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Peter von Puttkamer's Psychedelic Odyssey
Moviemaker goes from "Peyote to LSD" in new documentary
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MM: From my understanding, you used Final Cut Pro to edit the project. Do you normally use that program? What kind of benefits do you feel it has for the kind of documentaries that you usually make, or for any project in general?
PVP: “Peyote to LSD: A Psychedelic Odyssey” was my first Final Cut project. I was raised on film editing, then 3/4” video, 1/2” video, D-Vision, Discreet Logic Edit, some Avid (which my editor used, but I never took too) and finally, in 2006, Final Cut. I like its ease of use, inbox FX, third-party add-ons (like Magic Bullet) and just generally the open architecture. Price is a factor too; there isn’t a better bang for the professional editing buck then Final Cut.
I was traveling a lot between Los Angeles and Vancouver and I needed a system I could use “offline” on a laptop so, along with two terabyte FireWire drives, I did it. Plus I had another drive to shuttle files back and forth to my editor in Los Angeles, Donald J. Paonessa.
The time-consuming part was adding special visual effects through Magic Bullet Editor software, so mainly “aging” our VariCam HD footage to look more like old film (scratches, dust, flicker, gate-wave, etc.) then green-screening HDCAM interviews and adapting 16mm hand-wound Bolex footage, some HDV and a bunch of archival/news-reel stock footage on 4:3 Betacam.
Final Cut is a great tool for the documentary producer on the go. Now I have a new Final Cut Pro 6.0 HD Kona card online system and I intend to assemble all my future docs with this system. I work with Panasonic HDX-900 cameras and the interface between Panasonic and Final Cut Pro is the best; it’s definitely the wave of the present and future. Final Cut Pro is keeping up with the technology at a much faster rate than Avid. Maybe it’s the open architecture of the system, but it’s keeping pace with HD and new tapeless media.
MM: As a documentary moviemaker who travels to many wondrous, vibrant locales, I would imagine that you are very pleased with the HD revolution as it allows your depiction of these places to look that much better. How has the new technology affected your craft?
PVP: I love HD and, as a proud owner of that awesome HDX-900 camera, I only shoot HD projects now; even for SD you can down-convert and images look better than, say, if you had shot them with a Digital Betacam at 16x9. We have a choice of 11 HD formats now plus different frame rates, and the 720/60p creates awesome slow motion. No need to spring for a VariCam now; the HDX-900 meets or exceeds it and still allows you to do things like true slo-mo in post. It has a film-like quality that the Sony cameras don’t, even though they claim higher resolution and processing rates.
HD has allowed me to think bigger in pitching shows to broadcasters. They know they’re going to get a viewer-grabbing piece that brings people in through strong visuals and 3D-like clarity in these locations.
It’s really made watching TV fun again, and what I’m finding is that people who would never have watched Discovery Channel or History HD—guys in sports bars—are tuning to shows like ours, because it comes in on their cable HD package along with the sports channels! HD is amazing and could help balance low-end reality shows by giving broadcasters a reason to fund quality documentary production and keep these shows with high production value and story telling on the air.
MM: After some of your past projects have had you searching for Bigfoot and the Lost City, traipsing through haunted houses, joining Joe Cocker in the studio and traveling the world to film people hallucinating, what could possibly be next for you?
PVP: Well some are top-secret of course, until they’re fully-funded, but we do have fascinating shows in development with Animal Planet International, as well as Discovery Science Channel. Let’s just say they’re wildlife- and adventure-inspired, as well as shows with strong environmental themes that will excite and make you just a little nervous about the future of our planet.
Currently, we’re producing a documentary filmed in the Peruvian Amazon about the wildlife conservation area called Lago Preto; we follow a young wildlife biologist and his work with red uakari monkeys. This will air on Animal Planet in the Fall 2008.
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COMMENTS | POST A COMMENT 
- Comment by Brian Cox on 5/09/08 at 2:48 pm
There is a holy man who lives near Mt. Shasta, CA who uses altered states for healing, but his connection with the Totality is done through spirit, not the drugs. Dennis is seeking a television producer who is interested in doing a live healing show where the audience at home watching can learn to heal themselves as he heals a person with multiple sclerosis on the show. It’s all about allowing to believe in ourselves that it can be done, and it can. He was studied in the labs under scientific conditions and was one of the original psychic remote viewers studied by the CIA. Please help the planet heal itself and contact me if you are a tv producer or please forward this information to them.
- Comment by Peter Monroe on 9/10/08 at 3:57 pm
That seems like and interesting show. I am curious about how the ethics come into play.
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