HVX P2 Workflow - No Film, No Tape, No Problems

"Coyote" was shot completely with the Panasonic HVX-200 along with the RedRock M2 adapter (more on RedRock in a later post).  A year before we even went into production on "Coyote" I had spent countless hours reading up on the HVX and the other HD options out there.  Many thanks for Barry Green and all the guys at DVXuser who provided a great message board to which I was thoroughly addicted for some time.

We shot the film at 720/24pN.  This allowed us to utilize the variable frame rates which we did on occasion.  The 60fps footage looks GREAT!  We were very happy with it.  We only had 3 4GB P2 cards when we shot.  In shooting 720/24pN we were able to get 10 minutes a card.  We also had the Panasonic P2 Store which was invaluable to us.  Offloaded to the P2 Store and rotating between 3 4GB cards, we had NO problems with the technology and we NEVER had to wait for a card.

At the end of the day, we would attach the P2 Store to an Intel iMac (2.0 Ghz with 2GB of Ram) to offload the footage.  We used the great app P2 Genie developed by Anders Holck.  When we were in production, FCP did not have it’s excellent P2 Import box so P2 Genie was a must for us.  Using P2 Genie we would copy over to 2 drives.  One main and one backup.  P2 Genie allowed us to do this effortlessly.  We stored our footage on to the MyBook drives from Western Digital.  Throughout all of production we never had one problem with these drives. 

We shot roughly 1TB or footage on "Coyote."  This translated to 4 500GB MyBooks of data (2 Drives for footage, 2 Drives for identical backup).   We would covert random shots to Quicktime to preview our footage.  If we had a larger crew and more time, we would have probably had someone convert it all to QT and be able to watch dailies regularly, but we just spot checked our footage.

When we returned to LA, we bought another 2 500GB MyBooks, raided them together, and made that our drive for the Quicktime files of the footage that we would then use to edit with using Final Cut Pro (we editied with FCP 5).  We edited the film entirely on an Intel 2.0 Ghz iMac.

Back in LA, we had some reshoots, pick-up shots, and inserts that we would shoot while editing.  The P2 workflow was amazing during this process as we were able to shot, offload, and put into the edit (at full res!) all practically at the same time.  As we would get cuts together we would burn DVDs to so test screenings, but even better, we would bring the iMac into the living room, hook up an HDMI-DVI cable to our HDTV and watch the film in all it’s full HD glory.  All without ever touching a frame of film or an inch of tape!

This is obviously a very condensed view of our workflow and we could practually write a book about all the element of this production.  In future posts we’ll be addressing in greater detail this process, such posts will hopefully include:  The RedRock adaper, our Grip and Lighting Equipment, HVX scene files used, Production Sound, Post Sound, Color Correction, Visual FX, and much much more. 

STAY TUNED!

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