Apple has a story of the graphics behind the 2006 Winter Olympics. Mind you the story is meant to be an advert for Apple but like always it gives you a brief glimpse into the workflow filmmakers are using.

"Unbalancing the production equation even more is that NBC’s broadcasts of the Olympics are now in high-definition. 'Moving high definition video takes time,' says Paully. 'It’s our heaviest task, to move all that info, unlike standard definition files that we could just move right over. I would say that our average 10-second clip ranges from about a 0.5 GB to 1 GB. And we’re moving a gigabyte in under 10 seconds now, constantly.'

"High definition freight has also radically expanded Paully’s storage requirements. 'We did the last Olympics with a 4 terabytes central server,' he says. 'We wouldn’t go near an HD Olympics with 4 terabytes. It would fill up within the first three or four days.' Even before deploying for Torino, Paully’s artists had created 9 terabytes of pre-built graphics and effects."

Another Apple story unrelated to video was the story of a photographer, Vincent Laforet, successfully covering the Olympics (at least what the spin machines say). What was interesting to note was that he kept emphasizing about how portable flash memory was becoming a trap. Photographers constantly shoot, decide what to keep, delete bad shots, transfer the good ones, and shoot again. Laforet believes the advantage he has over his peers is that he does not spend the time transferring, the process is automated, thanks to the application Automator (and other goodies), and also for having someone else (off-site) to do the editing. You can apply the same sort of thinking to the P2 workflow:

1. Make the process automated, put the card in the reader and then let the software do everything including uploading to various drives. Especially relevant to your documentary filmmakers.
   
2. DON'T EDIT it on site. As a Director, you might think you know what you want but you simply don't and cannot. Every film uses material that was not meant to be in the original version. Don't overshoot but let the editor edit.