Amsterdam – September 9th, 2016: After 24h Berlin and 24h Jerusalem, Berlin-based production company zero one 24 is continuing its success story with 24h Bayern. Over 100 camera teams made a portrait of life in Bavaria over a 24 hour period, from the point of view of its inhabitants. 24h Bayern recounts more than 80 personal stories from one day and night, spread across the 70,000 square kilometres of the southern German state.

Project director Volker Heise selected each of the protagonists as a representative sample of the population, aiming to realistically depict varied dialects, as well as showing the tensions between town and countryside, industry and nature, and foreigners and natives.

The Bayerische Rundfunk-commissioned production was produced by zero one 24 in cooperation with the Munich production company megaherz. Following nine months of preparation and two days of filming, the production will be broadcast in early June 2017 on the BR Fernsehen channel.

Challenge
​Without a transparent, end-to-end workflow – from filming through to post-production – and seamlessly interoperable technology, a project of this magnitude simply could not be tackled.

Around 100 cameras from the same manufacturer had to be ready for the week of the main filming day – 3rd June 2016. On the one hand, these cameras needed to have the same technical configuration in order to achieve a harmonious look and feel for the final television viewer. On the other hand, the range of cameras from the manufacturer also had to be diverse enough in terms of ergonomics and technical options to encompass every possible filming situation – from small rooms, driving in cars, or outdoor landscapes.
​Solution
​"We are proud to support yet another milestone in the history of German television, alongside 24h Berlin and 24h Jerusalem, working closely with our partner BPM Broadcast & Professional Media GmbH," commented Wilfred Orth, account manager at Sony Professional.

Over a ton of equipment was collected in the production centre, a large studio hall on the Bayerische Rundfunk premises in the Unterföhring district of Munich. Over the course of a day, more than 100 shooting teams collected a total of 107 XDCAM camcorders from Sony – 22x PDW-700s, 45x PXW-FS7s, 30x PXW-Z150s, five PXW-FS5s, and five PXW-F5s. Each team recorded its footage on SxS cards, SDXC, XQD, and Professional Discs with capacities of either 64 or 128 GB.

A large number of the cameras and accessories were technically checked by BPM beforehand, before being catalogued and individually packed by each camera team, ready for filming. A further twelve PDW-700s were provided by Bayerische Rundfunk.

"With more than 100 filming teams there were very different levels of experience and knowledge when it came to operating the Sony cameras. Thanks to the selection of cameras on hand, we were able to ensure each team had a model they were familiar with," said Julian Steinemann, the technical co-ordinator in charge of the production’s equipment and duplicating the recorded material.
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​The Result
​80 camera teams were assigned to one protagonist each, and usually comprised a director, cameraman, sound recordist, and location manager. Around 20 teams captured impressions of the Bavarian landscape with the Sony PXW-FS7.

Each filming team worked completely independently, but each camera was programmed with the same pre-sets. The protagonists were filmed throughout in 1080i50 XDCAM 422 format, while the impressions teams filmed in 1080i50 XAVC-L 50 Mbps, using SLog3/Gamut3.Cine. Other than polarising, UV, and ND filters, no other filters could be used and no image-altering settings could be adjusted.

In order to create a consistent narrative style, the camera teams also had to capture the protagonists' stories without a tripod and only using the available natural light. Only the impressions teams were allowed to work with tripods.

“The five Sony MRW-E90 XQD/SDXC card readers, which Sony kindly made available just before the roll-out, were an enormous help when downloading footage, particularly thanks to reading XQD cards at approximately 350 Mbps. The entire download process was complete only an hour after the last team returned to the production centre," continued Julian Steinemann.

Why Sony camcorders?
​"Sony has been a reliable, valuable technology partner, working alongside us since the first 24 hour production in Berlin eight years ago. Virtually no other manufacturer is in a position to provide so much professional equipment at such short notice for our production operation, and to put together such a robust financing arrangement. We are pleased to have Sony as our preferred partner and the main supplier for production equipment once again," commented Thomas Kufus, managing director and producer at zero one 24.

The Sony PXW-FS7 has firmly established itself as the camera of choice for documentaries, and adoption amongst broadcasters is growing. The PXW-FS5, weighing just 800 grams, is the ultimate handheld camcorder and offers full creative control even in confined filming locations. This production was the PXW-Z150's first major deployment as an ‘out of the box’ camera with a fixed lens, and it impressed with its quick read-out and the high sensitivity levels provided by its new 1” EXMOR-RS sensor.
​Quote from customer
​"As with 24h Berlin and 24h Jerusalem, the support and co-operation from the Sony team in Berlin was incredibly helpful and highly reliable. For this production, we were using even more cameras than in previous years, all benefiting from state-of-the-art technology from Sony and ideally suited to a large documentary project like this," Thomas Kufus summarises.

For more information about the project, please visit: http://www.24hbayern.de
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