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Shoot & What!? (3 months continuous shoot)

LeKiD

LeKiD

macrumors regular
Original poster
Aug 31, 2007
213
0
Hi guys! I'll be catching some footage from some far away places and I need to send the footage back to the studio. I'll be taking approximatly 8 hours of footage per day on a Xh-A1. Now I need to send all that footage 1080 back there while I'm on the trip. What's the best way to do it? If I use FS-4 Hard drive is there a good way to transfer everything I've shot. Sending by mail is not an option.

Thanks!
 
This is really something the studio should work out for you. How big is this studio? The big guys use satellite or the intarwebs for such things. But either way, you're gonna need one hell of a fat pipe.

The firestores are good, as long as you also make sure to roll tape just in case. Getting them off the Firestore is a simple drag-n-drop. But do realize these are already compressed to a native format, so make sure you know what they're editing with first.
 
Like ppc_michael said, this is really something you need to talk to the people you are sending the footage too 'cause xfering around 100gigs of data at the end of the each day isn't going to be small task.


Lethal
 
LethalWolfe said:
Like ppc_michael said, this is really something you need to talk to the people you are sending the footage too 'cause xfering around 100gigs of data at the end of the each day isn't going to be small task.


Lethal
Click to expand...

I read an article once that discussed how Google moves around 100's of gigs of data. In the end, they have an über fat series of tubes, but their preferred method of transferring large amounts of data quickly, cheaply, and efficiently, is to just copy it to a hard drive and FedEd it. As long as you have a backup, it shouldn't be a problem.

As an aside, when they were filming the Lord of the Rings movies, they moved the video footage from New Zealand to Hollywood on iPods.
 
The only way to move 8 hrs of 1080 footage from one place to another efficiently is to either, compress it down and upload it to a storage site like Box.net; or to email them the HDDs and keep a backup on either another HDD or tape. Then charge them for the HDDs of course.

I don't see any mere human waiting by a computer to make sure 100 GBs of info made it safely across the web at 100kbps (12.5 Mbps).
 
Yes, I also read that for CERN or some other multi-national scientific organization that regularly transfers several TB / week of data, their usual method is to get a cheap tower server, stuff it full of disks, fill the disks with data, and just mail the whole thing.

When it arrives, it only needs to be plugged in, as all the interfaces and cards are already in the machine, and it's up and working. It can then be mailed back for reuse or on to the next recipient with new data.

I think there are also people that do this between the East and West Coast of the USA, it being faster and more workable than sending it over the net.
 
RedTomato said:
Yes, I also read that for CERN or some other multi-national scientific organization that regularly transfers several TB / week of data, their usual method is to get a cheap tower server, stuff it full of disks, fill the disks with data, and just mail the whole thing.

When it arrives, it only needs to be plugged in, as all the interfaces and cards are already in the machine, and it's up and working. It can then be mailed back for reuse or on to the next recipient with new data.

I think there are also people that do this between the East and West Coast of the USA, it being faster and more workable than sending it over the net.
Click to expand...

I have heard this method used for simple tasks as well. Photographers in other countries upload their select still images to the news agency servers for timeliness, but when it comes to the RAW files they mail DVDs or small portable HDDs full of info to their home agency or even to friends in the industry. Since the price per gig of HDD storage has come down so much it isn't that bad an option, and except for the postage, it's pretty inexpensive.
 
LeKiD, it would be helpful to know what you are shooting with. Because you talk about P2 cards, makes me believe you are shooting with HVX-200's, am I right? If you are, it is important to remember a few things. First, HVX's shoot MXF files and the entire card has to be intact (file system) for import. Second, when I shoot with my HVX it takes about 1GB a minute in either 720p or 1080i mode. Depending on where you are going and if you will have power, it may be possible to purchase a few large HDD and just Fedex them back to the studio when full. Without a little more info on what you are doing, shooting, your location, and amenities it is hard to help you.

JohnMC
 
Three months continuously? That is one hell of a project. ;)

I don't know that you'll just be able to buy something to do this. You might have to do a bit of hacking.

Right off the top of my head, I'm thinking maybe you could buy a Firestore, and then buy a whole bunch of hard drives and RAID them together somehow? Still, 3 months of non-stop HD is going to be terabytes and terabytes so that would be expensive.
 
Are you still planning on shooting 8hrs a day and is sending packages back still not an option? 2 cameras times 8hrs a day times 90 days is a whole lotta footage. Are you going to be moving around a lot (like traveling all over the place) or primarily staying in one location (so always come back to your hotel room/home base at night to dump your footage)?

Like JohnMC said, we need more details.


Lethal
 
If you're shooting off an A1, just record to tape and mail them the tapes.

Let the studio people deal with capturing and archiving/editing.

You're hired to shoot (8 hours a day at that). Just do your job. Don't take on more than you need to. I'd be surprised if you make it past 2 weeks. I've done 6 8-hour shoots (some days 10) in a row before. I slept very well and was drained for the next week. Hope you have a good crew. They make all the difference in the world.
 
I know you said sending by mail is not an option, but frankly, I don't see what other options you have for sending back 1080 footage. If it's that important, then tell the company to sort it out for you.

Couriers (DHL etc) work most places, and are probably more reliable and faster than local mail. I also agree with Seany916, stick to doing one job. Do the shooting as best as you can, send the tapes back and let someone else sort out the transferral.

It would help if you were clearer about the contract terms. Are you working alone or in a team? Is it 1st world or third world? In a city or in a desert or out in a national park?

Are you contracted to just shoot, or also to transfer to disk? (8 hrs / day is a LOT to transfer to disk) Is transporting it back your responsibility too?
 
It would be travelling and we would not know necessarily where we will end up. So basically, we are always on the move. I would go with the equipment (camera HD format) that would permit me to handle that footage the best way possible.
 
If you are constantly on the move I think you'd want to shoot on tape or, if you can afford it, XDCAM HD. Humping HDDs around for three months is just asking for them to fail, IMO. Also, I don't know what country you are shooting in, but you don't want to stop for the night and not be able to transfer footage off your P2 cards or Firestore 'cause there's no available power.


Lethal
 
OH the suspense!

I'd love to hear what all this project entails. Details, sir, please give us details.
 
Details hein! I'm just out of film school... and I'm looking for the best way to produce this crazy tv series. I'm still struggling on finding the right partner ship. Any investors around here!? :) I can't really detail the project on here but let's just say that it is hard to plan!
 
Where i work we are currently producing 3x 30min prog filmed on location in Georgia (Easter Europe) this was 2 weeks filming and about 6 day per prog editing. The previous programe in the series was 1x 30min in Berlin where we shot about 30 x40 min of Digibeta. Based on this we figured that will be 90 tape to carry around easter europe!

We decided to shoot P2 record on a Firedrive at DV ( this is what we edit at in FCP as it is the transmission server format) at the end of the day they transferred the media to 2x Lacie 1TB via laptops.
When it came to edit we just plugged the drives into the Mac,

The overall advantage to this method of working was less to carry in the way of tapes, 2 Lacies are a lot smaller than 90 tapes!! The 2 Drives were also a lot cheaper to buy than tapes. The producer was able to easy view, log and organize the footage on the laptops at the end of day as well as do rough cuts. Once they got back to the edit suit they were ready to go as they didn't need to digitize the footage in. aprox 50hr!

Overall we though the project was a success, and worked out cheaper with the saving of tape cost and edit suite + operator to digitize the footage.

With the original posters problem, I can only suggest feeding the footage via satellite back to the studio, sending HD back on a regular basis or Editing on location and sending final programs back.
 
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