips from the XDCAM disk folders and drag them onto your computer.” Van Rensburg only had time for two smokes and a cup of freshly ground coffee before all the 85 minutes clips appeared in his bin at about 2-3x normal speed. “Man, this is easy,” he says. “Within one hour, I had edited my first scene. This is impossible with any other medium.” One week after the shoot ended, the production team had assembled 8 of the 13 episodes and finetuned the first four. “So far, so good,” enthuses van Rensburg. “I cannot knock the XDCAM medium in any way. There are no dropouts or time code breaks and the camera did not falter once. The Avid handled everything effortlessly and certainly made the editing process simple and fun. Would I like any other features in the software? Frankly no! Between XDCAM’s clip based media and Avid’s script-editing functions and peace of mind, the post-production is going almost too quickly.” First signs of panic On the set of Divers Down, van Rensburg and DOP Morné Jacobs spent a day going through all the menu options on the camera. Some great functions soon had Jacob’s eyes blinking and he approached the shoot with great enthusiasm. “The first signs of panic came from the continuity person who insisted that we run the customary 30-second colour bars,” laughs Jacobs. “It took a while to explain that we only need one second of bars … because it is a clip. 23

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of AV Specialist - Africa Edition Vol 92

Larger than life
Mediatech Aftrica shines bright in local market
HD camcorder runs with the wild dogs
Divers Down pursues tapeless workflow
Broadcast industy feedback

AV Specialist - Africa Edition Vol 92