Filming/Capturing/Logging Football Games (I need advice from techy vets)

[Mike Lowe]

Filming football games over the weekend has been pain-free and enjoyable. What I need to find a solution to is the bulk of editing I have after the games which could be easily solved if I could avoid having to capture and log plays AFTER the games and instead handle it DURING the games. Here is my general workflow:

Film game from two angles (sideline and endzone)

Capture video from both cameras (each tape is about 40 minutes of real-time capture)

Using a football software editing demo, which does not allow for live capturing, I then catalog each play as either OFFENSE, DEFENSE, or KICK. I then put all of the O,D,K plays together with one another and burn to a DVD for coach in which there are three chapters: O,D, and K.

This is relatively easy but I need some advice people! How can I run a live capture, preferably from BOTH cameras which are pretty far away from each other, which would allow me to log each play? There's tons of software out there that claim to do it but I'm not comfortable dropping thousands of dollars on their software; especially since I do not know if it works the way I want it and because I already have CS3 Master Collection.

I am hoping there's a way to run the sideline camera straight into the laptop and then the sideline camera straight into an external hard drive (or get really fancy and run it wirelessly) so that I can simply copy and paste the 2nd camera's footage to my laptop.

It's a pretty easy process but I'd love to be able to avoid capturing after the game and spending hours logging when I could easily have paid assistants handle the filming while I log the plays live.

www.webbelectronics.com is the site we are using some demo software from FYI. Thanks everyone!

[JediKooter]

Storage capacity that can handle the amount of data coming in would be one concern before worrying about logging.

The 40 minutes you mentioned, on average, how much storage space do they take? If it's HD, obviously it will be much more than SD.

One way I can think of is (You would need two computers though): Have one computer that is directly linked to each camera (just like when you transfer footage to the computer) and use the softwares camera controls to record/stop/play/RW/FW etc...The only concern is thru put. Can the computers handle the amount of data that is comming in from each camera so you don't end up being backed up and then lose track of the plays that are going on? Since you know when your team is on offense, defense or kicking, you should already have directories set up for each type of play and capturing straight to each directory as needed, thus, saving you time in post.

I've never attempted this with either Adobe or Final Cut, so I would suggest doing a dry run first to see if it is even possible.