Ever get sick of working in London? Afraid to relocate in case your clients think you are too far away? UK GTC (Guild of Television Cameramen) member Karl Lear and brother Glen have solved the problem by moving to Devon - and taking their clients with them.

Putting projects to bed
Starting up in any new business, whatever the field, it always helps to be able to offer something different that the competitors are not providing - and the crowded production facility/edit house market is no exception. In choosing to locate Pangaea our new production and edit facility in the tranquil surroundings of the Devon countryside, just outside the historic cathedral city of Exeter, the competitive advantages we can offer are several: distance from the hustle and bustle of Soho offers a stress-free environment, lower overhead costs can be passed on to the client and with the high-speed data transfer that the Internet and other telecommunication systems now offer physical location really is hardly an issue. Pangaea (taken from the Greek meaning all-lands) provides all the services you might expect AVID editing, voice-over booth, graphics suite, library of licensed production music and photography studio, but it also offers something really new.

In addition to the usual edit facility, Pangaea offers a working break known as the Bed & Edit. Producers can escape the stresses and expense of the Soho edit suite, relocate to the Devon countryside for the duration of their post-production, and enjoy some of the creature comforts usually only associated with being on holiday. Removed from the time constraints brought about by advance block booking in busy London edit houses and the need to cut corners in order to finish the project on time and within budget, they find themselves beginning to enjoy their productions again. At the end of the editing day, a comfortable bedroom, home cooked food, evening dips in the pool and a local village pub are there to be enjoyed. The bed and edit idea is becoming increasingly popular in the USA but Pangaea is, as far as we know, the first to offer such a facility in the UK.

Getting started
In late 1996 my directorial debut was on a feature entitled Better Days, one of the first to be shot wholly on DVCam stock, using a Sony VX9000, the best camera I could afford at the time. With a crew and cast numbering more than 40, experimental lighting, a combination of filters, special FX and a borrowed helicopter we achieved a very reasonable end result. Better Days was entered in the Edinburgh Film Festival and went on to receive critical acclaim in the national press. Using this to launch my career I was lucky enough to land a job at Surrey based Green Field Television, where now-fellow GTC member Paul Osborne helped to develop my craft. I left Green Field full of inspiration and ambition - enough to launch my own small production company in the South West of England.

Pangaea comprises my brother Glen and myself. Glen manages the graphic design, compositing and photography briefs. For PSC work, local ENG or small corporate projects I usually operate the camera and direct, while Glen monitors sound on cans through an ASC Minx; and as with all small outfits, I find trust in each others ability is paramount. For larger and overseas shoots our crews are understandably somewhat bigger, bolstered at the very least by the presence of an experienced sound operator and lighting cameraman and where necessary a guide or presenter. Where appropriate, we tend to use Digital Betacam for larger projects, especially when overseas or in areas of outstanding natural beauty where the quality of Digital Betacam surpasses most other formats short of HD. We tend to leave the choice of camera to the lighting cameraman or camera operator on the shoot.

Sony DSR-500 WSPL
Where we need a back-up or second camera, or where budgets place restrictions on the size of crew and dictate a more cost-effective format, without hesitation we look to the Sony DSR-500WSPL. It is simply a fantastic camera for the money.

Having plied my trade on, amongst other cameras, a DSR-300, guided by Paul Osborne, a consummate professional in the corporate field, the DSR-500 was for me a natural progression. While being similar enough to the DSR-300 for familiarity, it has enough enhancements to rival some Digital Betacam outputs. Once we had decided not to hire but to buy our own camera, we tried out various other models in the marketplace. While I admit a bias towards the DSR-500 from the start, this did not cloud my judgement. We needed a camera that was relatively lightweight, well priced, and versatile enough to be used either in our small studio (converted garage!), outdoors or travelling overseas as hand luggage. As we pride ourselves on our ambition to shoot abroad as often as possible, and target our projects accordingly, this is an important consideration when not shooting on Digital Betacam. Betacam SP, Betacam SX, DVC Pro and Digital S were all in the running, but after advice from GTC forum members, articles in Zerb, and through a number of short trials, we opted for DVCam and the DSR-500. It provided for us a steady and universally accepted format platform on which to base our edit suite, and after calculating all the options, pros and cons, it was the most versatile, cost-effective, broadcast quality solution.

The edit suite
Our edit suite is based around a Sony DSR-80P DVCam player/recorder, Avid Xpress Elite NLE System, on an NT networked platform. I would recommend the DSR-80P DVCam player/recorder highly if you can still pick one up; when used in conjunction with Avid or Media 100 it has all the functionality one would ever need, at less than half the price but the same excellent picture reproduction as the DSR 1800 or DSR 2000, the recommended machines in the market place. We initially decided on a Mac platform and landed a good deal, but after much umm’ing and ah’ing changed our minds at the last minute and went for NT as a solution to a network problem and after being offered a great deal.

The project on which we first wielded the DSR-500 in anger was a documentary shoot where a full crew and Digital Betacam kit were often not appropriate. The subject matter was a natural plant that holds unique medicinal properties and grows mainly in the US, often in remote areas. The documentary included filming doctors and elderly patients with debilitating conditions where a full crew would have been too obtrusive and a heavier and/or dockable camera would have been a hindrance. The pictures we achieved with the DSR-500 were breathtakingly sharp and, with the fantastic light conditions on the exterior shoots, the colours matched those I would expect from Digital Betacam. They would stand up, I think, to all but the very experienced eye, although I stand to be corrected.

Having stepped up from using the DSR-300, the advantages of the 500 were all the more apparent. On top of the obvious picture improvements, the switchable true 16:9 is a delight to use, and the menu system has been designed with the field user in mind. The buttons are very accessible Ð a trait common to Sony products in my experience, and the menus are well thought out as well as being adaptable. For example, to change between 16:9 and 4:3 one used have to shut down the camera, restart it in order to access the advanced menu, go to page 9 (off the top of my head!) and alter the setting there. Even though you only usually needed to set this once per shoot it could still get irritating. But now the adaptable fast menu allows you to move items such as the16:9 switch between menus. Once moved it is the first item on the fast menu and can be changed without powering down the camera.

We were initially worried about the ruggedness of the camera, it did not feel as sturdy as either the DVC Pro or SX but we were assured by existing users that this was deceiving. One cameraman has even reported dropping his camera overboard, somehow retrieving it, cleaning it - and it worked perfectly! One to be seen to be believed! Suffice to say that we have been careful with our camera and have not experienced the extremes required to really test ruggedness, but I am confident in its ability to defend itself. The build quality is good; the body is solid and the handle secure, and although the viewfinder mounting did seem a little flimsy at first, this is deceptive. By way of compromise, the viewfinder has a slightly sharper image than its Sony predecessors, which have seemed a little soft at times; something, to my mind, that Sony have been working on.

It has been pointed out on the GTC web forum that the DSR-500 is particularly bad in very humid conditions, liable to shutting itself down, and failing to restart for an hour or so. Fortunately, I can not comment on these problems having never experienced extremely humid conditions, but there are a number of very experienced GTC members on the forum who can help out anyone interested in the problem of humidity and how to get around it Ð one solution to the problem of travelling in a car near the equator was to turn the air-con off resulting in very uncomfortable driving conditions!

Using the DSR-500 with Avid
As to the cameras interaction with Avid and other non-linear editing tools, I am pleased to say that in my experience there have been no major problems with digitizing the DSR-500s DVCam output into Avid. Indeed, there is a worthwhile advantage in that both machines (camera and player/recorder) take both the smaller and larger DVCam tapes, allowing for a Sony PD150 Mini-DVCam back-up camera with stock that can be used in the DSR-500 if required.

The age-old problem of discontinuous timecode generated through stop start filming is the same as with all NLEs, namely they do not like it. The common message please insert tape xyz when you know full well tape xyz is in the machine already is all too familiar. Why some camera operators persist with this practice when they are experienced enough to know better is beyond me and is a common gripe in edit houses.

On smaller projects using one or two tapes, for example a news item, the issue is fairly easy to spot and remedy. But on longer documentaries and programmes editing usually becomes a two-stage process. The off-line process of capturing the material at a low resolution so as to fit the whole project on the media drives goes swimmingly. Then, after the edit is finished, often weeks down the line, you come to batch digitize the final programme. This process of on-lining means the computer compares the edited footage with the reel numbers of the rushes tapes. When all is running smoothly this is the time to unwind and have a cup of coffee and a chat as the machines whir and replace the old highly compressed footage at 10:1 compression or higher, with the final 2:1 or 1:1 broadcast quality imagery. This is rarely the case though as when Avid encounters discontinuous timecode it starts to throw a wobbly because it doesnt know that 10:03:03:01 can come after 10:26:43:11, for instance! Worse still are the times when Avid does actually find the timecode in question on the tape in question Ð but in the wrong place as the same code has occurred twice on the same tape! Under these circumstances there is not even a warning beep and the batch digitize process goes on to completion. You suddenly find yourself watching the final cut of the programme and a shot of one of Lauries gorillas operating an old Vinten dolly turns up in a section about indigenous humming birds!

Correcting this process can waste a great deal of time and is better avoided if at all possible. However, if the editor knows the problem exists from the outset it is relatively simple to overcome, so if you have shot a sequence with discontinuous timecode, for whatever reason, the editor would much rather be told about it so they can anticipate and deal with the problem. He or she can then either label the same tape 34a, 34b, 34c, etc in Avid’s digitize window, depending on how many timecode breaks there are, or alternatively duplicate the master tape, preferably onto DVCam or another digital format, thus regenerating continuous timecode. Dubbing to BetaCam or other non-digital formats results in a digital to analogue signal degradation.

More problems to avoid
Ensuring plenty of pre-roll at the beginning of tapes (up to 40 seconds of tone and bars) ensures a stable tape feed and can prove invaluable during post-production. One small problem I have noticed occurs near the beginning of DVCam tapes - the DSR-500 lays down slightly pixelated (digital block interference) bars regardless of the tape stock. This only lasts a maximum of 30 seconds, but if you neglect to lay down bars at the start of a tape, for instance during a tape change in a live war zone, the pixelation obviously affects the pictures too, causing a slight drop out and in certain cases a break in timecode. With the exercise of laying down tone and bars standard practice, this problem is common to many cameras, and well known, I imagine, to most camera operators.

A less documented problem I have come across often with the DSR-500 (and indeed other switchable 16:9 cameras) lies with the changeable widescreen function. While the function itself is a delight to use, and the picture quality in either setting is immaculate, one must keep in mind, for compositional or aesthetic reasons not to switch the function mid-project. Avid can handle either one or the other, but not both at the same time. The reasoning becomes obvious when you put your mind to it, but on a number of occasions I have edited material destined for a single programme shot in both settings, even on the same reel. It is not an irreversible error, and there are ways around it in post, but it is best avoided for all but the most artistic of reasons.

Within Avid the editor sets each project to 4:3 or 16:9 aspect ratio at the outset. To import material in the aspect ratio not initially specified Avid tweaks the material to fit. 4:3 becomes stretched, and 16:9 squashed. If this generates a desired artistic effect then so be it, but otherwise should be avoided as it compromises not only picture quality but also certain broadcast technical standards and delivery requirements (BACC guidelines 1.2.5) - these are described in a separate note of guidance, entitled General Specifications for the Production and Delivery of Advertisements on Television.

Similarly with multiple camera shoots, or shoots on successive days, when operating the camera with a tweaked set-up (crushed blacks, enhanced skin detail, etc) it is imperative to remember to use the same tweak on each camera and each shoot on the same location. Cutting between differently set-up camera footage results in a messy looking programme on any editing system, leaving the editor a lot of work to try to balance the footage - a process that can also result in dirty or over saturated shots. I find a simple mental checklist prior to each shoot works for me, but then as Paul will no doubt remind me, my memory is not what it should be at times!

If anyone has questions about issues of a more complex nature that I have not covered here I would be more than happy to discuss them in detail and offer advice where I can. If any of you are ever in the Devon neighbourhood and want to check out our edit facility or are interested in our Bed & Edit service, do drop me a line and pop in for a coffee and a chat. I look forward to the opportunity of meeting and working with as many of you as possible over the coming months.

May I use this opportunity to wish my friend and fellow GTC member Phillip Marsden-Scarfe a full and speedy recovery in his fight against cancer.

Fact File
After producing and directing his debut feature Better Days, Karl Lear worked in the corporate and commercial fields as a cameraman and editor for a number of years before launching Pangaea Production & Facility in January 2001. Operating as a small production outfit with Avid and DSR-500 camera, supplying stock library footage as well as producing documentaries and corporate programmes both home & overseas, Pangaea provide the Bed & Edit facility to producers and corporate clients alike - more details on the website below.
website: www.pangprod.com
tel: +44(0)1392 879696