Red Workflow

I doing a Red project and I'm trying to figure out the best current workflow for Final Cut Pro. There is a lot of conflicting information. I'm interested in the basics. I find the the Red site not very helpful. Maybe I have been looking in the wrong places. Is there a good tutorial or website that has good information? Does anyone know the best practical way to bring Red footage into FCP.

Thanks,
Tony

Tony Peck
www.peckmedia.com

I would debayer it to prores lt in red cine x, do the cut then conform it to f proxies for grading in Color.



www.strypesinpost.com

[www.red.com] FCS3 installer - comes with workflow white paper that describes the options for you.

Graeme

Hey Graeme, there is one problem with the whitepaper.

Quote
Workflow 3: Work Offline Using ProRes; Reconform to Native REDCODE Media Using Cinema Tools and Color

The problem is that EDLs in FCP has an 8 character reel name limitation. RED filenames are 16 characters long. So unless you rename the rdm files or create a script to replace the 8 character reel names from the EDL generated via FCP, Color will not be able to link up to the RED media.



www.strypesinpost.com

Has that problem occurred for you in practise? From what I understand, Cinema Tools uses the UUID which doesn't have that limitation.

Graeme

Yes it did. The first time I tested it, the clips went into Color as offline. Then after a while, I figured it was FCP's EDL character limitation, so I shortened the reel names before importing them into Color and those imported fine. I'm not sure if Cinema Tools uses the UUID, because I don't think EDL carries the UUID at all.



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And did the clips come into FCP via log and transfer as that's the stage that assigns them the UUID?

Graeme

Yea, I went through L&T.



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I normally generate low res offlines with RedRushes, edit, then use Clipfinder to replace the prores offlines with R3Ds before grading in Color.

Sorry if this is obvious advice but the one immutable fact I've gleaned
from researching RED workflow is that there are
a lot of opinions and options around!

Graeme,

What is the advantage really to the entire offline proxy/online workflow (other than disc requirements)? Most of the time I'm working in 1k or 2k, and delivering QuickTime file masters. I've tried several of the RED workflows, but I'm finding it cheaper, faster and easier to have an outside facilily transfer the RED footage as shot via RedRocket to ProRes4x4, and then work in 4x4 all the way through to finish. Also because I'm often inolved with collaborators for compositing, fx, keying, roto and such. We do all that in various apps (FCP, Cinema4D, Shake, AE) in 4x4 too nowadays. Meantime, I treat the r3d's as I used to treat film negatives, i.e. as worstcase backups.

Leaving 4k output out of the equation for the moment, my question is, is there any benefit in going back to the r3d's for colorgrade if the final output is QT 4x4 anyway? Do I have finer control over the image when coming from the r3d file or is the RedRocket processed QT 4x4 sufficient?

Thanks,
Clay

If you're going to do that, Export with REDLogFilm, and just make sure that the white balance is correct before the transcode and you're laughing. You'll get a fantastically gradable image, and you can easily de-log it in Nuke for VFX work in linear light. At the end of the VFX use lin2log and you'll match back to the REDLogFilm.

There's always a theoretical benefit going back to the R3Ds. But if your case shows there's not a practical benefit, don't worry. Always ensure you have access to the R3D's if you need them, as you never know if you might need a full rez one to punch in or whatever.

Graeme

>What is the advantage really to the entire offline proxy/online workflow (other than disc
>requirements)?

For the folks without access to a RedRocket, doing a full or even a half premium debayer on a few hours of footage may take a full day. In this case, I prefer doing an offline/online. And I really only need a low rez debayer (quarter or lower) for offline edits, then the ability to link back up to the R3Ds for a full debayer during the grade.



www.strypesinpost.com

Graeme,

very cool, that's what I've been trying to argue lately, thanks for your blessing.

Cheers,
Clay

Congrats to you and the Red team for Epic being ready Graeme. Good on you all. A brave new dawn is on us.

Michael Horton
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Is there anything wrong with doing the conversion in FCP log and transfer. I was going to convert everything to 422HQ. Is it better to convert to 444? The final use is DVD and the web.

Thanks,
Tony

I would do it in RC-X because you get more options.

>The final use is DVD and the web

HQ should be fine, since those delivery formats do not require 4:4:4.



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