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MillimeterNew York Film Academy Invests In Panasonic’s AG-HVX200 Ultra-Versatile, Solid-State HD Camcorders For Instruction And Production
May 23, 2006 8:00 AM
Considered one of the most innovative fixtures of film education in the world, the New York Film Academy (NYFA), with campuses in Manhattan; Universal Studios; and St. Catherine's College, Oxford University, recently purchased 12 Panasonic handheld, production-quality AG-HVX200 DVCPRO HD camcorders.
NYFA workshops offer an intensive, hands-on experience that gives students the opportunity to develop their creative skills to the fullest extent possible. In all filmmaking workshops, each student writes, produces, directs, and edits his own films. In addition, they each assist other members of the crew in the roles of director of photography and assistant camera-person, providing all with extensive set experience. NYFA is an accredited post-secondary school, and all courses can be taken for college credit.
Students check out their camera (HVX200, Panasonic AG-DVX100 series or Arriflex 16mm) and lighting packages on Friday morning, and return them Monday morning for their exercise films. For their final films, they check out cameras for 10 days. The editing room is open 24 hours a day in most Film Academy locations; 200 Final Cut Pro editing stations are available at various NYFA sites.
The HVX200 uniquely combines multiple high-definition and standard-definition formats, multiple recording modes and variable frames rates, and the vast benefits of P2 solid-state memory recording in a rugged, compact design. The DVCPRO HD P2 camcorder offers contribution-quality HD with independent intra-frame encoding, 4:2:2 color sampling, and less compression, making HD content easier and faster to edit and more able to stand up to image compositing versus long GOP MPEG-2 systems.
“Above all, our students are storytellers, and the technologies we choose must serve the art of narration,” says NYFA provost/director of education Michael Young. “Our students have been successfully using 100+ DVX100 series cameras for years, and we selected them because they bore a relationship to celluloid—their 24p image quality is filmic and conducive to telling a story.
“In evaluating a move to HD, we didn’t find HDV options genuinely a different format from DV. The HVX200, on the other hand, is a real production-quality HD camera, akin to the Panasonic VariCam HD, likewise with variable frame rate shooting. It seemed a logical camera at our level, and makes it economically possible for us to expose students to highly-portable, handheld HD acquisition.”
Salvatore Interlandi is an instructor at NYFA who teaches subjects that range from Cinematography, Camera Introduction (DV, 16mm), Lighting, Production, and Directing. He has been working with the HVX200 and using it to teach HD acquisition to students since the equipment was delivered in February. Student filmmakers in New York have already shot several thesis-level narrative shorts with the cameras. Eight cameras have been assigned to the New York campus, four to Los Angeles.
“The HVX200 allows the new student filmmaker to work in the HD world earlier—the camera makes it more accessible to reach a higher-quality picture, and reduces the cost to achieve that image. And the solid-state medium challenges the filmmaker to go back to a more decisive and economical approach to shooting,” Interlandi says.
“With the HVX200, a filmmaker who wants to shoot on HD no longer has to pass through a transfer house to get his footage into data, making him ultimately more efficient and independent. The camera advances a technology that will finally put the cassette tape to rest,” Interlandi says
One of the NYFA student crews was headed up by director Antoine Manceaux and Director of Photography Alex Kosutic, shooting a short called The Day All Women Loved Me, with locations throughout New York. According to Manceaux, “The HVX200 is, without any doubt, a revolution. Concerning the quality of the picture, the workflow rhythm, post-production possibilities, the gain of time and money... filmmaking has just become a little easier. Some elements and issues of filmmaking remain the same across the ages, but when it comes to the technical achievement of the image itself, the composition of the frame, the lighting or even the editing, the P2 technology allows the director, equipped simply with a PowerBook on set, to immediately see how it looks, if the shots are matching with each other. No more dailies—you might as well call them ‘minute-ies’ now, as that’s how quickly you’re viewing images in full quality.
“The assistant cameraman who takes care of the P2 upload into the computer becomes like an on-set editor. All the shots are going directly into Final Cut Pro, and the editing starts on set! No more waiting for the next day [like film], no more log and capture [like mini-DV], just P2 and everything's there, almost ready to screen."
DP Kosutic noted, "Since the HVX200 hit the market, I’ve been hearing people questioning the cost of P2 cards. This is what I have to say to them: When shooting on to Mini DV, pros usually only use the tape once. Would you rather buy 16,000 DV tapes or one 4GB P2 card? I choose P2."
Students typically shoot in the 720 24pN mode, which uses the least amount of card space. NYFA purchased 16 4GB cards for instruction, and many of the student crews supplement these with their own purchase of P2 cards. Typically, students will import P2 material through their PowerBooks’ PCI slot and edit on FCP, either in the field or at the school’s edit rooms. Present finishing techniques include downconverting to burn DVDs or output to DV tape, though Interlandi indicated that some students were likely to do tape-to-tape transfers onto the higher cassette formats—DVCPRO HD, HDCAM, D1, e.g.
“Color correction can be done from the drive, and then on to tape, or blown up to a print if needed and if the money is there,” he noted.
Both Young and Interlandi pointed out that the availability of affordable HD-DVDs will facilitate students’ distribution of HD. “Then they can output something as good as what they shoot,” Young says.
Interlandi added, “What I tell students and colleagues about the HVX200 is shoot, shoot some more, edit, and do tests, but be excited about the potential that the camera gives a filmmaker... and the independence, efficiency, and quality of image.”
The ultra-versatile HVX200 records in 1080i and 720p in production-proven 100Mbps DVCPRO HD-quality, with the ability to capture images in 21 record modes. The DVCPRO HD format offers users cost-effective, intra-frame compression, where each frame stands on its own for editing, and its full 4:2:2 color sampling allows the image to hold up under color correction. The camera records video on a P2 card as IT-friendly MXF files in 1080/60i, 30p, and 24p; in 720/60p, 30p, and 24p; in 50Mbps DVCPRO50; and in 25Mbps DVCPRO or DV. The HVX200 can capture fast or slow action in 720p at various frame rates—the first time this function is available in a handheld camera. The shooting frame rate in 720p native mode can be set for any of 11 steps between 12fps and 60fps including 24fps and 30fps.
For more information on the AG-HVX200, visit www.panasonic.com/hvx200.
