Testimonials - T. C. Johnstone

T. C. Johnstone

Director and producer Thomas C. Johnstone of Gratis 7 Media Group has spent the last 5 years working in Rwanda, Africa, documenting the story of Rwanda's first national cycling team. Part of the making of this film included the CalDigit VR, VR mini, and HDElement.

Interested in the workflow used for the film? Check out this video:

During his trip Thomas took some time to write us about how the CalDigit VR mini saved the day when they faced some unexpected travel conditions:

"When we arrived in Kagali, the main city, we set up shop at our hotel. We were shooting 8 days, 4 of which were live cycling events with 7 cameras. It was clutch that the field editing system work without any problems to turn the cards around for the next day.

When we arrived back at the hotel the first night, Jason started the ingestion process when the unexpected began. Over the course of 4 days the electricity in the hotel began turning on and off every afternoon. My stomach dropped the first time it happened. I've had card disaster in the past when things like this happen while transferring files.

What I didn't know was the first backups were being done on the VR mini. When the electricity went out it didn't even phase the production as the buspower kept things going without any problems. We finished bringing in all the cards using the computer battery and the next morning when the electricity was consistent we were able to make our master copies onto the VR. With out the VR mini we would have been done for.

Thanks!"

Here are Thomas' final thoughts on his experience with CalDigit in Africa:

"We just returned from our final 18 days of production in Rwanda, Africa. I can't thank your entire team enough for all the help dialing in our workflow for the field as well as here at home. The VR mini and the VR worked flawlessly in the field for offloading footage and creating our master backups. Knowing our data was safe helped our team immensely.

Over the past 5 years of production on "Rising From Ashes", we have shot hundreds of hours of footage on multiple hard drives. It's been great to have everything in one consolidated system. The HDElement system has worked perfectly for the final edit. To be very honest, I'm still getting use to the speed and how quiet the HDElements are.

Please send our regards to your team for there excellent customer support and extended guidance. I know you all call it "customer support" but our production considers you all part of the team on this film!"

-T. C. Johnstone

For more information on Thomas C. Johnstone or Gratis 7 Media Group, visit their website at www.gratis7mediagroup.org. Gratis 7 Media Group is located in Austin, Texas.