HD Expo —July 19-20, 2007

HD EXPO PRESENTS: P2 WORKFLOW WORKSHOP

Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles Center Studios

By Rob Goald - August 6, 2007
Photos by Ryan Miller, Capture Imaging

“Evolving a free form non-linear image workflow” was the goal of the P2 Workflow Workshop held last month in Los Angeles and workshop fulfilled that aspiration beautifully.

Starting with a cursory historical overview of W.K.L Dickson and Thomas Alva Edison’s kinetophonograph establishing film in 1891, Ray Dolby and the Ampex crowd inventing video in 1956, and the Coen Brothers’  “O Brother Where Art Thou” (2000) as being the first film to undergo the DI process, the workshop examined what is meant by P2.

The workshop was conducted as a dialogue among several working Hollywood -based cinematographers (Sony Behar and George Yamamoto) and several post production professionals (Stephen Beres and Ian Vertovec).  The leader of this gang of four was Stephen  Beres whose title is Chief Technical Officer of Plaster City Digital Post while Vertovec is Chief Colorist at the same firm.

To kick things off the question was asked is P2 a codec? A format? A file type? Or Storage?  The answer is that P2 is a professional plug-in that it is a compact, solid state memory card with   large capacity, high speed, and a RAID controller.  It comes in varying storage capacities from 4GB to 32 GB with 64 GB in the near future. 

P2 is very stable with solid state reliability and no moving parts to break and maintain.  It has the added advantage of no drop outs, head clogs or missing time code and provides true tapeless workflow.

P2 is flexible supporting DVCPROHD/50/25 and AVC-Intra options.  It is a native mode recording format with frame rates 24, 30, 60 and even variable supported.  It is a true non-linear acquisition format with no digitizing necessary. It supports fast IT file based workflow or HDSDI workflow.

P2 is file based and you can easily control file-based content on hard disk or other archive media.  P2 can actually be seen as full DVCPROHD video with your computer’s video card.  And you can easily share files over high speed networks, or ship disk or DLT tapes.

P2 is production friendly and supports advantages in acquisition and post production.  The cinematographer can shoot with hot swappable media that is resistant to vibration, shock, x-ray, dust, moisture, cold and does not face wear and alignment issues one finds with tape.  For the editor, P2 allows a file- based workflow which is more efficient and convenient to use.  For the producer, P2 eliminates disposable media costs and creates a beautiful image. 

P2 is very efficient for post.  It creates file based workflows that are fast and economical.  You do need vtrs, routers and other video equipment.  P2 HD file content is instantly accessible and the P2 MXF file is a great source for content deliverables.

P2 is a green format. It’s reusable, renewable and recyclable.  A P2 card can be used approximately 30,000 times in any kind of weather.

In summary, P2 has the following attributes:

• Speed: Up to 640Mb/s I/O
• Efficient: 4 SD Modules in RAID-O Array
• Production friendly: PCMCIA Type-II 32 bit Card Bus
• Green: handles over 30,000 insert/remove cycles
• Increasing Capacity: 4GB, 8GB, 16GB, 32GB(2008)

The workshop moved to review the entire family of P2 camcorders, drives and storage devices starting with the most inexpensive base model the AG-HVX200 P2 HD camcorder going all the way up to the stratospheric AJ-HPX3000 camcorder which will retail for 48k.  For the purposes of this review I’m going to focus on the two camcorders which the majority of FFT readers working on micro and mini-budget films will be able to afford.

For around 6k, the AG-HVX200 P2HD is a wonderful imaging tool providing a heck of a lot of capability for a relatively entry level HD camcorder.  The HVX200 is format agnostic with the ability to record DVC PRO HD, DVCPRO50, DVC PRO, DV and at the following frame rates: 24P, 24PN, 30P, 30PN, 60P, 60i.  Altogether the camcorder has 21 different frame rates/ format combinations with 4:2:2 color space sampling structure in the DVC formats. The HVX200 is so versatile it can even record to DV tape which has 4:2:0 color space a significant weakness in comparison to DVCPRO’s 4:2:2.

For an addition 8k, Panasonic has introduced in 2007 a full-sized, beefed-up version of the HVX200 labeled the AG-HPX500 P2 HD camcorder.  If a low budget, indie feature film is in your sights than this is the baby you want.  With 2/3” progressive CCDs with H-V Spatial Offset and interchangeable lenses and 4 P2 slots this is one serious image making tool. With 4:2:2 color space, independent frame encoding, eleven steps between 12 fps and 60fps and ability to record in 32 HD and SD formats, HPX500 is the finest under 20k on the market. Break-out sessions at the end of each day allowed workshop participants to shoot with the Panasonic P2 family of products with a Panasonic representative available to answer any technical questions.

The workshop then moved to discuss the economy of P2. With PowerPoint slides, the “gang of three” (one member disappearing)outlined  the cost effectiveness of going tapeless with bottom line costs for HD tape coming in at $53,000, uncompressed tapeless at $118,000 and P2 tapeless at $40,500.  P2 introduces an approximately 15% cost reduction in post production service line items when compared to HD tape.  P2 also eliminates on lining and digitizing, which compresses the post schedule by an overall minimum of 5 to 10 days. 

The next topic of significance was P2 file structure.  MXF Master File Structure was outlined in detail for acquisition and the P2 File Tree explained.  What is meant by Metadata and data rates were defined with graphic representation.  Knowing the right time to deliver 1080 for 720 was outlined for film, HDTV and news or documentary.

The eponymous title of the workshop was the next order of business. Film and video workflow were first outlined as comparison for the P2 Workflow which was defined as:

Shoot P2-----Import P2MXF Media--------Edit media in native format-----Finish and Output Tape Master.  Sample P2 Workflows were provided as examples in Power Point and it was stressed that P2 gives you immediate random access to footage. Compression was discussed for DVCPro 50; DVCPro HD and tomorrow’s AVC intra was introduced.

A compression overview was outlined comparing inter-frame compression, intra-frame compression and wavelet compression. Compression formats such as DVCPRO, AVC-Intra, AVC {H.264} in context were discussed in detail. 

To end day one’s agenda, acquisition was addressed for both short form (music video, commercials) and narrative long form.  The modus operandi of barebones, one-step up from barebones and large budget with crew were outlined.  The P2 store-AJ-PCS060G was discussed as well as The FireStore.  The details of The FireStore include its ability to record over 100 minutes of DVC PROHD at full frame rate or 250 minutes at 24PN. 

To wrap day one, on set data management was elaborated upon.  P2 cards are transferred as Disk Images to capture station hard drive and the media is burned to Blu-ray Disc for back-up and or firewire drive.  The Media is imported into Final Cut Pro or Avid Xpress, Avid Media Composer, Canopus Edius, Matrox Axio, Adobe Premiere, Vegas, removing the MXF wrapper so the native DVCProHD can be edited.  Also an on set Feature Film Workflow was explained as well on-set workflow choices and on-set editing and workflow helper tools such as HDLOG, DVFILM Raylight and P2Genie.

DAY 2:

Every good workshop demystifies the process for the attendee and P2 Workflow began its second day debunking the Top 10 digital misunderstandings which are:

• HDV has a higher bit rate per second than MiniDV
• DVC ProHD (P2) native recording is uncompressed HD
• There is no visible difference between 8 bit and 10 bit
• There is no visible difference between 4:2:2 and 4:4:4
• The FCC’s Digital Mandate requires High Definition broadcasting
• 3X the resolution equals 3X the price
• 1080 and 2K are a significant difference and/or industry standards
• P2 and DVCPro tape are different qualities
• 24fps is for film mastering and 23.98fps is for video mastering
• Just copying a P2 card to your laptop is fine for making a backup

All of the above statements are false although there are debatable issues among some of them.

The Workshop segued into a case study of a film called “Switchfoot” with an analysis of workflow and a screening of the finished work.

The next big topic tackled was storage with a bevy of valuable information dispensed about both short and long term archiving.  On the short term side IT based workflow allows for multiple archive strategies including optical disc and hard drives with the caveat that easy content retrieval is mandatory. In long term archiving IT based workflow allows for multiple archive strategies including data tape and hard drives with long data life the most important factor.

So, what is the most reliable storage format? The answer is that motion picture film is the only format that has a proven shelf life.  Film is also the most compatible format worldwide.

For data tape storage the “MXF Aware” Data Tapes made by Quantum are among the world’s best.  The Quantum SDLT 600A Data Tape Deck provides fast access to metadata, content by time code, can create a new MXF file with sub clip and is a tape based file system.

The Workshop moved on to examine The Big Picture taking the images acquisitioned in P2 all the way to HD D5 Digital Masters and either exhibition prints or deliverables.

Finally wrapping up Day 2 the workshop’s last major topic of editing was discussed and demonstrated in small group break-out sessions.  Final Cut Dos and Don’ts and Avid operating procedures were the topics of issue.  A case study of a film called “Childless” was the last topic of what was a thorough and comprehensive inaugural P2 Workflow Workshop.  I highly recommend your attendance.  The course included a 10 Part Course Workbook which contains copies of all the Powerpoint slides, Sample Workflows, Budgets, Archiving Presentation, Firestore, P2 Naming, Storage Networks, Panasonic P2 White Papers and Reference as well as an APPENDIX with a Glossary of all the key terms.  Go to the URL:  http://www.hdexpo.net/education/p2/p2.html to find the location, date and time P2 Workflow Workshop will visit your area.