tapeless_workflow

8/3/2019 Tapeless_Workflow

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HD Video Workflow in a Tapeless, Digital DomainLarry Engel, F 2010

This is a brief description of how to approach location production using tapelesscameras. This applies to the Sony EX-1 and Panasonic HPX-170, Canon 5D and 7D, all

HD cameras, but also may be applied to other cameras.Whatever you do with tapeless media, this is about as simple as I can state two thingsnot to do:1. DON ̓ T USE FCP TO BRING MEDIA FROM YOUR CAMERAS OR CARDS ONTO A

HARD DRIVE AS A FIRST STEP.2. DON ̓ T DRAG AND DROP THE MEDIA FOLDERS ONTO A HARD DRIVE, EVER.

Okay, why these warnings?

Background and Workflows:

3. Tapeless workflows are significantly different from those involving tape. With tape, the

master tape is constant and unless thereʼs an accident, it remains viable as a backupfor several years. Normally in the tapeless world once a card (SxS, SDHC, Compact

Flash [CF], or P2) is cloned or copied to another drive, it is erased or reformatted inthe camera or on the computer for reuse. That means that your original is gone. Withtape, after you digitize the media (in the field or back in post-production), you stillhave the original media on the tape.

4. Often the single most overlooked element is that of creating a backup of the media onlocation or at the studio. Often only one copy is made during production and a backupto it is done later. This is risky. It is important to make two copies of all media downloaded or cloned during production. DON ̓ T WAIT TO BACKUP! DO IT ON THE SPOT!

5. This means that you need double the space for storage, and either two drives or aRAID 1 Array. You should determine how many gigabytes or terabytes you will need

during production before you can copy the field drives onto another set of drives (or ifthe field drives will become your editing drives, but more on this later).

6. Drives. There are some choices to make here.a. I have used two systems that are described next but now prefer the RAID 1

ARRAY with sleds (removable hard drives in a small housing).i. Using two mini-portable, bus-powered USB or Firewire drives. I usually

am going out with 500 GB drives. They are still the most reliable ones availablebut 650 and 1 TB are out there now too. I have been a big fan of G-tech drivesover La Cie. La Cie produces a “rugged” drive that many use. It is a triple-interface drive (USB, Firewire 800 and Firewire 400). G-tech also has thetriple interface, although I believe both need external power supplies to drivethe USB port. Whatever you do, avoid dragging and dropping media from the camera cards to the hard drives.

I am now using a less expensive drive for this kind of field use. There areseveral heavy-duty hard drives that are USB only. There is no real reason tospend the money on Firewire, unless you wish to have higher data-copyspeeds, in which case you should consider a Firewire 800/400 triple interfacehard drive that runs at 7200rpm rather than 5400rpm. (You should use thissuggestion for editing in particular.)

This is true if you are only using these field drives for media acquisition.



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FCP does require Firewire connectivity. (Remember too that you will be using a lot of space on the hard drive when you ingest the raw media into FCP and you will then have both your original and your Capture Scratch on the same drive, which is not a good thing to do.)

I use A-Data drives (with the software program noted below, Shotput Pro), 500

GB for under $100. They are shock resistant and waterproof when not pluggedin. They also have a very small footprint. Some other good, small, reliabledrives that I have used include the G-tech series of bus-powered drives, La CieRugged (although I am not a big fan), and On-the-Go Pro drives.

500 GB drives are tried and true while 1 TB drives are coming up in reliability.The costs are constantly coming down. Before buying you should analyze yourmemory needs in two domains: One is field acquisition and backing up ofmedia; two is post-production. In post-production there are also different setsof requirements, sorry. The first is for backing up the field media (originalmedia files) and the second is the consideration for the editing hard drive(s)that will hold the QuickTime Capture Scratch files with which you edit in FCP.

But we will leave post-production for the moment and get back to field work.

b. Using Disk Utility (Apple), you create a .dmg (under “New Image” in the barmenu of Disk Utility). This creates a verified copy of the original card and isconsidered a mountable disk rather than a folder. This is extremely importantwhen working with Canon media, otherwise you will lose free-run time code wheningesting into FCP and all clips will have 00:00:00:00 TC. (For Canon media,please download a free plug-in for FCP that can be found at Appleʼs website.)

Make sure to change the name of the .dmg every time so that you do notinadvertently replace a previously created .dmg. The only problem is that whenthe .dmg is mounted the original file name, not the saved name comes up, whichmeans that you have a lot of “EOS Media” drives mounted.

You then repeat the process on your other drive. To save time, but at some risk,you can drag and drop the .dmg to the second drive.

c. Using the camera manufacturerʼs software. Both Sony and Panasonic providefree drivers and media management software from their websites. Make sure thatyou download and install drivers (for FCP and your OS) as well as themanagement software. Sonyʼs is called XDCam EX Clip Browser, whilePanasonicʼs is P2CMS.

Here you open the appropriate camera card and create a destination on the firsthard drive (usually a folder that clearly identifies the project and/or date). Always double-check you ̓ re destination folder ̓ s name and location! There are a

variety of preferences that you can use to create folder names (date, time, etc.),so please look that over before you start cloning to be consistent down the roadand so that you can avoid renaming folders, which only leads to confusion.

You select all the clips or those that you want to clone and start the cloning. Bothof these programs verify the copy and announce any errors.

After cloning is complete, you will have to change your location disk and create asame-named folder on the second hard drive to create your backup. (See belowfor RAID 1 procedures that avoid this step.)



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d. Using third-party software with verification. The only program that I use andlike when using two independent hard drives is Shotput Pro (around $100 for twoinstalls, one for your laptop, another for your tower if you use one). The great thingabout Shotput Pro is that, once you set up your two destination hard drives, theprogram automatically clones your camera card media to both drives. And theprogram verifies the cloning.

7. Using RAID 1 Array drives in the field. Instead of using two portable drives forcloning and backing up your camera media, here you use a 2-sled Raid Array set upfor mirroring or whatʼs called RAID 1. When you use any of the above software(except with the RAID you donʼt use Shotput Pro) the media is written to both drivesat once. This doesnʼt necessarily save you time, but it does guarantee that you arecorrectly creating two copies that are identical for future use without having to doublethe labor and to constantly question your workflow.a. I use CalDigit VR-Mini RAID Arrays (1 TB in RAID 0, 500 GB in RAID 1). They are

a bit pricey, a bit over $600 dollars each. This includes the housing and two 500GB sleds. The Mini uses bus power so there are no power supplies. It is also hasa very small footprint, about the same size as the G-tech or La Cie Rugged and isa little more than twice as high. There are other such RAIDs out there but I am notfamiliar with them. The good news is that the sleds are only around $125 each for

extras ( you buy them in pairs).b. In the professional world where youʼre out on location for an extended period, you

would fill up the RAIDs, then send one sled back to the office and keep the otherone on location. Post-production would then clone (with verification) the mediafrom the sled to a new, larger hard drive/RAID. This then means that the officehas to have another VR-Mini or housing. After the media is cloned onto a newdrive, the media is finally ingested into FCP (on yet another hard drive, this onededicated to editing and not to storage or backup). Some companies andbroadcasters will ask that you have a second hard drive copy of the originalmedia, but for thesis and general use, if you have one hard drive with the originalmedia and one drive with the ingested media as QuickTimes you should be okay.However for real safety, a second drive that houses the original media is a goodidea.

c. After cloning and ingesting, the original field-sled can be sent back or used in thefield and all media erased on both drives.

d. Finally, make sure that your backups are stored separately from your workingdrives! You donʼt want to keep the backup in the editing room or where the otherworking drives are stored, such as your house or apartment. And keep a log of themedia, and label everything (including the housings and sleds) clearly and well.

8. Do not use FCP or another editing program when taking media off originalcards. FCP will strip the metadata and replace it with a QuickTime shell. Further theprogram will re-compress the media with another codec (at least in certain instances,such as AVCHD, or the Canon media). This creates two basic problems. One, it canlead to errors and corruption that will not be noted until itʼs too late. Two, it will take a

long time, longer than cloning will take.9. By using cloning software that allows for verification, you will be assured that theclone is viable and that your files are in good shape for later ingesting into FCP orAVID, or other editing software. Verification is a critical component of field work!

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