My most recent dealings from with Apple and XSAN have produced myriad whirlwind thoughts populating specific hardware issues to the never lands of indie HD filmmaking. How do LUNs and faulty firewalls relate to budgets, workflow, and audiences?

In the interest of getting excestential on you, lets chat.

XSAN has been a major pain in my ass recently. I’ve been trying to learn as much as I can about console scripts and IT management, but end the end…alas…I’m much more art that techno.

When our wonderful German Apple engineer was originally installing SportsHD’s XSAN system just three weeks ago, I spent hours watching over his shoulder attempting to osmosisize (obviously, my word…you can use it too) his process. It is at this advanced stage of production architecture that I believe Apple becomes much less intuitive.

The friendly GUI and bombproofedness has worn out.

Monday Morning: 10:36 A.M.
SportsHD 2 (Quad 2.5, 8 GB RAM, Kona LHe - KL box) eats shit while pasting an audio filter in FCP5. The whole machine freezes. Mouse, keyboard, everything.

Manual power down.

Meanwhile, video playback on SportsHD 1 (Dual 2.7, 8GB RAM, Kona 2 - K box) is hiccupping profusely. Installing AJA’s replacement-replacement Kona 2 (yes, now on our third one - all warranteed) doesn’t solve the problem, using the HD10A helps ingest momentarily. Hardware issues persist - Shut Down, Install, and Restart.

SportsHD 2 is fucked. It won’t reboot - just Apple grey screen with endless “circle of death”.

Restart SportsHD 1 - No XSAN volume mounted. XSAN utility is no help. Can’t find the server - XSERVE controllers not working - resetting controllers doesn’t work. Power down whole system, QLogic and all.

Power system back up. Ethernet Switch, QLogic Box, RAIDS, G5 XSERVE,
Sports HD 1.

SportsHD 2 requires “Archive and Reinstall of 10.4″. Great. Power back up - No XSAN.

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Okay, so here’s where it gets tricky
—-
(flashback)

MATTIOUS:
Okay, your XSHAANN system, is now setthoup. You should have plently of space and speed to run both boxes fullspeed and simultaneous access of all media.

JOSH:
Okay great, but walk me through my operation of “fixing” the system if the XSAN volume fails to mount on either computer.

MATTEOUS:
Hmmm, well - I vouldn’t vvorry habout zzit because zzit shfuould sknot haaapen. You can try the XSAN utility, but be careful not “change any settings.”

JOSH:
So that’s it? Don’t worry and hope for the best? This IS bleeding edge technology, right? I mean, its bound to fail at some point….

MATTEOUS:
Veeelll, hin zat case, you call me and vVee vVork thrsrvuooo zzit, okay?

—

Mattious - great guy, but he’s very busy teaching XSAN all over the country. Emails and phone calls are days out on return. He’s nowhere to be found.

—-
Shit. All this has me thinking. My days of guerrilla (guerilla meaning - oh this is YOUR car…, homemade dollies, cigarette power inverter, show the cops the DVX100 is NOT a bomb) shooting are long over. The more productions I’ve taken on, the more I’ve found my time has become my most valuable commodity.

Even with all this $$$ in production and post-production infrastructure at SportsHD, this operation is still Guerrilla HD. Hell, even HDNet was low budget by many standards (only CRT reference monitors in the edit suites, and no reason to ever shoot “real” things - If you couldn’t green screen or flying 3D logo it - there was no production).

Some Honest Guerrilla HD Revelations
CAMERAS
Sony HDV: Buy the Z1U - the XLR inputs alone are worth every penny. It’s not hard to use this camera, but your image will look terrible if you don’t know the camera basics. Play with this for hours before you shoot your masterpiece. I’ve seen sooooo much production money wasted because the last thought anyone had was about camera operators.

JVC HD100 - great camera, interchangeable lenses, but its still Medium Def. 1280×720? Come on - I know that’s how ESPNHD and MTVHD broadcast, but still, 1080i/p WILL BECOME the broadcast standard. My feelings are this camera is good for now in broadcast settings, but in 18 - 24 months it will be ultimately UNrevered for high-quality feature filmmaking much the way the DVX100 is looked at now (again, I LOVE my Panny - but it looks like shit when blown up…anyone catch NOVEMBER? Even the DVD looks TERRIBLE). Technology will outpace the resolution of this camera in a quick way, and not too many indies are giving you the straight skinny.

For my next short - I WILL BE RENTING the CineAlta F900. I’ve got free HDV’s here, I feel right at home on the HVX200, but I don’t trust either of ‘em yet WITH TRANFERSING MY MONEY TO THE SCREEN.

Sure, the CineAlta’s expensive to rent (not that much more so than the HVX) - but I’ll take HDCAM workflow any day. I’m lucky enough to have those post resources in place (and working okay until recently…).

POST
Final Cut is awesome, but storage is still a major major issue. Even with all the XSAN bells and whistles - it is absolutely NOT BOMBPROOF - yet. My SD workflow at home is stacked to the nines - but it’s going to take HD workflow at least another 3 years before I’ll call it trouble free. It will happen, eventually….

HDV is a LIMITED CODEC, and FCP handles it the best it can. Layoffs back to HDV (even HDV sequences with HDV clips require an extra conform) are a bitch, logging tapes is difficult (capture preview/ deck mechanics lag time), and experienced camera operators are absolutely required.

You need to buy ATI’s Radeon 9200 Mac Edition video card for the XSERVE. It’s just not worth the hassle. Spend the extra $120 bucks and get in installed right.

Don’t trust Apple Care. They will not bail you out. They are smart people with very little hands-on experience. Reading from manuals is not the same - I can do that. EDUCATE YOURSELF AT ALL TIMES.

INDIE SPIRIT
Buy that ZIU now and get yourself some 35mm lens adaptors. The Z1U will be your most cost effective option for indie HD features until Panasonic gets rid of the P2 cards - or figures out a way to make hard disk recording more portable. The right shooter and post-guru can make the Z1U’s 1080i everybit as convincing as the Panny’s 24p.

Keep moving forward. Can’t afford that workflow you want? SHOOT IT ANYWAY. Shoot early, shoot often, make up your own tricks - But draw your line. Sometimes its better to wait for the financing, even if it means taking a job in a medium (TV) that you despise.

I’M MAKING THAT PATIENT STEP NOW.

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All said and done…you’ll never catch me shoot a frame of film in my life. Progression is natural.

I BLEED FOR FILMMAKING.