Remember when at the end of shoot we would hand a box of tapes over to the client. Well thats ancient history. We have been shooting tapeless now for over a decade but many Producers are still not accounting for media transfer time within the shoot day. With different codecs it’s important that both the crew and the client be on the same page. Now the crew needs to be aware of what card or drive they are recording to and which one needs to be moved to a client hard drive or backed up. We need to be ready to download the footage at moment’s notice.
Things Producers Need to Know Before the Shoot
The time constraints of the shoot day have not changed, they are still ten hours on average. However, but now we have to transfer media. So, let’s look at what the client can do to make this part of the shoot go flawlessly.
Talk to the crew before the shoot day. Let the crew know camera settings. Are we shooting 1080, 2k, or 4k? Frame rate? Is it 24p, 25p, 30p, 50i, 60i? Any information that will make the shoot go more efficiently is golden.
Decide if you would like to bring your own hard drive or other acquisition media. Some clients even provide their own P2 or SxS cards. Make sure to bring enough cards for the shoot. If you do this then you can walk away after your last shot, with your cards. If you bring your own hard drive make sure you also have the correct cables and check if it needs to mac or pc compatible. The DP can provide a back-up transfer system and hard drive upon request.
Discuss the codec possibilities with your post house. A good postproduction facility will have the ability to take in any format or codec.
Going into overtime on location can save you money on your production?
Shoot Day
In the past, the crew would shoot to tape and then the editor would spend hours digitizing the footage in the edit bay. There is an associated cost to that time spent in the edit suite too. Now, the crew does this procedure in the field. Transfer times vary and I dare not try to calculate what those times maybe for your shoot. However, I can give you an average of what speed the devices you are using to transfer will do in optimal conditions.
USB 2.0 480mbps
USB 3.0 5Gbps
Firewire 400 400mbps
Firewire 800 786mbps
eSata 1.5-6Gbps
Thunderbolt 10Gbps