OT: Z1 content on "American Chopper"

John_Cline wrote on 11/20/2005, 11:02 AM
Tomorrow night, Monday, November 21, the show "American Chopper" will feature a lot of footage taken by Mikey using a Z1. It runs at 10pm EST/PST. I believe it will also run again on Tuesday morning at 2am EST/PST. Those of you with the Discovery Channel in HD should check this out and report back on how the Z1 compares to the the expensive "broadcast" HD cameras used in the rest of the show. I'm curious what method they used to convert the Z1 HDV footage to whatever format they use for editing.


John

Comments

Spot|DSE wrote on 11/20/2005, 11:28 AM
They shot 50i, and matched that with the other cam footage. This is a common workflow for the 24p acquisition folks. The problem (I fear) is that Mikey doesn't manage the camera well. Other footage he's shot with the XL1 in the past hasn't fared too well, more because of operator, not format. Either way, it'll be nice to see it.
gdstaples wrote on 11/20/2005, 1:28 PM
Yeah Mikey carries the Z1 like a football - quite hillarious actually. The show has been playing on Discovery HD for the last 3 or 4 days and it is a good look into the production process. I wonder if they ran the footage through a deshaking process? In controlled lighting the Z1 footage looks very close to what the big guns produce but you quickly see the difference out in the field in terms of dynamic range.

A good show.

Duncan
Randy Brown wrote on 11/20/2005, 1:36 PM
"The problem (I fear) is that Mikey doesn't manage the camera well"

He will also be shooting "behind the scenes" which will probably not have pro lighting AND he probably shoots everything in auto mode....but (ya know) ya gotta love Mikey anyway.

Randy
JJKizak wrote on 11/20/2005, 1:53 PM
I use the auto mode all the time. So far the auto focusing is the most noticable function, but I have one camera and have to run around shooting everything in sight rapidly and can't miss anything. Tough to do when your shoulders are tightning up and your sweating and dripping all over the camera with the eyepiece all fogged up. The auto focus is the best I have used but it does get fooled sometimes.

JJK
DavidMcKnight wrote on 11/22/2005, 3:53 PM
Is this the episode where they build a bike like a Shelby Mustang?
Spot|DSE wrote on 11/22/2005, 4:07 PM
No, it's the "Behind the Scenes" episode. They show how the hour is produced, who shoots it, who edits it, and how it all shakes out.
There was one shot that really took me by surprise, they did a 4 cam split, with the HDV in the upper right, and the other 3 grids being Varicams...You'll have to see it to understand why it surprises me. A screen grab tells an even better story. :-)