London’s Clear Cut Pictures has announced completion of post production on BBC History’s Richard the Lionheart, thanks in part to a workflow that relied on HD digital images captured on Panasonic cameras and stored on Panasonic P2 memory cards. Richard the Lionheart is part of a series titled Heroes and Villains, produced by Matthew Barratt and Mark Hedgecoe for BBC Worldwide, Discovery, and ProSieben, writes Fergal Ringrose.
Jason Tomkins, Clear Cut’s operations director, oversaw the post location kit and, in conjunction with Panasonic and Avid, devised a workflow based on integration of P2 data with DVCPRO HD tape footage. Rushes were digitised to FireWire on the Panasonic AJD 1200 deck using SDI realtime downconversion to produce a working resolution of DV25p. The quality of the rushes was checked using Panasonic’s HD LCD BT-LH1700WE screen. Daily, the six P2 8-GB cards were unpacked using P2 viewer software and immediately reviewed by the location editor.
“Viewing HD dailies was a real benefit,” said Tomkins. “It directly influenced the shooting script, saving unnecessary shooting time and money.”
Once the content was back in the offline edit at Clear Cut Pictures in London, the Avid Unity system transcoded it to a DV25 proxy. Director Nick Green used Media Manager to select clips and publish select lists as necessary. When offline editing was completed, the project was transferred to Clear Cut’s Symphony Nitris to re-conform the DVCPRO HD tapes and re-link the full-resolution P2 data.
“The transition from offline to online was seamless and very efficient,” said Lucie Parker, Clear Cut’s account manager for the Heroes and Villains”series.
