Using AMA for feature shot Red

[georgepeter]

I am brand new to Avid (MC 6.0) I have a feature to edit coming in a week. It's being shot Red 4K. I did an experiment connecting a couple of shot via AMA using my previous Red show. With the timeline resolution set to yellow/green I seemed to be able to connect and edit without any issues. That's fine for a light-weight test, but will I be able to edit an entire feature using this workflow or am I asking for problems down the line. I would love to avoid the transcoding if possible.

Any thoughts?

Tony

[MichaelP]

I think every project has a tipping point as to when a transcode will happen. There is no hard and fast rule of thumb, but in general shorter projects can take AMA all the way to the end and transcode the final sequence when it's time to create deliverable, or transcode up front and have post behave in a known and managed process. There are also other considerations; will there be multicam needs? Will the story require multiple video layers? Real time VFX is not the same via AMA to R3d compared to DNxHD (especially DNxHD 36 for offline). There are also the daily output requirements of a feature such as H.264 viewing copies, DVD, etc whose workflow requires a transcode of the sequence to export. Same for audio post - what are you handing them? When it comes to features, I am in the camp of transcoding up front. There is also a level of expected performance that is hard to maintain as more and more dailies are being managed via AMA.

AMA is great for quickly seeing and organizing your dailies, selecting takes, then transcoding to a DNxHD of choice. For features, DNxHD 36 is the one mostly used as it has great picture quality to data rate to performance ratio. Transcode via AMA in MCv6 is quite fast, even without a rocket card. But if I am transcoding all my dailies, I choose to do so in REDCINE X where I have control over all parameters for creating my "best light" dailies.

Although you didn't ask, I also prefer syncing dailies in Media Composer via the BWF direct import. More control and retention of all metadata from the BWF file and the AutoSync feature has nice options to sync with mix track only, etc.

Michael

[Christoffer Glans]

Michael, the BWF direct import, what is that? I'm usually just syncing by selecting all clips and press autosync, then go through them to see if there were some missed out.

George, if you decide to edit with AMA, it would be nice to hear your system specs and what your experience is when the edit is coming to an end, then we have some real world testing of AMA and if it's ready to take on a big project like a feature. Good luck anyway!

[MichaelP]

I meant importing the original BWF directly into Media Composer versus syncing in REDCINE X. REDCINE X loses track metadata logged on set such as boom, lav, character, in noted. As you write, it is a matter of selecting all, then AutoSync. But with v5 there is an additional feature of only selecting 1 or range of tracks from the multitrack BWF.

Michael

[Andrew Patterson]

I haven't upgraded to MC6 -- but SERIOUSLY don't try to edit a feature via AMA. In fact, don't try to edit anything over 100GB of R3D via AMA. Transcode to MXF.

I love Avid, never edited on anything else, but it has weaknesses in longer projects with AMA.

And I have a VERY powerful PC, so that's not the problem.

[georgepeter]

Thank you everyone. This is exactly the information I was looking for.

Tony

[Jeremy Torrie]

To save yourself headaches and lost time do the transcodes from RCXPro.

MC6 becomes more sluggish as the day goes on. I'm in post on my feature and found the AMA to have major problems with 5K footage, so I went back and started transcoding every take because I couldn't afford to lose any more time.

[Andrew Patterson]

To save yourself headaches and lost time do the transcodes from RCXPro.

MC6 becomes more sluggish as the day goes on. I'm in post on my feature and found the AMA to have major problems with 5K footage, so I went back and started transcoding every take because I couldn't afford to lose any more time.

Definitely use RCXPro -- don't do a transcode in Avid.

Also, I've found it is more difficult to transcode to smaller formats from RCXPro -- in other words go with something like AVID DNxHD 175 rather than DNxHD 60/90 720p. Even though you are offlining and it makes sense to get it down to a smaller format, go with something on the higher end of DNxHD and I don't think you'll regret it.

I usually go to DNxHD 36 or 175 and transoding to a more compressed format like DNxHD 36 takes longer. So if you're computer has no problem handling 175, then go with that and then relink to R3D later.

I think of AMA as for small projects only -- it needs a major update to be able to handle anything over 100GB of R3D.

[MichaelP]

Compressing to 36, 115, or 175 takes the same amount of time. Considerations will be drive space, etc. with DNxHD 36, you can have 65 hours on a 1TB drive. Nice for moving around of post needs to be mobile, etc.

Michael