Mr C. an intriguing question, full of variables that make it difficult, nay foolish to try and second guess, But you know, leaving aside S1, what just for fun I’ll bite.
To attempt some kind of comparison, I shot the UK franchise of a well known Italian manufacturers karting champs, on HDV, on the 25 April edited in a variety of ‘High Def’ from 7 cameras, and shipped a 3 hour standard def double dvd, on 8 May of 4 classes, each heat, pre final and final, running full length, as ‘live’, with full commentary/graphics. I did indeed take 2 weeks off the dayjob to do it. It’s a 100 hour job work. 3 days being spent just sat ingesting from tape. But still managed to slide in shooting the premier UK arrive & drive sprint championship from Whilton Mill on 2 May. Could I do a heavily 'edited' one hour version say split into the 4 main finals. To fill 4 x12mins of air time (for a high class sports video webcasting site) that could be embedded on any and every karting website in the UK and internationally to promote or compete with rival championships? Yes. TV?
For chunks of Motors TV air time, my problem would be hardware cameras? I’m not sure. And final post production outputting final tape for TV, everything in between is do able. Could I produce a standard def version from HDV base, for Motors? If only they would answer my email! Maybe yes. Maybe no. But could I do it in 10 days, working full time, with a tapeless workflow. I think so, with the 'TV' stuff, if someone were prepared to pay for it.
Of course it's apples and oranges, I’m not outputting for a small (it’s not the BBC) satellite audience, and I'm my own boss & I'm, sort of, my own client. So I shoot karting for me (as a karter) how I think karters want to see karting. I know. Small fry, perhaps missing the big picture. I can however say feedback is excellent, in a ‘we think you ought to be on TV’ regularly, and the comparisons are made. Sweet but frustrating. My product is sold directly to karters, and production is now self financing by the karters themselves. This shrinks the budget massively, but I feel free from the inclination or necessity to inform or educate the none karting community, as everyone seems obliged to for TV, to make it ape, like mini F1. For me, karting video, TV or anywhere, succeeds or fails on a single fundamental, is the race coverage any good? Everything else is windowing dressing, and perhaps used to distract you from the former.
I’m all karting for karters shot by (quite often) by karters. It succeeds or falls by the people competing buying in (currently). In the realm I work in. Low budget, high quality, essentials only, no introductory/no long winded interviews, no elaborate graphics. See shooting for TV is another matter, and a different client(s). I could probably get it done. But untested.
I'm pretty certain I have the same post workflow, big RAID, Final Cut, multi clip.
But it’s in hardware in terms of 50Mbit/s (HD) cameras (will be the BBC HD standard, sliding down from there as you say, as there are 57 varieties of HD), and the pro crew, and kit, when you have to find a talking head, and the other “stuff” you have to add for TV, in terms of content then meet their technical/legal broadcast standards, which is where ‘budget’ really cannot be divorced from ‘could you do better?’ It almost academic, for now (although damn if there isn’t some clever tech tantalisingly almost affordable on sale already to “supercharge” cameras)...
Hats off to Alan, he‘s doing it, he has a track record of production, his karting reputation and contacts, which is the point I was making to our student critic, you cannot divorce on screen content from off screen 'business' (incl. budget, client, reliability) and we don’t know what he had to start with in terms of spectacle, or his footage of it, to work with, to judge, only what he produces. We do know what kit he has.
Interested how you arrive at his budget, for 14 or so televised rounds. http://www.s1series.co.uk/about/why-super-1/default.aspx
Ben, I’m feeling bullish today, send me an email, chris-simpson@me.com and I’ll send you my latest dvd, for free, on condition you give me brutally honest feedback, and you allow me to pick your brains.
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Whats Happened? by 'JamboH' (10 May 2010 @ 17:02)
