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News from the TV and Film industry

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• Bollywood Turns to Books for Inspiration
• Disney to Release 5 Movies on IMAX
• T.V. Channels run by Religious and Political Bodies in Trouble
• The Strike
• Re-Run Season on Indian Television
• Indrani Mukerjea Makes it to 'The 50 Women to Watch 2008'
• Recipe Of A Film's Success
• The Emerging Role Of HR In Our Industry
• Indian Cable Industry To Go Digital In 5 Years
• Sony HVR Z7 Camcorder
• Indian Film Industry takes piracy battle to US Congress
• A beginner's guide to VFX and Animation
• The D Cinema Revolution
• NBC invests in NDTV - 22-01-08
• P2 Card FAQs - 21-01-08

Bollywood Turns to Books for Inspiration
Tales of life and love in new age India are being eagerly lapped up by Bollywood, in the absence of strong scripts, as ideas for popular cinema. The works of authors like Karan Bajaj, Anuja Chauhan, Chetan Bhagat, have already been, or, are in the process of being made into films by prominent production houses.

UTV Motion Pictures Plc., which earlier produced Mira Nair's 'The Namesake', based on the book by Jhumpa Lahiri, has lined up 'What's Your Rashee?', directed by Ashutosh Gowariker and based on the book 'Kimball Ravenswood' by Madhu Rye, for release next year. It is also currently working on scripts for five films, all based on books whose rights the firm has optioned. Similarly, Indian Film Co., a publicly listed production house which is promoted by Studio 18, is in the process of converting the stories of upto eight books into screenplays. Anuja Chauhan's chick-lit debut, 'The Zoya Factor', is being turned into a film by Shahrukh Khan's Red Chillies Entertainment, while Karan Bajaj's 'Keep Off the Grass' is being adapted by Mosaic Media Group-the production company behind 'The Dark Knight'- in conjunction with Bollywood partners.

Siddhartha Roy Kapoor, chief executive of UTV Motion Pictures, explains this phenomenon, "When fiction is recognized and successful, and when it translates well, then we have a ready-made screenplay. Books have been made into films for years, but it is not often that English language books have been made into mainstream films. That is a first." Echoing similar sentiments is Sandeep Bhargava, chief executive of the investment adviser to Indian Film Co., says, "Optioning books saves us a fair amount of time in the film-making process, but the main attraction is that we are getting the concept right." So next time you don't want to read the latest Indian bestseller, just wait for a year or two. You can always watch the movie.

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Disney to Release 5 Movies on IMAX
Walt Disney recently announced that it has agreed to deliver five movies via IMAX theatres. The first movie to be so released will be the 3-D production "A Christmas Carol", starring Jim Carrey, in November 2009. Future films may also include those made by director Tim Burton and producer Jerry Bruckheimer, the studio said. IMAX Corp., is in the midst of rolling out digital projection technology at its large screen theatres and the Disney slate takes advantage of that.

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T.V. Channels run by Religious and Political Bodies in Trouble
If the government accepts the recommendations of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) to make television content fair, all television channels owned by religious and political bodies, and run by their office-bearers, may be phased out. According to a TRAI official, "However, a person who is just a member of a political party or a religious body, but not an office-bearer, can own a television channel."

Presently, there are 35 channels based on religion and 5 channels affiliated to political parties including Congress, CPIM, DMK and AIDMK in India. The Congress and the Nationalist Congress party also plan to start new channels, including one by the Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee. TRAI recommendations can affect channels like Sri Venkateshwara Bhakti channel run by the Venkateshwara Temple Trust and Tirupati channel, owned by Tirupati Devasthanam, and Christian channels like God.

Says TRAI chairperson Nripendra Misra, in his letter to I&B secretary Sushma Singh, "I hope these recommendations will ensure that the broadcasting medium is used for advancing the larger public interest and for the greater realization of the common man's right to be informed fully and fairly on all matters." TRAI has also asked the I&B ministry to tighten the code for religious content in the proposed Broadcast regulatory Bill.

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The Strike
The history

On 2nd October 2008, 14,0000 cine workers went on strike when an indefinite non-cooperation movement was launched by the federation of the film industry(FWICE). FWICE is an umbrella body that controls 22 industry associations.

FWICE had put up demands such as decent working standards for the workers in the film industry, proper working hours, setting minimum wages, employment of only the federation members, etc. These demands had been stated in the MOU (Memorandum of Understanding) which had been signed by the Producers associations but was not being implemented.

When the federation realized that their demands were falling on deaf ears, they declared an indefinite non co-operation movement on 2nd October, when all the workers from the film industry refused to work.

This movement ended on the third day when the producer associations, after a meeting with the federation, agreed to the demands and drafted another Memorandum of Understanding. The MOU was agreed upon and signed by both the producers' associations and the federation.

A month passed but the producers from the television industry were still not following the MOU. When questioned, the producers blamed it on the non co-operation of the TV channels.

The federation decided to hold another indefinite non co-operation movement for the television industry and declared another indefinite strike on the 12th of November in Mumbai.

The trigger

The grouse seems to stem from the fact that though film budgets have shot up multi- fold, the workers did not benefit from this development. While many believe that industry workers are the best paid in the country, they are deprived of facilities like medical help, in addition to poor working conditions, inhuman working hours, non timely payments and bad debts.

The fact is that with so many channels coming in, the work load on the existing producers has increased. This led to an increased requirement of working capital, as each show needs a new investment. Many producers do not clear the payment of the workers for months together and sometimes don't pay at all.

Why the talks failed

In the case of television, the producers in television are 'job workers' or 'executive producers' who keep a fixed margin for producing shows for the channel. It takes workers, producers and channels to resolve the strike. The agreement was worked out between the producers and workers without taking the channels in confidence. As one producer commented bluntly, "We don't own the IPR of the shows we produce, there is nothing in it for us to pay extra. Its only shaves our margins. If the channels shell out more, we'll pass that on to the workers."

On the other hand, the channels have refused to increase the budgets in these difficult times and hence the deadlock.

Wrong timing

Presently all popular GECs are showing repeat runs. A representative from a channel commented, "In times of slow down, this helps the channels save money as advertising rates have dropped anyways. Since all channels are in the same boat there is little chance of losing viewership to rival channels."

Had this strike been called about 4 months back, when money was pouring in, all channels would have agreed and it would have been a winning situation for the workers.

What would be a better solution?

Employment and remuneration of workers is about demand and supply. One industry well-wisher suggests that in these difficult times, FWICE should fight for all other demands except increasing payments. It does not cost much to get better working conditions, medical facilities etc for the workers. These are demands that can be easily pressed and monitored. How much does it cost to maintain good bathrooms in shooting studios? Why can't there be areas for the workers to rest in their free time? Medical facilities are easy to provide. It is more about willingness than money. The FWICE has enough workers to push that.

While increasing payments is a challenge in these times, FWICE can sure push for timely payments. What the workers negotiate with the producers should not be their problem, but they can surely push the producers to pay on time. One producer, whose popular show is on air, complains "Channels do not pay us for months, how do we sustain?"

One shouldn't become a producer if he is not able to sustain operations on his own. A producer mentions "The channels are getting greedy. They hire newer, smaller producers to save money, without realising the pocket strength of the producer." Producers cannot absolve their commitment to pay by blaming the channels, at the same time the channels must pay the producers as committed.

As the deadlock continues, an overworked TV industry enjoys its break. Will we see better television practices on and off screen, here onwards, only time will tell.

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Re-Run Season on Indian Television
In an attempt to put pressure on television programme producers to sort out their wage-related stalemate with agitating television workers, all major general entertainment channels (GECs), have started airing reruns of their shows starting Monday, the 10th of November. This includes heavyweights like Star, Zee, Colors, Sony, 9X and NDTV Imagine. Industry executives seem to believe this move will help find a solution to the problem, even though TRPs are sure to fall because of the repeat telecasts. Also, advertisers are saying that they might find alternative genres like sports, if things remain the same for too long.

Trouble has been brewing over the payment front since a couple of years, with the workers demanding higher wages, and the producers being unable to do so since the channels are not willing to pay more for the programmes, as the advertisers will not pay more for ad slots given the bad market conditions.

According to Chandradeep Mitra, president, Mudra Max, "It's a kind of domino effect. Naturally, advertisers are not happy with advertising on reruns, but are willing to wait and watch for a week to 10 days." Both the Indian Society of Advertising and the Advertising Agencies Association of India have sent out advisories to their members-advertisers and media agencies-to support the broadcasters in their stand at least for the time being. Says Shashi Sinha, CEO of media agency Lodestar Universal, who is worried about cost inflation hitting the industry, "If the industry gives in to such threats, it will be harmful in the long run."

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Indrani Mukerjea Makes it to 'The 50 Women to Watch 2008'
Indrani Mukerjea, 36, Chief Executive of INX Media Ltd., has been included in the prestigious 'The 50 Women to Watch 2008' list which highlights the achievements of some of the most influential women the world over. She has been placed 41st in the list which includes the likes of Indra Nooyi, Chairman and CEO of PepsiCo Inc., Christine Lagarde, Finance Minister of France, Melinda Gates, Co-Founder of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, etc.

INX Media currently runs three channels in India, including news and general entertainment channels and the popular 9XM video music channel. Ms. Mukherjea plans to launch nine more channels by the end of 2009. According to her, "Working in a male-dominated industry has been a challenge, but you fight on regardless." She believes that financial discipline will help her channels survive in the long run. "We will keep experimenting, while at the same time being cost-conscious. While everyone is talking about out-spending each other, I think the way to survive in this business is to tighten your belt. In the middle of the global economic meltdown, that helps you to be looked upon as a prudent leader."

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Recipe Of A Film's Success
We eavesdropped on a successful film making lecture in The Fantasy Media School. Some excerpts of the discussion between the students and the professor are reproduced here under:

Student : Sir, what is a successful film ?

Professor : A successful is one which makes more money than it costs. The costs include the cost of production, marketing, prints, commissions etc.

These days most producers pass off their risk and make profits by selling their movies to corporates who then set out to recover their investments from various rights like theatrical, satellite, music, overseas, video. The corporates too spread their risk by selling the different territories. So sometimes even after these corporates make money, the distributors or exhibitors in individual territories may be losers.

When I say successful, it does not mean money for just the producer, and corporates but even the distributors and exhibitors should make money.

For eg Sarkar Raj was declared a hit but probably some of the distributors lost on their investments. So while the corporate made money from his other rights the individual exhibitor who had only income avenue may have lost.

Student : A BHEJA FRY made only 8 crores whereas JHOOM BARABAR JHOOM made more than 20 crores. Then why is JBJ a flop and BF a hit?

Professor : Success is about investment v/s return & expectations V/s delivery?

BF was made on a budget of around Rs 1 crore and made 8 times that. While JBJ may have recovered money for the producers we doubt if JBJ would ever give that multiple of returns?

Sometimes films recover investments but they become emotional flops. i.e a Yashraj banner comes with certain expectations and JBJ did not deliver that. So while the film may have recovered on the strength of the producer's past performance it affected the standing of the banner's power.

Student : Sir, I just saw Singh is King and felt it's easy to make a film these days! Make a film, any film, throw in big stars, design a powerful marketing campaign and come with a huge number of prints at the time of release. Recover most of your investments within the first weekend and you are through.

Professor : My friend, sounds simple ?… but look closer and you'll release its never so… while we have films like Singh is King (SIK), Om Shanti Om (OSO)...which are success stories supported by the power of sheer marketing strategy we also have films like JHOOM BARABAR JHOOM (JBJ), SUNDAY, KRAZY 4, … which failed even after good marketing support and the support of great producers. These films may have made profits for the producers but someone must have lost money down the line. Don't forget that we only have a handful of stars and they are not within reach of all.

Student : I saw an ad announcing that SINGH is KING's first week recovery was 90 crores worldwide. Wow! That means it was into profits from the first week itself.

Professor : This figure of 90 crores is the worldwide gross figure and not the net profit. That huge number is a worldwide gross. About 60% of that would be from India i.e. about Rs 45 crores. After you deduct the entertainment taxes, distribution and other commissions the net take away would be about 50% of India's gross. i.e. about Rs 22.5 crores.

Typically such big roll out releases crash to 50% collections in the 2nd week hence the net take away further comes down to 25% of the gross collections as your theatricals rentals stay constant.

Nevertheless films have many recovery avenues so SIK is a hit for sure but the figures you see are hardly what comes home.

Student : With so many films releasing every week, how do I make a successful film without stars?

Professor : While mentioning the hits earlier, I forgot to add that films like AAMIR, WEDNESDAY, BHEJA FRY, KHOSLA KA GHOSLA, Jaane Tu..., ROCK ON … have become hits without star power.

These films had good content coupled with appropriate marketing and good controlled production budgets?

Student : What is an appropriate marketing strategy ?

Professor : The recipe of a film's success lies in planning it backwards. Depending on the film's concept and treatment it would be clear the team would know its target audience and the type of recovery the film would entail. That would decide the cost of production and the star cast required.

For Eg a SIK and an OSO were meant to be given a big release to a worldwide audience. The promotion was all over the place and the promotions budgets were earmarked accordingly so that it got the urban and the audience in the interiors. The films were purchased at huge figures and the distributor had to ensure that the marketing pulled in the audiences during its initial weekend.

JAANE TU … was low budget but it had the strong AAMIR KHAN brand supporting it. So the marketing was well planned and all over the place. The huge marketing was supported by a huge release to make it a safe bet for the investors.

On the other hand AAMIR, BHEJA FRY were made to cater to a niche audience and were promoted to the multiplex audience alone. They had good controlled production budgets to make recoveries comfortable. AAMIR, or BHEJA FRY would never have been hits had they made on the scale of budgets of PARTNER.

Student : What are good production controlled budgets?

Professor : If it caters to a multiplex audience then the film may not have to have the regular masala of songs and item numbers. The film may be shorter in duration. all these things save costs.

Student : So what should we keep in mind to make a successful film?

Professor : Creativity has not clear cut boundaries and formulae. So we might say that a successful film needs good content, planned costing and an appropriate marketing strategy to help it succeed. So son, it's not simple as you think... or you may soon discover as an upcoming film maker.

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The Emerging Role Of HR In Our Industry
HR as a concept is new to this 'unstructured' industry. The Film and TV industry, till sometime back worked on contacts and personal references.

This worked while the industry was still a small fraternity but no more. This is now turning out to be a full blown industry. One can see the rapid changes this industry has made in a short span of 3 to 4 years. The industry is going to employ 50 lakh people in the next 5 years. We are about to become 3 times its present size in the next 4 years. Big corporates like the Reliance (BIG), Birlas (Applause Entertainment), Tatas(Visual Computing Labs), Mahindras are looking at establishing themselves here. Existing companies are emerging from individual shadows to professional structures.

A jobsite like www.1takemedia.com for the industry was a no-no till a few months back. While we services 5 companies 3 months back today we service more than 20.

Job seekers and their families no longer treat this as a risk business. It is seen as an opportunity to get employed in this industry. We now see more educated professionals. MBAs, engineers are all taking a fancy for this industry. More and more media schools are opening giving a structured education for film making.

Most companies are now trying to create effective HR departments within their organisations.

An industry like ours can be called as a people's industry. Salaries and company background alone will not suffice. It is driven by people and their passions. HR skills play a very important role in this industry. The employees prefer a comfortable working environment beyond anything else. The HR person would need to understand this if he/she were to be a part of this industry.

The HR people coming to our industry are from pure brick and mortar business and commodity business.

This is not a commodity business. The skill sets of an efficient floor manager would not work as a floor manager of a shooting floor. Here no skill sets are clear cut. More importantly skill sets alone will not suffice in guarantying output. The incumbent HR person would need to understand the psyche of the industry professional. Here egos and associations play a big role. For e.g. a cameraman who delivers fantastic work for one film maker may be totally incompatible with another equally successful film maker.

It would be essential to understand the functioning companies and the culture the company operates in. For e.g. a culture at a T series would be totally different from a culture of SAREGAMA though they are both music companies.

With so many corporate companies coming in, good people are being moving from one company to another. It would be the job of HR to retain their people despite attractions all around.

In the nutshell, the role of HR is only going to be gain importance.

They will have to be understand the business. One senior HR manager from a TV channel mentions "The new HR people are being just aggregators of CVs. They get CVs and transfer them to the concerned department. They are still to read in between the lines in a CV."

A few months of practical understanding of the different departments would help him/her get some knowledge.

They will have to be nimble. With so many opportunities floating in the industry, the good people get picked up as soon the quit their earlier jobs. The HR department would have to be nimble enough to find, interview and take the good candidates. The Hr department of most companies understand this and have started using external recruiting agencies, like ours, who are well networked.

The HR person will have to network. With companies growing so fast, they need good people. The job of an HR executive is to find and get the right people to grow the organisation. They will have to find out the real worth of the candidates being hired. They would have to know enough people in the industry to find out about the true worth of the person being hired. We find that many companies come to us for finding the right candidate because we come from the industry are able to find and do a background check of most candidates independently.

They will have to give liberties. They will have to learn handling eccentricities and egos. This is a field where structures are still being created and creative people are in short supply. People like to work at their 'productive time'. One cannot expect them to keep people in boundaries of dress codes, time and desk. The idea should be to check deliveries rather and physical presence.

One senior HR person makes a valid point "The best way to develop good HR practices would be to have a HR expert along with an industry expert in the HR division. The mixture of these two would help both sides to understand each other and get hold of the right people for the organisation."

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Indian Cable Industry To Go Digital In 5 Years
The Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has asked the government to set a five-year timeframe for all cable TV operators to upgrade their analogue network to digital to compete with new distribution platforms, such as IPTV, HITS, besides improving their revenue earning Prospects.

TRAI pointed out that the present mode of Cable TV transmission has various limitations. Analogue systems lacks scope for technological upgrade, appropriate addressability and efficient resource utilisation, according to TRAI. While existing operators will be given a five-year window, TRAI has said that new cable TV players must be mandated to have digital networks in place within a three-year timeframe.

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Sony HVR Z7 Camcorder
We had the opportunity to review the Sony Z7 camcorder. The camcorder was provided courtesy, ACCORD EQUIPS, (www.accordequips.com) an equipment rental house.



To put it briefly, imagine the Sony Z1 with interchangeable lenses and progressive recording abilities. The camcorder takes into account all the competing HDV models and comes with features that would rate it as one of the best camcorders in the HDV segment. It has many functions of the DSR 450 packed into this camcorder.

Some basic details
Interchangeable lenses
HDV progressive ie (1080p and 1080i)
Records on dv, Dvcam also
Sensor : 3 CMOS (Sony 1/3” 3 clearvid cmos sensor)
Records on tape and solid state

Target audience :
From its build and features it looks like a camcorder useful to documentary makes, inde film makers, music videos, small budget ads etc.

RECORDING FORMATS
HDV (1080i and 1080p, 1080/24p, 1080/25p)
DV (in standard 480i)
DVCAM (in standard 480i)

RECORDING MEDIUM :
Mini DV tapes and HDV tapes
CF (compact flash) card.
Once can record on both the mediums simultaneously or independently.

Compact flash Cards (CF cards
The good thing about CF is that it's widely used. One can find such card for about Rs 2500/.
The only requirement is that the CF card must be at least 2GB and have a read/write speed of at least 133X.

Indian Film Industry takes piracy battle to US Congress
Campaigners against piracy in the entertainment industry in India, which loses four billion dollars a year to counterfeiters, have taken their battle to the US Congress. veteran Indian filmmaker Bobby Bedi said "We are losing 90 per cent of our home video market in the United States,".

Bedi further stated that American enforcement agencies were not forceful enough in helping plug losses suffered by the Indian entertainment industry in the US, where he said counterfeit Indian movies were being peddled mostly by mini retail stores. "We feel that we should get the same treatment as American producers should get as far as intellectual property is concerned," he said.

A recent study prepared for the US Indian Business Council by global accounting firm Ernst and Young showed that India's burgeoning entertainment industry lost as much as $4 billion and 800,000 direct jobs each year due to counterfeiting.

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A beginner's guide to VFX and Animation
Animation, VFX and gaming are the buzz words these days. Everybody right from companies to schools to students want to be a part of this explosion.

The D Cinema Revolution
India is the largest producer of films in the world but the Screen to viewer ratio in India is a poor 12 screens : 10,00,000 people (vis a vis US ratio of 117 people). India presently has 12,900 analogue screens and estimates says that we could do with a minimum of 10,000 additional screens.

More than 60 per cent of the film exhibition market is in South India. Andhra Pradesh has more than 2,800 cinema halls compared to 900 in Maharashtra and 1,100 in Uttar Pradesh. In 2004, there were around 250 Hindi films but 485 South Indian films.

Sadly traditional screens have been closing down regularly. The reasons are easy to understand. A traditional print costs about Rs 60,000/. To recover this cost itself the film should draw a fair number of cine goers to the theatre. Due to these high costs film makers first milk the print in big centre's and then transfer them to the B and C class centre. By the time the villagers watches these films the prints are either worn out and the film is almost stale as or he has already got to see the film through some poor quality pirated print. The pirate earns what the legitimate film maker and the theatre owner loses. In effect, the high print cost actually stifles the centre's of exhibition which in turn stifles the returns drawn for the theatrical release of films. To add to this problem more cinemas are now going for smaller capacities. I.e. more screens but smaller viewership capacity. The so called multiplex revolution will further need more prints per film.

Comes Digital cinema. This is a technology which uses digital prints. These digital prints could take the exhibition of any film in the remotest centre's of the country of India through the low costs. The digital print costs a fraction of the traditional print, are far easier to transport, and have more durability amongst other advantages. The D cinema and E cinema revolution will also curb piracy to a great extent.

Taking the concept of D cinema further is E cinema. Ie the film is transmitted in 100s of centre's from one distribution centre's digitally. In effect instead of sending digital prints the films are broadcasted digitally from one centre to the theatres across the country.

THE NEGATIVES AND SOLUTIONS

The worry most digital cinema owners have is the recovery of their investments in the digital projection setup.

Digital cinema brings a transition from mature film-based technology, having a medium cost and requiring a turnover of equipment assets every 15 years or whereas the very high cost digital technology, likely requiring a turnover in assets every 3-5 years. This requires a significant shift in the cinema business model, which has not been happily accepted by US cinema owners.

US needs such high investments is because the y want the best quality 4k digital projectors. It may make sense in the US as they have high ticket costs. In India where tickets rates are so low, one has to weigh the investment options carefully. Most digital cinemas in India are Single chip DLPs or LCD projectors. These are lower cost and have lower picture quality compared the high - end digital projectors. Given the fact the most remote centre's in any case view worn out prints the lower quality digital projectors would be better or match the quality of the worn out prints.

Earlier, the digital drive in India was hampered due to the higher initial investment and the lack of corporate finance. This is a capital intensive business and theatre owners would think twice before venturing into this new technology.

Companies like Pyramid Siamara and UFO have adopted a different model to grow their reach. The enter into franchisee agreement with theatre-owners on a revenue sharing basis as pure service providers without disturbing the existing business models operating in the industry between producers, distributors and exhibitors. The initial investment is merely Rs. 10-15 lakh (Rs. 1-1.5 million). If the franchisee is against investing this amount too then the companies offer a model of charging per screening. I.e. the theatre owner takes the projection equipment on rentals.

FICCI reports that the Indian film business is merely 0.67 per cent of the GDP (gross domestic product) as compared to 1.3 per cent in Thailand; 2.7 per cent in the US; 2 per cent in Brazil; and 1.1 per cent in S. Africa. E dinema has the ability to change that. An effective piracy control law, lower entertainment taxes and above all growth of E cinema can really change the face of the Indian film industry.

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NBC invests in NDTV - 22-01-08
NBC Universal paid $150 million (E103m) to purchase of a 26 per cent stake in New Delhi Television’s (NDTV) entertainment division, in a move aimed at exploiting the growing affluence of India’s middle-classes. Jeff Zucker, president of NBC Universal, said the deal was part of his declared strategy of doubling international revenues within three years.

The agreement in India allows NBC to buy up to 50 per cent of NDTV Networks in 2010, an option it expects to tThe D Cinema RevoluIndia is the largest producer of films in the world but the Screen to viewer ratio in India is a poor 12 screens : 10,00,000 people (vis a vis US ratio of 117 people). India presently has 12,900 analogue screens and estimates says that we could do with a minimum of 10,000 additional screens.ndia of $400 million to $500 million in the next four to five years.

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P2 Card FAQs - 21-01-08
As The industry warms up to tapeless formats for shooting film makers are getting curious with the emerging tapeless formats. P2 clearly has been the first to arrive and going by the number of queries we have received on the P2 cards, we give you a brief run down on the P2 cards offered by Panasonic for their camcorders HVX 200 or HVX 202.

Q  What is a P2 card?
A  A P2 card is a removable solid-state flash memory device which is physically and electronically PCMCIA compliant and can be inserted into and read by any standard PC card slot. P2 cards replace videotape as the method of recording video by any Panasonic P2 camcorder.

Q  What does "P2" stand for anyway?
A  P2 stands for "Professional Plug-in," referring to the removable flash memory cards which plug into slots on P2 equipment.

Q  What's the idea behind P2?
A  P2 was developed primarily for the news gathering industry as a way to acquire and distribute video content quickly and efficiently without the various limitations inherent to videotape and the video capture process.

Q  How does P2 work?
A  P2 records video onto flash memory as data, along with a variety of information specific to the video which is called metadata. The resulting data files may be quickly offloaded, shared, edited and distributed across a network, or ported to some other format. Within the specific realm of news gathering, Panasonic refers to this workflow process "ING."

Q  What is ING?
A  "ING" stands for IT News Gathering (and in case you're not familiar with the acronym "IT," it refers to Information Technology). Videotape recording equipment made field-portable and news-gathering became electronic, hence the name "ENG" to refer to the process of gathering news on videotape. Tapeless recording could be now termed "ING," or IT-based news gathering, as the next logical step in field reporting, not only in the form of tapeless cameras, but also in treating video as data throughout the processes of acquisition, post-production and distribution.

Q  But I don't work in news. How can P2 be right for me?
A  P2 and tape less recording concept is being pushed towards digital filmmakers, whose typically short takes are very similar to the short form recording style of news gathering. As P2 card prices drop and card capacities grow, Panasonic sees P2 eventually making its way into longer-form recording applications such as event videography.