The Producer Report: ENG


drives and they need power because you don’t need to be running out of laptop battery when transferring critical rushes in the field,” he warns. “At the end of a 12-14 hour day the last thing you want is another couple of hour’s downloading material from cards onto laptops and making back up copies. But because those cards have to go back to the facility house with the kit you rented for a day you have to go through that process. In terms of workflow that’s a pain.”


DATA WRANGLERS ARE A LUXURY It’s a problem highlighted by documentary filmmaker Nick Read, a news cameraman who has covered conflicts in Northern Ireland, Lebanon and Nicaragua in the 1980s and who has shot and directed over 40 films, most recently the award winning The Slumdog Children of Mumbai. “Reusing 4-5 cards a day is typical and requires two external drives. I think the industry recognises that there’s an extra workflow involved but whereas larger budget productions employ digital imaging technicians or data wranglers to handle the rushes,


in reportage


that’s a luxury we don’t have.” What’s needed in these circumstances is for other crew members such as a sound recordist need to get savvy about tapeless so that they can share the responsibility, he recommends. “I’ve been shooting on the Z5, Z7 and EX1 and EX3 for three years,” Read says. “Typically I shoot to both tape and card, using the tape for archive and copying media from the cards to portable drive and then onto Final Cut Pro. As a self-shooting director it’s fantastic to review the rushes instantly and begin getting to know the material.” Slumdog Children was shot over three months,


with Read using a Z5 to capture the reality of life for children living in the city’s slums. “I can begin to assemble a timeline which is useful when working in foreign languages. I


BBC shooter-editor Francis welcomes the


ease of docking media into a laptop to begin editing instead of digitising from tape. “Minutes count in news so this is vital,” he says. “But


journalists shouldn’t think that the


introduction of file-based technology means they have extra time to get the story. There’s still a lot of pressure on shooter-editors because they need to get the media into a workable and safe format so any extra time should be seen as extra editing time rather than as a gain by journalists.”


can burn sequences to DVD, get that off to an interpreter and in short time have a complete understanding of an interview so that


confident what’s been covered.” Read adds: “Another reason I choose to work


principally with cards is that I’ve come to trust them more than tape. Tapes are easy to lose – and they tend to be the only master copy. With files I’ll keep at least two master copies, though never in the same bag or hotel room.” Working to avoid detection by the authorities


in China for Kate Adie Returns to Tiananmen Square, Read shot sensitive material such as eye-witness interviews to cards in the knowledge that, should it be demanded, he could hand over a tape of innocent looking tourist shots.


We have a range of new practical concerns such as how do we carry these expensive memory cards so they don’t get lost? Paul Francis, BBC journalist


I’m


Winter 2011 theproducer


33


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