Panasonic Vari Cam HD editing

I'm considering using a Panasonic Vari Cam for a future project. I come from a film background, majority of my projects have been shot on 16mm. Yet recently Ive been very impressed with what Ive seen of the Vari Cam. I currently edit with FCP 4.5. Ultimately the project will be completed for a DVD release and possibly go to television. I want to shoot in 16.9 but I'll also be mixing in stock footage that'll be 4.3.
I currently have a 1.8G G5 with 1G of memory. Is my computer suffeciant to work with HD media??also what kind of hard drives will I need to work with??? I was told I'll need G Raid drives (whats a G Raid drive)??? Any suggestions on what I'll need to up grade to with my editing suite???
Also if you have any experience with a Vari Cam what do you think???

I have this on the Vericam.

[www.kenstone.net]

--ken

There is that terrific article...and I am editing a DVCPRO HD project for The History Channel and chronicling my exploits at www.lfhd.net.

I have a Dual 2Ghz G5, and all my media is on (2) 500GB G-Raids.

Your machine sill be fine, but you need more memory. And I'd suggest working with FCP 5.

Thank you guys for your input... I'll check out the articles ASAP...

Why do you suggest upgrading to 5.0??
What G-Raid Drives do you recommend???
How much memory are you running???
Have you run into any tricks or snags in your post with the DVCPro format??
One last question; what do you suggest I do about editing in 16.9 and incorporating 4.3 footage??

I do a lot of VariCam editing in DVCProHD native format. As video goes, results can be excellent, but it's tricky to work with. It stacks up well against 16mm (certainly a lot steadier). It's not as good as 35. IMHO I'd say it's fine for broadcast, docus, corporates, most music videos and some commercial work. It's not a cinema format, at least not without extensive and expensive polishing in post. The only video camera out there that does cinema truly well is the Arri D-20, but that's rocket science, and not a fair comparison.

The main reason to use the Varicam is for it's off-speed capability (although that may change in the near future). Plus, when you say Varicam, you're also automatically talking DVCProHD, which is the proprietary codec. There is a learning curve starting with the camera itself, continuing through the various methods of frame rate conversion through to edit and output. Dealing with the audio is also an issue.

Andrew Ballis' article at Kenstone.net is an excellent primer. You also need to go over to panasonic.com and download the Varicam and Frame Rate Conversion pdf's to read up on the differences between software and hardware frame rate conversion methods (there are limitations to the software route) as well as to have a look at the DVCProHD decks (the 1200a and the 1700) and the FRC27 Frame Rate Converter.

This will sound real obvious, but preparing for a Varicam project requires a good bit of planning and good communications between the editor and cam dept. The Varicam is far more complicated than shooting DV, HDV or DigiBeta. On your first time out, I'd strongly recommend hiring a good 1stAC who has both studio and exterior experience with the camera. Correct gamma and contrast settings in all lighting situations are crucial to photographing consistent quality. There is a Varicam forum over at creativecow well worth browsing through to get an idea of some of the pitfalls.

Re your rig: the 1.8 G5 is sufficient. I'd definetly go for FCP Studio, it's a relatively inexpensive upgrade for a huge package that will substantially increase your capabilities now and in the future. By far the best deal out there for any NLE, bar none. You do need more RAM. 2.5 GB total will cover it. The good news is that you can run DVCProHD in full 1080 resolution from a FW800 drive easily. A Raid is of course better from a backup point of view, but not a requirement. You can even capture to an external FW800 drive directly provided that the drive is not on the G5's built-in FW bus, but rather on a separate FW800 card (only costs about $75). At the high end (say 1080i60 at 29.97) figure on about 50GB per hour of disk space needed for storage. A cheap simple tried and proven method is to capture to a second internal drive, do your frame rate conversions there, and then copy the converted material to an external FW800 drive and edit from that.

You will need a monitoring setup though. If budget it tight, put your money there first. I use a Blackmagic Design HDPlus with an HDLink and a 24" Cinema Display. It's about the cheapest solution available at the moment. AJA/Kona apparently works well too. Some people like the 24" Dell. Whatever, you can of course capture and edit DVCProHD in FCP5 (you don't need an HD card for capture) but definetly need an external monitor for the same reasons as with DV or HDV.

Depending on your delivery format (Tape, DVD, File), there are a number of methods for mastering DVCProHD. If you search this forum you'll find a few. Most involve dropping the sequence into an 8Bit or 10Bit uncompressed timeline and rendering output files in 16:9 or letterboxed or SD etc. etc. Depending on the length of your cut, that can be the way to go. Otherwise, you can of course output back to DVCProHD tape, and send that to a post house for subsequent transfer to deliverables.

>>One last question; what do you suggest I do about editing in 16.9 and incorporating 4.3 footage??<< There are apparently some upconversion methods ($$$) in the pipeline, and although of interest still have the basic problem of the conflicting framing or if blown up from 4:3 to 16:9 fullscreen, loss of photographic composition. It will always be an apples and oranges kind of situation. Only way around it is to solve the issue creatively either with splitscreen cuts or background imagery or graphics to avoid the 4:3 material appearing pillarboxed.

HTH,
Clay

Upgrading to 5.0 isn't absolutely necessary. You can edit DVCPRO HD with 4.5. BUT...if you ever get any footage from the DVX-200 on P2 cards (also DVCPRO HD) then you are gonna need FCP 5 to import that footage. Also, the integration between Motion and Soundtrack is greatly improved.

The G-Raid IS the drive I recommend...it is firewire 800 and 400. Other are called other things, like the Q drive or the G-drive. There are G-SATA drives that also work well. An External SATA Raid will be a G-Raid, but a G-Raid has good portability between machines, which I need.

I am running 2.5 GB of RAM. Soon to go up to 3.5.

Snags? Read my blog...www.lfhd.net.

about the 16:9 and 4:3 issue, you have to determine what format you will deliver. if you choose 16:9, know that the image from the 4:3 format will SERIOUSLY drop in quality, as you have to blow up the 4:3 to fit into the 16:9 dimensions. If you have a lot of 4:3, I'd suggest making your make footaeg 4:3 as well.

A thought for you - with Varicam of HVX200 you can use Firewire as DVCPRO HD can utilize one 10 MB/sec stream and as long as you choose to shoot and edit ONLY DVCPRO HD, then Firewire is a good fit.

However, If you are ever thinking about going to any other HD uncompressed format, the Firewire solution will not work.

Consider one other solution for futures. Serial ATA (SATA) internal or external RAID drives. It is my opinion that Firewire is a great way to transport any video content around on, it isn't the BEST way to capture and edit from.

While a 1 TB Firewire RAID is going to cost you around $1000, you could install a 2.0 TB (4 drive) SATA solution for under $2000 and have a more reliable solution for your edit station. If you need to go external only then a 1 to 2 TB SATA raid would cost you about the same as Firewire.

While may are enamored with the ease of use for Firewire it also presents potential roadblocks for future operations.

A few more ramblings:

The Panasonic AJ1200a deck will also play directly into FCP via FW400, provided that the deck has the optional FW card installed. At around $25.000, it's an expensive purchase, but there are enough of them around (at least in my neck of the woods) that rental prices are reasonable.

One of the very good things about DVCProHD is that entry level usage runs fine on FW. I would recommend newbies (as in the original posting on this thread) start there to gain practice and experience with the codec and frame rate conversion methods. The path up to uncompressed and HDI is always a future option.

HVX-200: I certainly hope that this is the camera we've all been waiting for and gives us the upgrade to HD from DV that HDV was touted to be, but isn't. Afaik the HVX-200 is FW out only (no HDI), or of course P2. Panasonic seems to have recognized the ongoing need for the entry level FW functionality, leaving the jump up to HDI within the same codec open to those at the higher end of things. Very smart move.

And of course, it's the only video system (other than the Arri D-20) with off-speed capabitlity. That particular engineering trick is the heart of the DVCProHD codec. For director's and dp's coming from film, it's the only reason to shoot DVCProHD in the first place. Sony, JVC and Cannon missed the boat.

I was always kind of confused as to why DVCProHD was kept proprietary. With the HVX-200 it all becomes clear. Quite a product marketing coup imho provided that the camera performs as advertised. It could well send HDV straight to the consumer shelves, relegating it also to its orignally intended role as the HD DVD codec.