Blog: A Guide to Filming in the Wilderness – Mobile Editing Station

MOBILE EDITING STATION

One of the biggest challenges with filming in the outdoors is power management. Establishing solutions for camera batteries and media is easily solved by purchasing more of both but when it comes to power management of hard drives and laptops, that is where the problem arises. Further to this, solutions also depend on the length of time off the grid as well as how often you plan on using your computer. Below is a look at a few options as well as solutions that I have found to fit my needs.

For most people, editing while back-country filming isn’t a requirement but if it is, like it was when I was doing my 3 minute shorts, here are a few pointers. If you are planning to edit off of travel-sized drives, you will need a few back-ups as they are more prone to failures. I have literally had ALL my portable drives fail at some point as you are much more rough on them when hiking. For me, I have stopped using the portable drives all together and have instead turned to 3.5″ WD Caviar Black drives that have to be powered as they are able to withstand a little more disturbance (although still require care!).

When going off the grid during the shorts, I ensured that I had enough cards and batteries to allow me to film the entire week without dumping or charging batteries. During this week, I then only had to power my laptop. Editing takes much more processing power but I was still able to get three hours of use out of each laptop. To supplement the rest of the time I was off the grid, I purchased the HONDA EU1000i, which is a small generator. It lasts approximately 8hrs per tank and is under 30 pounds. You aren’t able to power your apartment from it but it works great for computers! I found that I was able to charge my laptops four times per tank of gas — which is pretty amazing! It is also super quiet.

Another option if you are only needing a few extra hours of battery life are the energizer battery packs. I have not used them with my macs as they do not have the right adapter but have heard good things about them. If you do a quick search, you can see what options exist as there are a few.

When at NAB, there were a few companies coming out with mobile editing stations with the batteries built right in but none of them were really light enough or compact enough to hall around with you when carrying everything else that you are already carrying. The generator was already pushing it! Although useful, and somewhat impractical, it did come in handy for the time I spent off the grid.

When producing my shorts last year, I was on the road for a majority of them and found myself tapping into my vehicle to charge batteries and laptops using an inverter. I would find myself leaving my car run in order to charge everything. Very impractical! This year I took a somewhat different approach. I drive approximately 60,000km a year so decided to purchase a 2010 Toyota Prius. Being that it is a hybrid, I can now charge all my equipment from my vehicle and the engine only kicks in every 25 minutes for approximately one minute! Although this isn’t a solution for everyone as these vehicles are a little pricey, it is a clear sign of what’s to come. I can’t see myself ever owning a vehicle that isn’t a hybrid anymore!