GALAXIE LEGAL VIDEO SPECIALISTS --
Tech Issues: The Correct Technologies for Legal Videography
TECH ISSUES:
THE BEST TECHNOLOGIES
FOR LEGAL VIDEOGRAPHY
The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of Dave Gregory, CCVS.
Mr. Gregory is the Owner-Manager of GALAXIE LEGAL VIDEO SPECIALISTS and
is also a thirty-five year veteran of the Hollywood motion picture industry.
As stated before, there are some "technical" issues about the equipment used for legal videography that we would like to discuss with you now.
As the digital video and cinema technologies evolve, new camera imagers and new recording media are appearing every day. Yet, for as good as they are, not every new advancement is necessarily appropriate for use in the legal videography field -- especially when it comes to the recording of depositions.
Since too many myths have been recently circulated, we would like to clear up some of the misconceptions here.
HERE IS WHAT YOU NEED
FOR YOUR LEGAL VIDEOGRAPHY:
(1) YOU NEED A VIDEOGRAPHER WHO USES PROFESSIONAL DIGITAL VIDEO EQUIPMENT, IN ADDITION TO HIGH-QUALITY MICROPHONES.
Preferably, the camera should now be shooting one of the better High-Definition formats -- unless you still require Standard Definition. But please read below about what's happening with current courtroom projection equipment.
It is no longer necessary for the cameras themselves to be large ENG field units. However, there is nothing wrong with using the larger cameras -- that is, unless your deponent is intimidated by their size.
Every manufacturer now makes fully-professional cameras that are quite small and compact. And we are certainly not referring to consumer or even the "prosumer" cameras here, either.
If it's designated "professional" by the manufacturer, the smaller camera will be just as capable as its larger brethren, and it will certainly be less-intimidating to your deponent.
(2) YOU NEED A VIDEOGRAPHER WHOSE CAMERAS RECORD ONTO AN ARCHIVAL "CAMERA ORIGINAL" MEDIUM (SUCH AS DIGITAL VIDEO-TAPE OR PRO-DISC) DURING THE SHOOT.
This ONLY includes Digital Video Tape (such as HDV, DV, Mini-DV, HD-CAM, DV-CAM, DVC-PRO, and DVC-PRO-HD) or the Professional Encased BluRay Discs (known as Sony's XD-CAM ProDisc format).
Recording to a memory card or hard drive is only acceptable if the camera is also recording to a Digital Tape at the same time.
The reasoning behind this will be explained in detail below.
However, let me emphasize an important aspect that you must remember: You are required to retain and store an unedited "original" recording of the proceeding -- and not just "any old original that is stored somewhere", but, preferably, a bona-fide "camera original"!
There is a important difference here that we'll also explain in detail shortly.
The best way to ensure that you're not in violation of any statutes regarding this issue is to make certain that your videographer is recording either onto Digital Video-Tapes or onto Digital Pro-Discs -- tapes or discs that will be archived and NEVER erased!
Believe us, tape is NOT dead -- far from it -- not as long as it's Digital tape!
(3) FOR DEPOSITIONS, YOU NEED A VIDEOGRAPHER WHO BURNS A REDUNDANT COPY OF THE PROCEEDINGS ONTO AN ARCHIVAL-GRADE DVD-R AT THE SAME TIME THE CAMERA IS RECORDING ITS ORIGINAL TAPE.
When shooting depositions, GALAXIE LEGAL VIDEO uses Sony Pro-HDV cameras that record in High-Definition onto Digital Video-Tape. If you prefer, our cameras have the option of recording onto the tape in Standard Definition, as well.
Simultaneously, we down-convert the HD output from the camera to Standard Definition and burn an Archival-Grade DVD-R in an adjacent deck. In fact, we can even record a VHS format tape at the same time if you're still using that format (as some people are).
The camera's HDV-Tape is labeled as the "camera original" and the Archival-Grade DVD-R is labeled as the "DVD-original". You will be given the Archival DVD-R, and Galaxie will temporarily store the camera original tape for your future requirements.
(4) YOU NEED A VIDEOGRAPHER WHO USES A 3-CCD CHIP CAMCORDER OR IT'S EQUIVALENT -- SUCH AS A HIGH-QUALITY SINGLE C-MOS CHIP CAMERA.
This is mainly to maintain the exposure latitude quality of the image -- i.e., to better-maintain shadow, mid-tone, and highlight detail.
Some professional video cameras now use a single C-MOS chip configuration that gives you the same image latitude of 3-CCD chip cameras. These single C-MOS chip cameras produce excellent image quality and, in some cases, produce images superior to the 3-CCD chip cameras.
GALAXIE has an array of cameras that have either 3-CCD chips or a single high-quality C-MOS chip.
(5) YOU NEED A VIDEOGRAPHER WHOSE CAMERAS WILL BURN THE DATE AND TIME, WITH VISIBLE SECONDS, INTO THE ORIGINAL IMAGE AS IT'S BEING RECORDED.
Many Non-Linear Editing Systems cannot generate that info from the recordings' Meta-Data or Time-Code and burn it into the actual image.
Some videographers are cheating this issue by adding the date & time-code when dubbing the recording from one medium to another at a later time. But that means that the date/time stamp is actually not burned into the image of the original. It's only there as invisible metadata.
You NEED to have that information visible -- as a genuine part of the camera original's actual recorded image. GALAXIE LEGAL VIDEO's equipment does that.
If the information is burned into the original image by the camera itself during the actual recording, then that information is not going anywhere and it will always be visible.
Also, just having the date, hour, and minute visible is not enough for anyone trying to conveniently find a phrase of dialog in the testimony. You need the seconds to be visible, too.
Why?
Because time is money.
Being able to reference a line of testimony to the nearest second makes it far faster & easier to locate when preparing your case.
HERE IS WHAT YOU SHOULD AVOID:
(1) IF THEIR MEMORY CARDS WILL BE SUBSEQUENTLY ERASED SOON AFTERWARDS, AVOID VIDEOGRAPHERS WHO USE CAMERAS SYSTEMS THAT RECORD SOLELY ONTO MEMORY CARDS. *
And this is true even if a DVD-R is burned simultaneously during the deposition.
* The ONLY exception to this would be if the Videographer immediately backs-up the material onto Archival-Grade DVD-R's or Digital Video-Tapes after transferring the material to his hard drives. Also, some cameras will simultaneously record to Digital Tape and a Memory Card. THAT is an excellent approach and is a very acceptable procedure.
But you should avoid cameras that record to memory cards only. The reason for this is explained in detail below.
(2) IF YOU WANT YOUR DVD-R'S TO LAST FOR MORE THAN A COUPLE YEARS, AVOID VIDEOGRAPHERS WHO RECORD OR COPY ONTO STANDARD-GRADE DVD-R's.
Unless the copy is just for temporary use, legal recordings should be etched onto Archival-Grade DVD-R's -- preferably burned in real time or at the slowest burn speeds allowable.
The archival-grade discs have an estimated 100-year storage life. But Standard DVD-R's only have a seven year life, and we've even seen some go bad in a couple of years.
Standard DVD-R's etched at high burn speeds are also more prone to decaying faster than Standard DVD-R's etched at slower burn speeds.
For longevity, DVD-R's should be burned at slow speeds with the highest image-quality setting available.
(On the other hand, please don't confuse the recording-speed of digital optical discs with the recording-speed of video-tapes. Digital video-tapes should be recorded at the highest tape-speeds possible because that practice produces the best image quality and minimizes the chances of data "drop outs".)
(3) AVOID VIDEOGRAPHERS WHO RECORD SOLELY TO A HARD DRIVE DURING THE PROCEEDING.
Regardless of what you have read about recent Hollywood movies doing this (a technique even foolish for that purpose in our opinion), this is certainly not a safe procedure for any kind of legal videography.
While hard drives have become vastly better and more efficient over the years, they are still "hard drives".
And what do we all know about hard drives?
We know that when it comes to dealing with a hard drive, it's not an issue of IF the hard drive will ever fail, it's an issue of WHEN it is going to fail -- because, eventually, every hard drive WILL indeed fail!
(4) AVOID VIDEOGRAPHERS WHO USE CAMERAS THAT RECORD IN THE "AVCHD" CONSUMER-VIDEO FORMAT.
The AVCHD format uses far more compression that any other digital video format out there, and, as such, is far more difficult to properly edit in a Non-Linear Editing program.
NOW, WHY ARE WE SAYING THESE THINGS? AREN'T THERE EXCEPTIONS?
LET US EXPLAIN...
YOU HAVE A LAWFUL NEED FOR A "CAMERA ORIGINAL" -- ONE THAT WILL NEVER DISAPPEAR NOR BE ERASED.
First off, as we said before, you are required to have an "original" recording that is a complete and unaltered chronicle of what happened while "on record". A copy or clone of an "original" can indeed be certified as an "original" itself, if its content is exactly the same as the initial original (or should I say the "original original"?).
But ask yourself, "How safe would it be to record onto a volatile medium that requires me to transfer the data to another medium and yet to another medium again for safety?"
Now, of course, as a rule, many of us follow that very procedure when we're editing a presentation copy of our depositions and other legal projects. We use hard drive arrays (raids) and make back-ups onto other arrays of our editing in progress. And there's nothing wrong with that. That's exactly what we should be doing.
But if we've recorded onto digital video tape, we still have an archived "camera original" that we can fall-back on in the event a disaster hits our computers.
However, consider the videographer who shoots with a camera that only records onto a memory card.
Those cards are excruciatingly expensive -- ranging from $150 for a 16 GB Delkin UDMA CompactFlash Card to $800 for a 16 GB Panasonic P2-A card. And those costs go much higher for greater capacity and transfer speed. As I write this, the highest-end Panasonic 64 GB P2 HD card is selling at B&H Photo-Video for $2400.
So, my friend, that videographer with the memory-card camera is not going to store his memory card for you with your material on it in an archive, nor is he going to give you that memory card for you to store somewhere yourself.
What he is going to do will be to transfer the data off of his card onto his computer hard drive and then he's going to wipe that card's memory so he can re-use the card on his next job.
Now, let's say he does that. What has just happened?
Well, there is no longer a "camera original" of your material now, is there? Sure, there's an exact copy on his hard drive that can be construed as a legal original -- but that hard drive is a volatile medium, remember?
Okay, so let's say the videographer makes two redundant back-ups of the data onto two other different hard drive arrays? Great, now you've got two more copies of that data on two more volatile media. (Ever try reviving a removable hard drive that's been sitting on a shelf for a few years?)
The only way this videographer can guarantee you that this data will never be lost will be to transfer all of it from his hard drive onto archival-grade DVD-R's.
But isn't that getting to be a convoluted, expensive, and time consuming process?
However, if the videographer uses a digital tape format in the camera (the most expensive of which is the 63-minute "Sony DV-CAM for HDV" tape selling at B&H for $16), then that video tape becomes your archival "camera original" and can be stored right after its content has been transferred to wherever it needed to go.
Okay now, is there any time when a memory-card camera is preferable? Sure. But rarely in the field of legal videography.
The memory card cameras are excellent for broadcast news and wedding videographers, where the material must be instantly edited and presented. The data can be transferred from the card into the editing computers at rates far faster than the real amount of time it was recorded in.
But this kind of speed is rarely called-for in legal videography.
And we would rather not trade-off our ability to provide you with an instantly archiveable camera original during the recording process for an unnecessarily higher ingest speed in post.
While we know we may define an "original" recording in different ways these days, there most certainly is an established precedent for having a tangible video-tape recording that originates in the camera itself.
ADDITIONALLY...
SHOOTING IN HIGH-DEFINITION IS NOT OVERKILL FOR DEPOSITIONS
Right now, our courts are in a transitional period regarding technology. But as Alvin Toffler indicated in his book, FUTURE SHOCK, this is never going to end.
While many of the courts have been sold a bill of goods and invested in older AV equipment that they may never be able to figure-out how to use correctly, independent legal videographers are investing in their own court presentation equipment and AV projectors.
Almost all current AV projectors are capable of projecting High-Definition Wide-Screen images that measure at least 720 by 1280 pixels in resolution -- an image far sharper and more pleasing to look at than the Standard DV resolution of 480 by 720.
With Digital HD broadcasting now the national standard, it is only a matter of days before such resolution will be demanded in the courtrooms it's not yet being deployed in.
In fact, with any image presented on a screen-size greater than 20 inches across, people -- especially jurors -- are going to demand it to be in HD.
Shooting all of your legal video -- including depositions -- in HD will future-proof your deliverables.
And besides, remember that all those nuances the deponent is sure to display will become that much clearer in High-Definition.
MPEG 1 IS NOW OBSOLETE. MPEG 2 DELIVERS THE QUALITY YOU NOW NEED. AND THE CURRENT DIGITAL EDITING SOFTWARE CAN HANDLE IT.In general, MPEG 1 format cannot deliver image quality that is any better than the analog VHS format.
MPEG 2 can deliver full Standard and High Definition Video imagery. And now, virtually every digital editing package can handle the editing of MPEG-2 source material.
However, GALAXIE LEGAL VIDEO can even convert MPEG 2 files into frame-discreet AVI files for editing, if necessary, with no degradation of image quality.
Whatever your legal video needs, GALAXIE LEGAL VIDEO SPECIALISTS stands ready to deliver what you and the courts require -- at the highest-quality level available.
We will be happy to hear from you and will offer free initial consultation regarding your legal video needs.
Copyright (C) David V. Gregory and Galaxie Legal Video Specialists
World Rights Reserved
Unauthorized reproduction in any form without receiving prior permission is strictly prohibited.
CLICK HERE TO READ
A SPECIAL REPORT ON
THE STATE OF
LEGAL VIDEOGRAPHY TODAY
FEEL FREE TO CALL FOR MORE INFORMATION & PRICES.
contact:
DAVE GREGORY, CCVS
GALAXIE LEGAL VIDEO SPECIALISTS
Mobile Telephone: 1-818-915-DAVE
Home-Office Telephone: 1-818-362-6005
E-mail: GalaxieLegalVideo@gmail.com
mailing address:
P.O. Box 922405
Sylmar, California 91392-2405
CLICK HERE to Return to
the GALAXIE LEGAL VIDEO Table of Contents.
CLICK HERE to Return to
the GALAXIE LEGAL VIDEO Home Page.
To visit our Other Cool Links, please Click Here.
The words "Galaxie Legal Video", "Galaxie Legal Video Specialists", "Galaxie Online", "GalaxieOnline", and "GalaxieOnline.Com" are the International Trade-Marks of Galaxie Entertainment Company
Legal Video Specialists, Videography, Specialist, Complete Services, Los Angeles, Depositions, Deposition, Activities of Daily Living, Mediation Documentaries, Documentary, Crime-Scene, Special-Investigations-Unit Coverage, Construction Videos, Will-Execution Ceremonies, Ceremony, Pre-Nuptial Agreement Signings, Signing, Galaxie
