If you’d like the full surround sound version of this column, I’d recommend playing Bob Dylan’s “The Times They are A-Changin’ ” as you read along. I recently had the opportunity to shoot with a Sony XDCAM-EX, a new full-featured professional camcorder that offers HD resolution up to 1080i, at a very economical price point. The differentiating factor, though, is that the model EX records on high speed, high capacity “SxS” memory cards, and this presents a few workflow surprises to the shooter.
This month’s video installment isn’t intended to review the XDCAM-EX, and I’m not going to read the spec sheet to you. Instead, the intention is to provide a few words to the wise for the shooter who’s making the transition from media-based recording to memory-based (solid state) recording. Things indeed are a-changing.
From a quality and flexibility standpoint, Sony’s XDCAM-EX is absolutely superb at its price point, and it sports many features typically found on high-end cameras. Of course, with any new compact camcorder, every square millimeter of the camera surface is covered with buttons and switches. So for my first tip, you better know (blindly) where gain, white balance, iris, peaking, and zebras are — before you head out on a shoot.
But given these wonders of miniaturization and quality, there are hidden costs in the workflow. As an editor who learned his trade back in the 1980s, I’m rooted in a workflow that involves physical media — specifically, tape. I write the script, produce the graphics, hire the talent, shoot the footage, index the original tapes, edit in non-linear fashion on the PC, and then deliver the edited master to the client. At the end of the day, I’ve got a box of original tapes that I can pull from the archive when the client wants to re-edit.
Today’s modern memory-based workflow changes the entire dynamic. With cameras such as the Sony XDCAM-EX and the Panasonic HVX series, recording is solid state.
The camera’s record path has no moving parts, and unlike tape-based methods, there are no spinning heads moving across magnetic tape. Instead, the recording medium is a tiny flash memory card, optimized for the high bandwidth and high capacity data rates required for HD. Typically, these cameras have slots for two memory cards.
For today’s lesson in economics, a 16 gigabyte (GB) “P2” card for the Panasonic HVX-200 costs around $899.00, while a 16 GB Sony SxS card costs around $875. Record capacities are similar (around 60 minutes), but recording times can vary based on the quality and compression ratio at which you record. Regardless, the media is by no means inexpensive.
Weigh these factors against a traditional tape-based workflow in the DV format. You can go down to Best Buy and pick up a five-pack of mini-DV tapes for about 30 bucks. If you shoot at a 20:1 ratio for your hour-long documentary, you’ve spent about 120 bucks for tape stock. No biggie.
But in the memory-based workflow, there’s no way that I’m gonna stock up on a six-pack of flash memory cards at over $800.00 a pop. You could make a sizable down-payment on a new HD camera for that price. Instead, these puppies are intended to be re-used — again and again.
This little financial and operational quirk — the need to re-use your original recording media — presents an interesting dilemma to the paranoid producer/director (me). Let’s say you go out on location with only one flash memory card. In order to record hour number two, you have to delete your original footage and make a safety backup — in the same way that you backup the memory card from your digital SLR after your Grand Canyon vacation. After the backup, you delete all the pix to free up space, and the wise photographer probably makes a backup of the backup — in case your primary PC decides to toast its hard drive.
If you’re shooting in HD for a client, however, with a major production budget, some serious planning is required — as I learned first-hand on last week’s shoot. First of all, for field recording, you must include a laptop in your production inventory, plus lots of batteries, and a stack of portable USB hard drives. As another prerequisite, the laptop requires a high speed flash card reader compatible with the Sony SxS or Panasonic P2 format. You might also want to hire a PA to handle the backup tasks and logistics — yet another line item on the bid.
Even with the luxury of a dual flash card setup, the workflow now goes like this:
Shoot the first hour.
On the camera, switch over to memory card slot B — and continue shooting.
Eject the first card and back up all of your footage to the PC, and/or the external USB drive. Ensure that you account for the backup time, which can take upwards of 20 minutes, depending on the resolution at which you recorded.
Now, Mr. Trustworthy, here comes the fun part <shudder>. With your first hour of camera original footage backed up, insert the card back into the camera, delete all the clips from the card, and continue shooting. It makes an old media-based shooter like me turn gray. (Wait — I already am turning gray).
So, what could go wrong in this workflow? Drop the PC or one of the external USB drives, and your footage is toast. The Earth passes through a high-gauss magnetic intergalactic storm cloud, and your footage is toast (along with all the Earth’s data, but that’s a topic for another column). Your hairy-eared PA can’t remember any instruction beyond “Here, dude, back this up” … and your footage is toast. You invited Murphy to the shoot. Toast!
Me? Concerned? I’m only trying to protect my client’s footage, because I don’t have a box of camera original tapes in the vault at the end of the day. On this particular shoot, my caution paid off, and there’s a beautiful edited master to show.
Yesterday’s archive solution was a tape vault, with all of your masters waiting patiently on the shelves. Today’s archive solution is one (or more) terabyte raid arrays, capable of storing all the footage that you’ve shot. Editors typically call this “near-line” storage, because the footage can be brought back online fairly quickly if a re-edit is required. For true long term storage, editors are turning to ultra-high capacity tape-based solutions, such as those made by Quantum. As an alternative, you could cut Blu-Ray disks of the footage, but this introduces additional compression.
In this digital age, the question of long-term archiving actually poses some interesting questions. When a big film studio archives a movie, a sprocket hole still resembles a sprocket hole — year after year. And film projectors will still be film projectors, in spite of the migration to digital cinema.
The question is … will the digital devices, codecs and drivers with which you archive your digital video masters still be in use — five or ten years from now? And if not, what expenses would be required to keep those archives current with the changing state of storage? My computer junkyard at home (if it’s anything like yours), is full of obsolete devices, some of which no longer work. The power supply has failed, the drivers have been lost, the OS has changed — and those archives are harder and harder (if not impossible) to access. Consider the floppy disk (RIP).
Yes, we embrace the new technology, and for the shooter, it puts wondrous capabilities at our fingertips — as simple and elegant as solid state recording. Yet it can’t be overlooked that this technology is delivered with a price, in terms of workflow, compatibility and complexity. The underlying message is — adapt, but be fully aware of the ramifications.
During a shoot, I used to say “roll tape” to the crew. Now, I can’t say “roll” — because nothing inside the camera is rolling, and I can’t say “tape,” because it’s a lump of silicon. I know — how about just “action!”
