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Survivor Set-up
I just tuned into Survivor for the first time in several years, and thought the HD image was gorgeous. I understand that they are now shooting with XDCAM. Does anyone know which cameras, and what they are using to get the very shallow DOF?
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3 Replies
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They’re using PDW-700’s and editing on Avid Unity/Media Composer in LA. I don’t know about how they’re getting a shallow DOF. More info here:
https://digitalcontentproducer.com/hdhdv/depth/dirt_on_survivor_in_hd1014/index.html
– Don
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Thanks Don.
Very good article. It’s interesting that they shoot in 1080p, even though they are delivering in 1080i. -
Yeah, I noticed that too. Which bears out what one of the HD experts (Gary Adcock) has been preaching for awhile now: “Interlaced is a delivery format, not an acquisition format.” I can sort of understand why the Survivor crew is doing what they’re doing because it’s probably not a big deal to do an interlaced version with something like a KONA 3 board at the same time they’re printing a show to tape.
Shooting progressive will future-proof the show for LCD and plasma screens as well as pulling good stills from the footage. Since the PDW-700 cameras don’t shoot native 24p without an add-on piece of firmware (and a PC board too, I think) worth around 4 grand and change their 16 cameras are probably shooting 1080p 30. I don’t even know if the PC board is available yet.
– Don
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