Education

Syracuse University Takes the Express to a New Workflow with Sony's XDCAM 422 System

The sports movie, "The Express," tells the story of Ernie Davis, the first African-American to win college football's Heisman Trophy while playing at Syracuse University. The school's media team is telling its own story, using Sony's XDCAM® HD422 optical disc system to shoot all video material for Syracuse, including a short-form feature about the movie.

The movie's production team shot many of its scenes on the upstate New York campus, and Stu Lisson, Bob Gerbin and the rest of the Syracuse Electronic Media Communications team used the new XDCAM HD PDW-700 camcorders to capture footage for a "behind-the-scenes" segment that will be included on "The Express" DVD.

We were blown away by the quality, it was almost too good," said Lisson, the group's executive director. "It was absolutely phenomenal. And Universal (the movie's studio) was also very happy."

Syracuse's Electronic Media Communications team is the internal and external production arm of the university, according to Lisson. The group edits and produces institutional messages for halftimes at football games, promotional and recruitment videos and special events like the school's annual Newhouse Mirror Awards, which honors excellence in media industry reporting. Also, broadcast organizations often use the team's footage for on-air segments, so Lisson knew he needed to upgrade for the highest-quality system.

"We were originally a Digital Betacam house, and then we stepped up to the first version of the XDCAM HD camcorders and loved the quality and tapeless workflow," he said. "When the new 2/3-inch chip cameras came out, we knew it was the right fit for us. It's exceeded all our expectations."

Syracuse took delivery of the new camcorders in late summer and has kept them busy since, shooting about 80 hours of footage each week during September and October.

The school also purchased two of Sony's XDCAM EX series PMW-EX1 camcorders, to complement the larger optical cameras. Both have worked together extremely well, Lisson said, giving his team more choices in capturing high-quality HD footage.

"We've been inter-mixing the footage, using the 700 for long shots, beauty shots and interviews, and the EX1 for when we really need a compact camera for extra mobility. They have both performed outstanding."

In addition to the upgrade in quality, Lisson and team are also big fans of the efficient tapeless workflow - the 700's use of Professional Disc™ media and the EX1's ExpressCard SxS PRO™ memory cards.

"They are both very robust media," Lisson said. "We put the disc or cards in, and we're ready to roll. The media is really easy to use."

The tapeless workflow also has its advantages when moving into post production.

"It's a pleasure to work with," said Gerbin, senior manager for the electronic media communications team. "It goes into our Avid system very easily, all set to edit. We're up and editing very quickly because we use the proxy video. We bring in everything on the disc, and we can bring in a lot of footage in a short amount of time. Because of the proxy video, there's no downtime waiting to ingest footage before editing. We start editing with the proxy and when we're done we'll conform to the high-res video."

He added it not only gives them more flexibility, but it also saves time.

"What's nice is the system automatically brings all your clips in as separate files," Gerbin said. "Before, we would have to digitize a whole tape and then go through and search for the shot we wanted. Now it's all there for us in an easy-to-find view."

Lisson said the university will continue to use the XDCAM technology - both the optical and EX series - for all video projects in the future.

"You get spoiled shooting with these systems," he said. "In comparison, everything else looks out of focus."