XDCAM HD on the new Smithsonian Networks
 

"Bombs, Bullets & Fraud" produced by Baney Media, LLC, will soon be available on the new Smithsonian Networks HD Channel either "on demand" or as part of scheduled programming. The one-hour special chronicles the history of the Postal Inspection from its inception in 1772 to its work curtailing stagecoach robberies in the Old West, and capturing the Unabomber in the '90s. These people put their lives on the line to protect everything from your assets to your children to your health, and ultimately your very life. The Smithsonian Networks is a joint venture between Showtime Networks and the Smithsonian Institutions. (www.smithsoniannetworks.com )

The entire show was filmed on XDCAM HD (24P / 35mbps) with crews and post services provided by Telecam Films. As the show's DP, this has been my first serious experiment with this format and cameras, often pushing them to their limits. During our field production schedule which extended from late September to the end of 2006, we encountered a great variety of shooting locations and created different filming styles to cover the show’s intricate mix of past and present action. From sit-downs, well lit documentary style interviews to real life reenactments in uncontrolled environments, the conditions were set for challenging picture acquisition. The final results far exceeded our expectations (and the ones from the network excecs…) and passed Showtime HD’s stringent quality control all thumbs up.

Below are links to a few clips from the program. I do not have a HD master yet so these are Quicktime MP4 clips at 1,500kbps compressed from a SD letterboxed master. This is far below the quality of the final show but enough to give you a feel and to highlight the use of the PDW-F350 unique features such as “over & downcranking”, “slow shutter speeds” and “color matrix customization”. We used Saffire Effects quite a bit too…

Peace,

Thierry.

Teaser (14MB) - www.telecamfilms.com/videos/bbf/bbf_teaser.mp4
Clip 1 (23MB) - www.telecamfilms.com/videos/bbf/bbf_clip1.mp4
Clip 2 (52MB) - www.telecamfilms.com/videos/bbf/bbf_clip2.mp4
Clip 3 (61MB) - www.telecamfilms.com/videos/bbf/bbf_clip3.mp4
Clip 4 (40MB) - www.telecamfilms.com/videos/bbf/bbf_clip4.mp4

Excellent stuff Thierry, the only problem is now I want to see the whole program.

cheers

Morton

I'm curious, what were your delivery specs to Smithsonian Networks?

HDCAM Master, 1080 59.94i w/ ADAT surround audio.

These pieces will be featured in the Sony XDCAM HD theater at NAB 2007, playing back from XDCAM HD deck of course....

Thierry.

Thierry, thank you for the details.