Internet Monitoring of Remote Shoot ???

I'm in LA and need to check framing and lighting on a shoot coming up in DC. I'm not directing the talent, just responsible for it not looking terrible (I'll have to edit it).

Anyone have experience with monitoring a location from 3,000 miles away?

Not even sure what my options are.

At first I thought iChat - but they're using a JVC GY-HM100U - so no firewire out from camera

I would like to use something more serious than ichat anyway - but I'm not sure I could squeeze more than a couple of hundred out of them to make this happen.

Any suggestions? Don't need to see 30fps - heck, 1 fps would be great if I could just see what the camera sees.

Thanks in advance

I'm asking a technical question. You're answering a philosophical one. I agree with everything you say in principle - but you assume there's a professional crew to be interfered with on the other end of the line - there isn't. It's a weekly corporate web video and they want to be able to do it in house with their people. I shot the first three and they are paying me to talk them thru the next few. It's just part of the gig.

From the user manual

"Still Picture Capture
The GY-HM100U doubles as a very capable 2-Megapixel stillpicture
camera. You can capture pictures live or from video that is
already recorded, and store them to either of the on-board memory
card. What’s more, because the CCDs are progressive, every frame
is sharp and clear, even when there is movement in the scene."

The cam has a USB2 output, and records to SDHC cards. So what I would advise (besides never getting into this kind of deal again) is to have them set a shot, shoot a still thru the JVC, hook a laptop to it or sneakernet the stills into a card reader in the laptop, then use local wi-fi and a net connection to email or FTP you the still. You then make your suggestions as to framing and lighting via the phone, set to speakerphone, I guess.

(I'm imagining the scene from "Tropic Thunder" when the angry Producer, played by Tom Cruise, talking to the screw-up remote crew via 2-way satellite linkup, orders the Key Grip on location to walk over to the director, and punch him in the face... and, after a brief apology, the Grip does it.)

This setup using the stills for confirming framing and lighting composition would only cost the internet access costs, if they already have the USBcable and a properly outfitted laptop or netbook. If they have a phone with a camera built in, they could also show you a wide shot from the side, encompassing the entire room, so you can see where the lights and stuff are generally placed.

Good luck with it, though I think you're crazy for agreeing to this, but that's for another discussion.

Why not just send you a few stills or rehearsal video from a cell phone? It's quick, requires nothing special as far as computers or internet and in my opinion would provide more than enough detail for your review. No need to complicate things.

Oh and about iChat not being serious enough... We haven't tried it yet but with SnowLeopard and FCP, you can share the HD edit window in realtime for online instant collaboration. For years the best way to convert sequential still files to video was with Quicktime or iMovie. We still use iDVD for a bunch of stuff that is far faster and easier than DVDSP. Our profession (video in general) has more to do with capable, talented people utilizing the right resource than with specific tools that might impress a client. (Don't read that statement wrong, I'm not saying an HDV camera compares to RED.)

Steve