Average ProRes wedding project size at DVinfo.net

Scott Holchin · November 14th, 2011, 01:18 PM

I was wondering for all you XHA1 guys that capture to ProRes what's your average hard drive project size is. I'm new to ProRes and it's looking pretty big. I figure three cameras for my typical wedding shoot, could be 10 to 27 hours of tape. At 27 hours at 57gb.per hours that's 1,539gb. plus music, graphics, etc. etc.
Should I start buying 2 terabyte drives from now on. I would love to know what some of you are doing. I realize 27 hours of tape for a wedding may be on the high side but even 10 hours of tape is 570gb. I know hard drives are cheap now, I think 1 terabyte will work and if I have some bigger projects I can just spread them over more drives.

Tim Bakland · November 14th, 2011, 04:48 PM

10-27 hours! Wow!

Granted, I'm not running 2 cameras. I'd call myself 1.5 cameras (2 during ceremony, sometime 2 during toasts/dance, but 1 otherwise), and I generally start with 4-5 hours TOPS of raw footage (combined from both the cameras).

I usually have 2.5 hours of XF300/100 native codec footage (smaller files) and then another 1.5 hours or so of DSLR stuff, equalling 100-150 GB of material.

Louis Maddalena · November 14th, 2011, 11:12 PM

wow I'm impressed 27 hours of footage? I usually get 9!

I can hit total projects of around 1TB depending on raw footage, prores, assets, and documents.

George Kilroy · November 15th, 2011, 05:07 AM

Why do you make such work for yourself? 27 hours !!!!!

I guess that you're in the $6,000 + market to make working through that economical.

Jeff Harper · November 15th, 2011, 07:12 AM

Scott, 12-20 hours should be on the high side, unless you're shooting Indian wedding films.

2tb drives are the economical choice, IMO. Get the fastest ones you can afford. The slow ones are so sloow, but the faster ones are reasonably fast. 1tb will probably work, as you say, I'd want room to spare if it were me.

Katie Fasel · November 15th, 2011, 07:50 AM

For a full-day shoot, we usually wind up with 6-8 hours of footage. We "weed out" bad shots as we transcode, so not everything gets converted to Pro-Res, but our capture scratch folder usually winds up anywhere from 200-300gb.

I guess it would depend on how many projects you'll have going at once. We have 3 drives that are 2tb each...but we keep things for a while before we delete the capture scratch folder, and we have several weddings going at once. So it depends on what your turnaround is going to be and how long you are going to save things after.

Nigel Barker · November 15th, 2011, 10:00 AM

It's a few years since I last handled HDV footage from our XHA1s but as I recall you don't need to convert everything to ProRes but just capture native HDV & then have FCP just render the edits in ProRes 422.

November 14th, 2011, 01:18 PM	#1
Scott Holchin Regular Crew Join Date: Jan 2011 Location: Fairview Park, Ohio Posts: 29	Average ProRes wedding project size I was wondering for all you XHA1 guys that capture to ProRes what's your average hard drive project size is. I'm new to ProRes and it's looking pretty big. I figure three cameras for my typical wedding shoot, could be 10 to 27 hours of tape. At 27 hours at 57gb.per hours that's 1,539gb. plus music, graphics, etc. etc. Should I start buying 2 terabyte drives from now on. I would love to know what some of you are doing. I realize 27 hours of tape for a wedding may be on the high side but even 10 hours of tape is 570gb. I know hard drives are cheap now, I think 1 terabyte will work and if I have some bigger projects I can just spread them over more drives.

November 14th, 2011, 04:48 PM	#2
Tim Bakland Major Player Join Date: Aug 2010 Location: Beverly, MA Posts: 512	Re: Average ProRes wedding project size 10-27 hours! Wow! Granted, I'm not running 2 cameras. I'd call myself 1.5 cameras (2 during ceremony, sometime 2 during toasts/dance, but 1 otherwise), and I generally start with 4-5 hours TOPS of raw footage (combined from both the cameras). I usually have 2.5 hours of XF300/100 native codec footage (smaller files) and then another 1.5 hours or so of DSLR stuff, equalling 100-150 GB of material. __________________ Event Videography, New England www.timothybakland.com

November 14th, 2011, 11:12 PM	#3
Louis Maddalena Major Player Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: NYC Area. Posts: 550	Re: Average ProRes wedding project size wow I'm impressed 27 hours of footage? I usually get 9! I can hit total projects of around 1TB depending on raw footage, prores, assets, and documents. __________________ Red Epic available for rent, starting at $500 per day, Scarlets, and Lenses available too. rentals.maddalenamedia.com

November 15th, 2011, 05:07 AM	#4
George Kilroy Major Player Join Date: Mar 2010 Location: Midlands UK Posts: 699	Re: Average ProRes wedding project size Why do you make such work for yourself? 27 hours !!!!! I guess that you're in the $6,000 + market to make working through that economical.

November 15th, 2011, 07:12 AM	#5
Jeff Harper Inner Circle Join Date: Jun 2005 Location: Cincinnati, OH Posts: 8,425	Re: Average ProRes wedding project size Scott, 12-20 hours should be on the high side, unless you're shooting Indian wedding films. 2tb drives are the economical choice, IMO. Get the fastest ones you can afford. The slow ones are so sloow, but the faster ones are reasonably fast. 1tb will probably work, as you say, I'd want room to spare if it were me. __________________ "The horror of what I saw on the timeline cannot be described."

November 15th, 2011, 07:50 AM	#6
Katie Fasel Major Player Join Date: May 2011 Location: Grand Rapids, MI Posts: 236	Re: Average ProRes wedding project size For a full-day shoot, we usually wind up with 6-8 hours of footage. We "weed out" bad shots as we transcode, so not everything gets converted to Pro-Res, but our capture scratch folder usually winds up anywhere from 200-300gb. I guess it would depend on how many projects you'll have going at once. We have 3 drives that are 2tb each...but we keep things for a while before we delete the capture scratch folder, and we have several weddings going at once. So it depends on what your turnaround is going to be and how long you are going to save things after.

November 15th, 2011, 10:00 AM	#7
Nigel Barker Inner Circle Join Date: Feb 2009 Location: Norwich, Norfolk, UK Posts: 3,531	Re: Average ProRes wedding project size It's a few years since I last handled HDV footage from our XHA1s but as I recall you don't need to convert everything to ProRes but just capture native HDV & then have FCP just render the edits in ProRes 422.