Tamés: Why did you get involved with P2 technology?īraverman: I got involved with P2 because it represents Panasonic’s foray into an IT (information technology) based camera, are the first IT based cameras that anybody has really produced. The data simply moves along the pipe and pulling along all this other metadata which is what we need to facilitate digital workflow. And it’s effective because there’s no change to the video data or the audio data itself. The idea of MXF is that you have your audio and video, but you also have your metadata which is really at the focus of a lot of our discussion because metadata, accurately tracking metadata, represents for studios and producers a significant potential savings of money, because you can track for example, who shot this, who modified it, who graded it, who composited it, you have a record of access to that clip, which is contained in the metadata which travels along on this transport stream. Digital cinema, for example, is an MXF format. P2 is a transport stream, very similar to any other transport stream, except it was created by the entertainment industry to facilitate the movement of files through the production process from image acquisition, hopefully, ultimately, through the digital intermediate. I spoke with him about his perspective on P2 technology and its implications on workflow.ĭavid Tamés: What do you see as the role of P2 technology in production and post-production?īarry Braverman: P2 is Panasonic’s implementation of the SMPTE MXF format, Sony has XDCAM, their MXF format. As part of my research for the article I put together a music video shoot using P2 workflow and spoke with several filmmakers about their experience including Barry Braverman. I discuss Panasonic’s P2 technology and workflow in Part 2 of my article about the Panasonic AG-HVX200 camera that appears in the most recent issue of New England Film.