Behind The Wheel Of The P2 – a production journal with photos from the set of Short Track

[Federico Prieto]

Thanks for this info Chris….very useful indeed. The takes looks outstanding….I am very impressed with the color…..Can you say something more about the camera setup you used?…Chroma, detail, gamma, master ped, matrix, etc…..

thanks

fp

[Jeremy Garchow]

Cool write up. I could not agree with you anymore about the LCD screen on the P2 store. I just finished my first true battle test in 720p (read paying gig) with the HVX and a p2 store (just one, not 8!) in the field as well; this was one thing that I was wanting to see. It would be cool to see what was on the P2 store without needing to hook up to a computer. Even if it just displayed thumbnails it would have made things a little easier. A picture says a thousand words random clip names mean nothing. Also, a big number with the amount of cards remaining until full would be sweet. I know the system on the p2, but I am not always the one who is offloading the cards. Someone has to shoot and edit! Telling someone who doesn’t understand the system to hit the button twice and count the flashes will only work if that person is interested in learning the system. Sometimes, we aren’t that lucky. This particular project was tight deadline, tight turnaround, run, gun, edit, master and get on a plane back home.

As far as workflow goes, i found the P2 store system to be extremely beneficial. It even survived a PA unplugging it in the middle of a transfer, (I was not happy for that 30 minutes it took to check and see if everything was there). I don’t think we could have done it without it. I guess we could have but it would have been a lot more hassle than I could have trained a producer to do in 2 sentences. WIth the P2 store you tell them to put the card in the slot, hit start and walk away. Make sure those light are flashing when they stop it’s done.

Thanks for taking the time to write this up.

Jeremy

[Chris Mcguinness]

The main event was at night, unfortunately we had to push the gain between 6 & 9 to maintain atleast a 1/60 shutter… so the problem was more motion blur or more gain? In the end the footage looks great, but the stills are not optimal. We brought up the coring level to it’s highest point, reduced detail level and boosted chroma, with cinelike D. This helped to reduce the noticability of the gain and help to make the colors pop. Unfortunately, the HVX seems to have the same problems with reds that the DVX has, a little blockiness… other than that the footage is beautiful and very super 16mm ish.

chris

[Chris Mcguinness]

Hopefully, Panasonic will consider this and introduce a new model of the P2 store at some point… I’d gladdly pay a bit more for an LCD screen.

chris

[James Mulryan]

Chris:
Great post.
How about 160GX2 P2 Store, mirrored and your requested LCD screen. 2.5 X capacity with built in safety. If the drive was mirrored perhaps you could have used one P2 Store instead of 2 per camera. With Panasonic’s cash and engineering, Panasonic should be able to bring said Cine Porterized P2 Store to market pronto.