Efficient Workflow Included Direct-to-Disc Recording and Embedded Audio in a HD-SDI Stream

Jonas Quastel, the director, and Corey Robson, director of photography, teamed recently to make Scourge, an independent feature, using JVC’s GY-HD250 HDV camcorder and Wafian HR-1 direct-to-disk video recorder.
Robson, of PHD Productions in Vancouver, sought the depth of field of 35mm film using the combination of the GY-HD250 camcorder, manual-focus Nikon lenses, and the Redrock Micro M2 lens adapter.

Much of the film was shot handheld, with 4:2:2 HD-SDI signals recorded to HDV videotape as well as to a Wafian flash memory recorder. Thus, compression and image degradation was avoided.

The Wafian HR-1 is a 10-bit HD recorder using the Cineform Digital Intermediate format. It records to both .AVI and .MOV formats while a single-button interface allows the recording and viewing of footage with the speed of non-linear access. A built-in touch screen LCD panel provides access to all of the controls and recording settings.

The GY-HD250 is compatible with the Wafian recorder’s 24fps reverse pull-down, simplifying the on-set workflow. Robson said he connected sound into the camera’s XLR connectors, which embedded the audio into the HD-SDI stream, along with the camera-generated time code and images. The HD-SDI cable from the camera fed the Wafian back at the director’s monitor. This ensured that the crew had audio on both their HDV backup tapes and on the HR-1, which avoided double-system post expenses.

As for image set-up when using the JVC camcorder on a feature film, Robson noted it has adjustable matrix, shading, and gamma options. In-camera “looks” can be dialed in. And the camera’s 1280 x 720 imagers meant no scaling and cross-sampling pixels.

For more information on the technology, visit http://www.jvc.com/pro/ and http://www.wafian.com/. For more on the Scourge workflow, see the story in our sister publication, Film & Video.