P2 HD Media Goes Mobile: Renegade Productions Delivers iPod Content, TV Spots, and More
Established in 1988, Renegade Productions has a history of delivering high-quality advertising, production, training, and studio services to cable operators and cable networks. Today, the company has more than 6,000 square feet of studio facilities in Hunt Valley, Md., and an impressive client list, including companies such as Comcast, BET, and Encore.
With an inside track to industries that push the envelope in consumer technologies, Renegade has gained a reputation as a technology leader as well, equipped to implement some of today's most innovative advertising techniques. Clients seeking to drive consumers to new media and mediums, such as HD, video on demand, broadband, podcasts, and video mobile phones, look to Renegade to maximize these tools and produce quality content for them.
"The P2 to Avid workflow is a really good financial model for us. We're putting out some spots that look like we're spending
three times the budget we actually are."
- Chris Beutler, Creative Director, Renegade Productions
Banking on the iPod
Wilmington Trust, a major mid-Atlantic regional bank, enlisted Renegade Productions because of its leading-edge technical savvy and ability to provide one-stop production services. This was critical to Wilmington Trust as it sought to leverage mobile service delivery for a major campaign that coincided with the bank's appearance at the CDO Summit, a financial services industry conference held in December 2006.
Wilmington Trust's promotional roll-out included a free iPod that was given to selected conference participants. The iPod contained a two-minute video, which Renegade produced, that introduced the bank's CDO team and its capabilities to high-value banking prospects. The video was hosted by two key executives of the bank and was shot using Panasonic P2 HD cameras on Renegade's own stage with a green screen. Later, shots were composited with backgrounds of the Wilmington Trust logo for a sophisticated visual presentation.
While impressed with the video shoot results in HD, the client did have some concerns about losing significant video quality when the content was viewed on an iPod. To optimize the look on the small iPod screen, Renegade edited the presentation completely in HD, converting it to
SD only for the final output. To achieve the crisp, clear look that they sought, Renegade's post-production staff copied the P2 material directly to the local drive of an Avid Symphony Nitris editing system. Within the Symphony Nitris system, they transcoded the material with the Avid DNxHD 145 codec, a high-quality, storage-efficient encoding format. From there they leveraged their Avid Unity MediaNetwork storage system to send the encoded material to their Windows-based Media Composer Adrenaline system, where they did all of the creative editing using the Avid DNxHD codec.
"We did everything in HD, so that we would have the best look, dumping it all the way down to iPod," says Brian Stetson, Renegade's director of post production.
Renegade performed multiple client reviews of the video on the Media Composer Adrenaline system, with client executives spending two days on-site during the editing stage. "The best thing about the Avid [system] is the fact that it's all real time," says Stetson. "We were able to view all the graphics and have everything output to a plasma screen television for the client to view the spot. That was a real timesaver, and the client felt really involved in the process, which was nice."
In the end, the video looked fantastic going P2 to iPod, and Wilmington Trust was able to make a unique and personal connection with its prospects at an influential industry conference.
"Going P2 to a Symphony [Nitris system] we get great effects shooting native 24 fps/720p, and we're getting 40 minutes of HD on a card, [a 400 percent increase in storage capacity]."
- Chris Beutler, Creative Director, Renegade Productions
P2 to Avid is the Business Model
Renegade is now developing multiple projects in HD using P2 source media on an Avid Symphony Nitris system. On a recent infomercial spot for Vacation Travel Television, Renegade used a P2 camera to shoot 24 fps/720p HD media in 16:9 format, with plans to convert it to 4:3. They brought the 16:9 media into the Symphony Nitris system where the material was transcoded into the Avid DNxHD codec, laid out to DVCPRO HD tape, and downconverted to SD 4:3 in the deck. That material was digitized and then stored on the Avid Unity system and edited on a Media Composer Adrenaline system.
"We brought that [material] into the Adrenaline [system] at a 4:3 SD resolution, and we had unbelievably beautiful looking footage, with a great workflow," says Stetson. Renegade's creative director Chris Beutler adds, "With 60i [which the company had used previously] we could only get eight minutes on a card, so the workflow on the back end was crushing us. But going P2 to a Symphony [Nitris system], we get great effects shooting native 24 fps/720p, and we're getting 40 minutes of HD on a card, [a 400 percent increase in storage capacity]. We're shooting HD, getting the cinematic look we love, and bringing it into post. We're now maximizing the P2, artistically, going from stage to post."
Renegade's production time has also greatly improved as the company replaces traditional Varicam shots with P2 to Avid systems more often. "The field flow is improved, and the payoff look is great. We have a workflow now that is just killer in post. We're on the set looking at the monitor, doing our blocking, and we can just post it with the blow-up to 4:3," says Beutler. "It looks beautiful."
With Avid products making Renegade's move to HD simple and cost-effective, Renegade has changed its business model and now offers clients SD deliverables and an HD archive. In this way, clients receive the SD programming they need today, and, as the demand for HD content grows, their archived material can be quickly brought back and onlined to HD standards in the future. "The P2 to Avid workflow is a really good financial model for us," says Beutler. "We're putting out some spots that look like we're spending three times the budget we actually are. The Avid [system] really does make it easy for us to work with HD. When we bring in the native HD 1080 footage and transcode to Avid DNxHD, it's almost the same file size as SD. Clients love the look, and it's an up-sell and future opportunity with what we're shooting today."
A Strong HD Push
In addition to the strong word-of-mouth generated by its clients' projects, Renegade is receiving attention through the creation of a short film titled Push. The film recently received the Award of Distinction from the 2007 Communicator Awards, the leading international awards program recognizing creative excellence in the communication field. The award is presented for projects that exceed industry standards in quality and excellence in production.
Renegade produced the film entirely in house, from script to screen, handling the creative, production, and post services as well as implementing an interactive marketing campaign to promote the film. Renegade streams Push off its own Web site, where viewers guess the ending for the film's open-ended mystery. The film had its official theatrical premiere at the Newport Beach Film Festival and is also showing at the Maryland Film Festival.
Push is also used as an advertisement so prospects and customers can view the full extent of Renegade's production service capabilities and the high level of quality that they deliver. Jason Cohen, Renegade's director of marketing, explains, "We're using the film as an ice-breaker to show what we can do in video production as a whole." The company has already seen results, as new clients sign on to tackle even more media projects with style in a variety of output formats - from iPods to SD and HD programming.
To view an interactive experience with Renegade's film Push, visit http://www.pushshortfilm.com/.
* CREDIT: Images courtesy of Renegade Productions