United Kingdom
Professional Video
Content creation & presentation
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Middlesex University
Formed in 1992, Middlesex University has recently purchased forty JVC GY-HM100 ProHD camcorders, alongside a GY-HM700, for use on various courses. Middlesex University also plans to purchase another forty GY-HM100s within a year. Andrew Pomphrey, Senior Technician, Time-Based Media, talks about the University’s plans for the future and the reasons for choosing JVC’s solid-state camcorders.
“We needed a lightweight, affordable camera that would give us a good image,”
Andrew explained. “We also had to bear in mind it would be the first time that most students had handled this sort of camcorder, so we wanted something that was durable – JVC’s
GY-HM100 ticked all the right boxes. We will be using these camcorders on a number of courses including Animation, Moving Images and Film, Video and Interactive Arts.”
The Digital Media Workshop at Middlesex University is currently undergoing major refurbishments and the new cameras were an essential part of its plans.
“They are small and great for documentary and guerilla filmmaking,” Andrew continues. “Yet offer all the features of a larger camera, including balanced audio connections, good manual controls and a nice lens. It's a very good teaching tool.
“We were going to stick to tape-based cameras initially, as this would provide affordable data backup for the students, but as the SDHC cards used by the JVC camcorders are so
inexpensive, these can be used instead. The cameras are a good price, which means we feel comfortable lending them overnight, giving students the freedom to develop their skills and
ideas. The Digital Media Workshop has a central EditShare server, with 35 workstations attached, running a mixture of Final Cut Studio and Production Premium editing systems.
“As the JVC camcorders record in .MOV and .MP4 formats, the students can begin
editing quickly,” Andrew explains. “With no need to transcode the files before editing, storage requirements were reduced, allowing up to 300 streams, and in turn enabling over
fifty edit stations to work directly off the server at any one time.”
One student who’s already well-acquainted with the new GY-HM100 camcorders is Ethan Race, a Middlesex student in his second year of the BA Film Video and Interactive Arts degree.
Ethan won ‘Best Drama’ category in the ‘Blast Future Film Awards’ with his film, Conflict. Ethan, pictured left, was awarded a £3,000 bursary to make a film with a
professional crew to a professional standard and has been working on this film for six months.
“I have used a range of rented cameras during the project,” Ethan reveals. “But now the GY-HM100s have turned up, I’ve been able to shoot the final scenes in 1080i.”
Ethan’s film, Rapture, will be show on BBC2 in November and BFI, Feb 2010.
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