XDCAM USED TO CAPTURE PENNSYLVANIA PRIMARY FOR HDNET

DENVER - Videographer Dennis Dillon took Sony’s new XDCAM HD422 and XDCAM EX PMW-EX1 camcorders to Pennsylvania over the past few weeks to produce a special on the state’s primary. The programs aired on HDNet’s Dan Rather Reports and followed candidates Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama as they battled for a win in the Keystone State.

Dillon and his production team used the XDCAM HD systems because of their cost-efficient file-based workflow. In addition, the EX technology, he feels, provided more flexibility in capturing shots that required a smaller camera.

“The footage from the PDW-700’s 2/3-inch imager and the EX1’s 1/2-inch CCD cut together amazingly,” says Dillon, “giving us spectacular imagery with the right depth of field for everything from up close and personal moments with the candidates that truly ‘popped’ on the screen to amazing wide-angle shots of crowds that numbered into the thousands.”

The program was shot over eight days by two crews equipped with each camcorder. Digitized files were taken from the XDCAM camcorders and dump into the NLEs each day. “Those cuts would then be shipped to our New York offices for editing and from there we shared the final edit with the HDNet offices in Denver via FTP,” he explains. “It was a system that really paid off for us.”