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MillimeterMaxell iVDR Xtreme In the Field
Nov 24, 2009 12:00 PM
People from the coast of British Columbia and Washington participate in Tribal Journeys, which consists of a sequence of excursions in which families, nations, and groups travel in oceangoing, mostly dug-out cedar canoes (some more than 200 years old). The iVDR Xtreme was subjected to humidity, large temperature fluctuations, rain, fog, and salt spray, but it never faltered.
iVDR in the wild
Marcus has shot, produced, or directed (and sometimes all three) hundreds of concerts, music videos, commercials, and feature films, and his broad experience in the field makes him a go-to guy for documentaries. For that, he owes his earliest credentials to the master of underwater adventures, Jacques Cousteau. Working as a team coordinator and underwater cameraman, Marcus spent two years with the Cousteau research team, which culminated in his production and direction of a scuba diving film featuring Cousteau's son Jean Michel, who continues to expand the Cousteau legacy.
So it wasn't all that surprising when Marcus decided to document Tribal Journeys, an annual event that pits men and women against nature to trace the journey their ancestors made nearly 1,000 years ago. Tribal Journeys is a celebrated event conducted every year for the indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest coast. People from the coast of British Columbia and Washington participate in the event, which consists of a sequence of excursions in which families, nations, and groups travel in oceangoing, mostly dug-out cedar canoes (some more than 200 years old). The event has taken place every year since 1993, with its first journey to Bella Bella, British Columbia. The History Channel has expressed interest in airing the work.
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Tribal Journeys 2009 began in early July on the shores of villages in Washington, Oregon, Alaska, and British Columbia, and participants completed final landings at the Port Madison Indian Reservation in Washington, home of the Suquamish tribe. This year, more than 90 canoes representing more than 30 tribes and nations commemorated the first historic journey.
This latest project in extreme filmmaking would expose Marcus and his equipment to a variety of hostile conditions: humidity, large temperature fluctuations, rain, fog, and salt spray. In addition, the crew spent almost every day on a boat, and the camera was often rigged to the canoes themselves as their crews fought through rough water. This was a defining capture-it-or-lose-it event, and Marcus had one external storage device: the iVDR Xtreme.
To gain greater assurance that the iVDR Xtreme would survive the journey, Marcus banged on it, dropped it, immersed it in ice cubes, and even put it in his freezer before he departed to the Pacific Northwest. After performing these tests, he says, it still worked flawlessly. He used the drive to shoot his work throughout Tribal Journey, transferred his day's work from the iVDR drive to his Apple MacBook Pro, and was ready for the next day's encounters.
"The drive performed without a flinch," Marcus says. "Even under these really nasty conditions, I never had a problem, nor have I since. It's shockproof, waterproof, and built tough, and gives me a level of confidence I did not have before."
The boats in Tribal Journeys received blessings before starting their voyages.
What's next?
Having proven itself in Tribal Journeys, the iVDR Xtreme will accompany Marcus into the heat and humidity of Cambodia. There, Marcus will be shooting a documentary illustrating the work of the Aloha Medical Mission, an organization of physicians and surgeons who volunteer to travel to Third World Pacific Rim nations to operate on children born with facial disfigurements. After that, he'll be shooting a documentary in South Africa.
He will also use the iVDR drive when filming commercials, which lets Marcus transfer the content to his notebook computer, edit it, transfer it back to the iVDR drive, and take it to a television station where it is downloaded to the station's computer. He previously made the transfer via DVD or Blu-ray optical disc, which was slower and incurred some loss of quality, something that does not occur with the iVDR Xtreme. Marcus says he is looking forward to adding another iVDR Xtreme. "It's my puppy now, and I swear by it," he says. "I would never go on a project without it."
Continue the discussion on “Crosstalk” the Millimeter Forum.