PC - Popular Choice for Editing R3D?

[Roy Gregorio]

Hello. I'm a first year film student and I just got my Scarlet-X Allocation Notification email from Red, so everything just became very real, very FAST. Most of what I know about Red is from what I've read in this forum. And with that said, I still consider myself to know VERY LITTLE. For instance, based on the many threads I've read, I thought I'd have at least a few more months of learning before my Scarlet would be ready, haha! But because of that unexpected email, I'm pressured to make my first post and ask for your guys' help.

This question is for PC users only. I've only had experience using Sony Vegas. I tried Premiere Pro a few years ago and didn't like the workflow and layout. It seemed much harder to self-teach as I did in Vegas. But as a student, I'm open to learning anything now. I just want to choose the right one for Red and stick to it from here on out.

So to make this simple, I'd like to know what you use or plan to use for editing red video. And what do professionals use for feature films anyway? Please post pros and cons based on your experience.

I made a poll. I'll assign "other 1" and "other 2" to something later if needed. Thanks all!

Other 1 - Lightworks

[Paul Russell]

Premiere because it supports Red Rocket and has the best support of third party vendors like Magic Bullet. However if it was about interface and ease of use then it would be Vegas.

Not that I do feature films, but... :-)

[Subhadip Sen]

I have tried all major NLEs and the only one that comes close to the simplicity, efficiency and precision of Vegas is FCP X, which has a very similar interface but is otherwise limited. I find the interfaces of Avid, Premiere, Lightworks, Edius or FCP 7 relatively cumbersome in comparison.

I am going to assume that you will be editing in a single standalone setup for now. Vegas supports Scarlet R3Ds natively incl. audio (no other NLE has official audio support). Performance is pretty good too - you can get real-time playback on 4K content at 1/2 res, i.e. 2K previews on mainstream PCs. But if you are looking to finish within the NLE, Premiere Pro has it's own set of advantages. Particularly the ability to team with Redcine-X and link RMDs, greater options over color spaces and gamma, Rocket support and slightly superior R3D decode performance in some cases. For finishing on a different software, I would choose Vegas, edit directly with R3Ds, and then export the AAF/EDL. Avid MC has its advantages (and as many drawbacks) too, and the latest MC6 (which I haven't tried) supports Scarlet R3Ds natively thru AMA as well. Maybe someone familiar with MC6 can chime in.

Give them all a fair go, choose what works best for you. Unfortunately sticking to a single tool is not the best option. Things change very fast. Later this year we could see a completely different landscape where CS6 might have the best interface and Vegas Pro 12 the best integration. Be open to switching to other platforms as well - maybe FCP X 10.3 in 2015 will be the best solution. Who knows? It's best to be flexible and agile, adapt to the tool that works best at any given time.

[Dermot]

Who knows? It's best to be flexible and agile, adapt to the tool that works best at any given time.

+1

I do finish features, the film i'm just sending out to print today was cut on PP, it's a 3 hour / 10 reel Bollywood epic, and shot on Epic.. they brought their PP station into my facility and it ran like a champ with the entire 3Hr timeline on it, running the r3d's at all times.. i'm impressed, really impressed with the rock soild day in / out stablilty

They were changeing the cut in reel 7 as i was gradeing reel 6, AAF's came over pretty much perfectly (timewarps being the exception).. all very good

For myself - for creative cutting i tend to go to Avid's DS first, then MC or Lightworks as i know them after more than a decade with all of them, i do have a licence of Vegas and find it quite lacking in just about every way... cutting a feature for real on it would be quite an uphill battle, but if it's where your comfort zone is... it's about the story - no one in the theatre will ever see the edit system ;-)

Learn em all... top of my list for cutting a theatrical feature would Lightworks & MC tho.

d

[Denizhan Nacar]

Adobe.

[DCC Erickson]

Cut a feature and various on Vegas, a little on AViD, Premier, Final Cut Express. Interested in getting to Lightworks, love the interface, still getting used to the working style. I've found that if I can teach a software to myself, I'm probably not learning all the things I should or - more importantly - doing things the hard way. So I would get a lot of opinions and advice, and look over a manual or take classes. When you get into editing long, complex projects, you're going to want to know your NLE inside and out, and won't want to switch software after a considerable investment of time and effort. Hate the Vegas interface - clunky and cluttered. Never been fond of any Adobe product interfaces (they seem designed more for engineers than creatives), but that's just me. Take your time, enjoy the ride!

[Sven Seynaeve]

would love to see native s3d editing in ppro. because that's the only thing that would buy avid.

[Bruce Ingram]

If you a one-man band and rarely interfacing with others (shoot, edit deliver all on your own) then I see no reason not to stay with Vegas, I dislike it personally, but like many things EDL preference is often personal preference.

But, if you are looking to be an editor and shooter for hire that will collaborate often with others and their pipelines, I would strongly recommend getting up to speed on Premiere and Avid, and if you can Final Cut Pro 7 (even though it's end-of-life it is still heavily used). Now, which one you use most often for yourself, that's up to you, they both handle R3D fairly well based on the hardware you have. As a freelancer, though, you should have enough working knowledge to be comfortable with either choice based on your client's needs.

Now, that advice is based on running across a lot of folks who simply have difficulty learning and adapting to new software. My personal opinion is, if you are competent and have strong, fundamental editing skills you'll be able to pickup most any EDL within a week of working, at least to the point of doing the edit work. The more specialized bells and whistles of any particular EDL are what tutorials are great for.

[DCC Erickson]

Not particularly relevant - HUGO was edited in real-time 3D on Lightworks.