BEHIND THE WHEEL OF THE P2

Production Journal: D.P. Chris McGuinness & Basem Elsokary on shooting race footage for Short Track the movie.

We were approached by Director Marie Hopkins to shoot critical race footage for an independent feature film entitled Short Track. Although the film had been shot with the Panasonic Varicam, we felt the risks involved and the challenging nature of the shoot made this a perfect opportunity to put the Panasonic HVX200 to the test.

Equipment:

The task at hand was to cover at close range stock cars at speeds in excess of 120 MPH. Beyond the obvious risk to the camera operators was the risk to the camera equipment. These conditions made usage of the Varicam impractical. The decision was made to use three HVX200 cameras.

Our next challenge was to figure out a workflow for the P2 system. Panasonic's currently only offers 4 and 8 GB P2 cards. Because of the fact that we needed the greatest amount of uninterrupted shooting we decided upon the 8 GB P2 cards.

The final piece of the puzzle was to select a reliable back up solution. The four viable solutions for this shoot were straight to firewire storage systems, PCMI compatible laptops, P2 stores, or simply P2 cards. The crucial nature of the footage made it absolutely necessary to create dual backups. Due to technological concerns we immediately ruled out straight to firewire hard drive systems. Although laptops with external storage solutions are an excellent alternative we felt this was too cumbersome for our shoot. Single P2 storage back up was probably reliable enough, however this was a non factor because we could not locate more than ten 8 GB P2 cards. This left us with Panasonic’s P2 store, which was both portable and capable of meeting our dual back up needs.

In the end we chose 3 HVX200 cameras, ten 8 GB P2 cards, and 8 P2 store drives.

Set up and work flow:

Prior to every shoot we like to sit down and figure out our equipment set up. Based on the location specifications and the provided scout footage, we knew that we had to modify our scene files to enhance color and boost low light performance.

Although shooting in 1080p was tempting we chose 720pn. The factors involved in choosing 720pn included significantly longer record times, native 24p frame rate recording, ability to overcrank, and ease of integration with Varicam footage in post production.

Due to the unique work flow of P2 and the aforementioned challenges of our shoot we set aside time to test our work flow with our production crew. This proved to be absolutely necessary. While generally easy to operate, proper operation of a P2 store for a new user would require a manual. For this reason, we conducted a short pre shoot training session with the P2 store operators. It is our belief that a functional LCD screen and menu system would make this drive more user friendly. (Apple's iPod Nano gives you a color screen menu system for $150)

Our workflow for shooting and backing up involved the cycling of three P2 cards between one camera and two P2 stores. When a card became full in camera, it was removed and backed up to both P2 stores. The process of transferring one P2 card to both P2 stores took roughly 30 minutes. This rotation allowed for continuous shooting until the drives became full. (Seven 8 GB P2 cards fit on 1 P2 store.)

Shoot:

We met with the three shooting crews to review our strategy for the day. Two crews would be located at track level: One shooting from the pit area, the other shooting just outside the track. The third crew would be located above for wide coverage of the venue. Due to the fact that the race was scheduled to last only about ninety minutes we pre planned and scripted needed shots for the movie.

While there were some minor issues during the shoot, we had great experiences with P2. They proved extremely capable of holding up under the harshest of circumstances, not excluding Georgia’s hot humid summer day.

Overall, the shoot was nearly flawless. We had one failed P2 store unity, but since we were creating dual backups, we never lost a second of footage. The single biggest challenge of the day was to maintain focus. The run and gun nature of the shoot did not afford us the usage of a larger high-resolution monitor. Also, with all the strong reds in our footage, we could not help but notice a bit of compression issues in the reds. Overall, we were still very impressed and pleased with the footage. P2 is proving to be a great format with many benefits. At this price point this is a fantastic camera with no rival.

Wish list:

1. Higher resolution HVX LCD for focusing.
2. Better low light performance.
4. Similar LCD position to Sony Z1u.
5. LCD on the P2 Store.
6. RAID 1 (mirror) drive set up inside of single P2 store unit.

Tips:

1. Leave extra time to navigate airport security. P2 cards are a new unusual looking device and attract attention.
2. Watch out for fire ants in Georgia. Sixty stings does indeed hurt.
3. Dual backups is a great idea.
4. Stickers or labels on P2 cards is probably not a good idea.