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Government Video Magazine
February 2009
production
A New HD Workflow
The EPA streamlines field production with a move to tapeless acquisition using Sony EX1 camcorders.
by Joy Zaccaria
Fitting for the Environmental Protection Agency, Ron Slotkin, director of the Office of Multimedia Operations and Services, is trying to be as efficient as possible. When the EPA recently upgraded to HD for its video production, Slotkin decided to move to tapeless acquisition for his two and three-man crews with the Sony PMW-EX1 camcorder.
For the EX1’s maiden voyage, the EPA crew shot interviews and B-roll for a 30- minute educational video, Recycling is Everybody’s Business: Successful Strategies for Local Leadership, the second produced in a series for EPA’s Local Government Advisory Committee. The video will be part of a toolkit for local government officials to help them explore options for operating a successful recycling program. “Short videos like this one are the perfect tool to help local leaders inspire and facilitate a dialog on their issues and educate their community,” said Slotkin.
Brian Taylor, a senior videographer for the EPA, said the agency’s new Sony EX1 camcorders have enhanced his workflow in the field.
The project took senor videographer Brian Taylor and his producer, Judy Pino, through Washington State, Delaware, Louisiana, New Jersey, and Montana. They found the camera had no problem adjusting to the varying shooting conditions.
“Montana presented the most diverse challenges,” Taylor said. “Within an hour, I had shot in the bright sun, rain, snow, and wind.”
For Taylor, the camera’s memory-based recording format enhanced his workflow in the field. On a shoot, Taylor uses one or two EX1s, with nine SxS PRO cards — two 8 GB and seven 16 GB cards — working with a 2.4 GHz computer with 2 GB RAM. “I’ll begin shooting with a card in both slots,” he explained. “Once I’ve filled both cards, I eject them and switch on the write-protect feature to label them.
“If there’s time between shooting locations and I’m still in the field, I’ll do a quick camera-to-computer USB transfer of the root BPAV folder to the internal drive and tuck those cards away,” he continued. “Once I’m back to my hotel or office, I’ll rewrap MP4 data to digital video files without having to touch the codec. These are my dailies.”
While the team was pleased with the camera’s performance in the field, they did encounter a few surprises back in the office in terms of dealing with the HD of it all. Using Final Cut Pro HD, they had to supplement equipment to make sure their workflow was fully HD.
“We’re pleased we can now work in HD, but the video file on the chip [SxS card] is not in a form that you can just drag to the line,” said Slotkin. “My staff had to figure out how to log 16 hours of video they came back with.”
The lesson to learn is that any new piece of major equipment is going to require a reassessment of the entire workflow. In fact, the team started the new workflow while still out in the field.
“We usually have time only to screen the footage on a basic 2.4 GHz Intel MacBook with 2 GBs RAM running the XDCAM transfer software,” said Taylor. “The SxS root folders are backed up to an external drive as soon as possible.”
Once back at the office, the footage is transcoded to QuickTime files and exported to two separate external FireWire drives. When time allows, they do real-time HD-SDI playouts from the camcorder through an AJA IO to a Sony PDW-F75 to archive the video to 50 GB XDCAM Blu-ray optical discs. As an added measure of backup, they also burn the transcoded QuickTime files to a set of DVD-R discs.
A single studio at the EPA’s Washington, DC, facility is used for podcasting, radio, and television productions.
There are eight staff members working with Slotkin to cover a variety of instructional productions. Back at headquarters, the EPA has a large, single studio that is used for podcasting, radio, and video productions. It’s equipped with Hitachi cameras and a Broadcast Pix Slate 2100 switcher.
Programming is sent on a wide area network to each desktop in the EPA across the nation. Among other projects, the EPA produces weekly public Web videos called Green Scenes, which report on EPA activities, as well as audio podcasts that are posted on the EPA Web site and iTunes.
The Sony EX1s were purchased particularly for field use, and there are plans to acquire a third for local field work. “It is a lot easier to move with the EX1 rather than the big containers and rolling carts with our older equipment,” Slotkin said. “Everything is scaled down, even the tripods. Everyone just throws what is needed over their shoulder and goes.”★