While most people agree that the move to file-based media is a good thing there are some work practice collisions that need ironing out. We spoke to BBC Producer Jonathan Renouf about a new documentary series he is making called 'How The Earth Made Us'. The programmes are a follow up to 'Earth: Power Of The Planet', a BAFTA nominated series.
The new documentary is using the latest Panasonic Varicam which is a P2 card only camera system. The previous series shot mainly on the tape-based version of the Varicam and the HDX900 camera, another tape based product. The current series is shooting until later this summer and after a couple of month’s experience Jonathan is well placed to comment on how using file-based media impacts on well worn and trusted work practice.
“The previous series was shot on about eight different formats, but the principle ones were the HDX900 and the Varicam. The reason we used the HDX900 a lot was that the Varicam was very expensive, not in terms of the camera but because of the post production workflow. We had to hire a frame rate convertor because the BBC doesn’t accept a software conversion of the Varicam footage. We spent weeks basically frame converting Varicam footage, which is slow and expensive and isn’t a real time process – we ended up falling behind and finding it could take four weeks until you could see what you had shot.
“So towards the end of the series these logistical and cost difficulties meant that we then rationed the use of the Varicam to only times when we were absolutely sure that we wanted to go off speed. The rest of the time we used the 900 which has a very good workflow straight into Final Cut Pro.
“This time around I wanted to use the Varicam as much as possible but didn’t want the cost that goes along with it. So we looked at P2. Because the footage is automatically transferred at the play out speed there’s no need for a frame rate convertor, you even preview the footage and the slo mo effect on location. The principal drawback is the price of P2 cards that necessitate daily or 48 hourly transfer to hard drives. But we bit the bullet and decided that was a price worth paying.
How has that impacted on the way you work?
It’s been fine in the field so far. Everyone was terrified at the thought of deleting P2 cards in the field, but so far there have been no disasters. The transfer from P2 card to hard drive is one you can leave running, it’s basically half an hour of a producer’s or researcher’s time in the evening to set it up, and then you can leave it running while you go and have dinner. Then do a spot check when you get back to make sure everything’s there before you hit delete. If you’ve enjoyed some liquid refreshment with your post shoot dinner then the spot check and delete process is probably best left until the morning.
“The problems with P2 – if that’s what you want to call them – are actually ones we are discovering now as we get to post production. P2 involves very different ways of working to traditional tape based capture. It’s basically the change from tape to file which means instead of taking 30 to 40 tapes in to a cutting room, you take 2500 to 3000 files. It takes a week just to open them all.
“They say that the key to it all is Metadata, and in a way yes it is. But first of all attaching Metadata to each file is not an insignificant task. Secondly it’s not the way most producers and editors work. They don’t view or search for material by thinking ‘I wonder what we’ve got from Santorini, tell you what we’ll do a search for Santorini and call everything up.’ They don’t work like that, more likely they go ‘Hang on a minute Santorini, that was tapes 15 to 22 wasn’t it, lets have a look at those.’ Then they call up the relevant bin (or bins), drag the timeline across and view it all. The problem with P2 is that your metadata search will give you say 250 clips, each of which has to be opened separately to see them. So how do you make the material easily viewable to both the Producer and Editor ?
“There are several solutions to that but we’re doing two things. First we are basically paying somebody to put in the Metadata. I can see the advantages down the line for this. When you don’t have any knowledge of the rushes it will be fantastically useful to search for material by keyword rather than having to look through each rushes tape, where typically there might be just a few words on the tape box or a paper log describing the content. But secondly, and to solve the more immediate problem of viewing hundreds of clips, I’m trying to get Producers to create timelines in Final Cut Pro. So you have all your footage from your shoot in Greece, lets say, you create a FCP project and you just drag all your Santorini GVs on to one timeline, drag all your pieces to camera on to one timeline, drag all your cutaways on to one time line. Then you can see what you have without opening dozens of files.
"So we are paying someone to put in the Metadata and using that same person to train the producers in a workflow that means they can quickly create timelines of the material. What that means is you’ve got two ways of accessing the material. If you fancy using Metadata you can because it’s in there and certainly when people try and access material from films that they didn’t shoot themselves, you can find what you want with a search. But for the producers with their own material, they will be able to access the material much more quickly through timelines.
"The thing about Metadata is that it sounds wonderful to an accountant or to somebody who doesn’t actually make television programmes. But there are problems. First, Metadata is not an intuitive Television way of working. Two people can categorize two things in different ways – even if they’re given a list of standard terms. But second, the main issue is that Metadata has to be inputted and it takes a lot of time. The benefits are mainly for the future – it’s a legacy thing – it means that the rushes will be useful long after this series is finished. But there’s a cost on productions that wasn’t there before..So we bear a cost now to help ourselves and our colleagues in the future.
I think for ways forward cameramen and PD’s are going to have to think about adding Metadata in the field. You can upload information at the start of the day about where you are, who or what you’re filming, and that will automatically be added to every clip. That reduces the amount of work to be done opening clips back in the office. Also there are at least two buttons you can use on the camera as you’re shooting to tag shots. For example, as you’re filming the cameraman can tag pieces to camera that don’t work . So you know later that all the tagged shots can be deleted, so again you’re reducing the amount of clips you have to look through when you get back home. But I know for a fact that many people – including me – would be reluctant to do that because you often end up matching up the beginning of a piece to camera that failed to the end of another piece to camera that failed. So how much scope is there for deleting stuff in the field? I did one film when all the time I kept the camera running there were whips and pans and overexposures because I ran around with the camera which was still switched on – those ended up being the bits the picture editor used to make the end product distinctive and different. The idea of what you need and don’t need is different according to different people, some people can get ‘Genius’ stuff from footage others would delete.
Despite that, I do believe that we will find ways to have less clips come back from the field, And the other solution is definitely to try and attach more data in the field.
But there’s no doubt that moving to file based aquisition is a big cultural shift and it is going to need new skills and new ways of approaching the shoot.
By the way, I am a fan of P2, it is the future. If we use it intelligently then we can have the best of the old tape based acquisition, along with the powerful new metadata tools. For example, one of the fields that is automatically included with everything you shoot is the date. So it is perfectly possible to create a timeline in FCP of all the stuff shot on one date, using the search field. That way you can basically create virtual tapes for viewing purposes. And still have the legacy advantages of all the metadata.
