Mixing Epic and Alexa Footage, Help!

[steve green]

Hey guys,
I'm on a shoot right now and the producer has a what is probably a simple question for all you (but for me, not so much). We've shot Epic R3D files and Alexa ProRes 4444 files and need to edit them in the same sequence on Avid. Also we plan to color correct on a Baselight. What's the procedure for doing the edit and final color correction with the native files?

[Michael Totten]

You could transcode the R3D files to ProRes 4444 (to match Alexa's codec) and then import all footage into Avid via AMA.

[Tom.Wong]

convert all files, r3d and alexa into dnxhd mxf. whatever flavor the post house is comfortable with. usually they'll be fine with dnxhd 36 for the offline edit. if you get a good dit on board he or she can do their best with color matching, and if they have the hardware and software, they can transcode it all on set with matching color baked into the dailies.

when you online in baselight they'll probably convert everything into DPX stacks, and just work in redlog film/redcolor 3, and log c for the pro res. that portion you really won't have to worry about, but that's probably the most likely choice of what they'll do. or they'll go native r3d and alexa pro res and just work in a 1080 timeline.

food for thought though, alexa and epic don't mix on the timeline too well in my opinion. unless you're shooting everything with hdrx. the native dynamic range of the alexa is higher than the epic, thus all your lighting decisions are gonna be way different, and highlight rolloff/shadow detail are gonna look completely different. and the epic is gonna look a lot sharper than the alexa for a lot of obvious reasons. i'd recommend doing some camera tests if you can before you go forward with this.

they are very different cameras.

[steve green]

You could transcode the R3D files to ProRes 4444 (to match Alexa's codec) and then import all footage into Avid via AMA.

Michael,
Thanks for the quick reply, is there any way in which when he does the final color correction on the Baselight he can be using the R3D files raw? Please forgive my post production ignorance.

[Sean McAllister]

I would transcode all your footage to dnxhd 36 for your edit in Avid and then when you go in for color correction they will go back to the original files.

[steve green]

convert all files, r3d and alexa into dnxhd mxf. whatever flavor the post house is comfortable with. usually they'll be fine with dnxhd 36 for the offline edit. if you get a good dit on board he or she can do their best with color matching, and if they have the hardware and software, they can transcode it all on set with matching color baked into the dailies.

when you online in baselight they'll probably convert everything into DPX stacks, and just work in redlog film/redcolor 3, and log c for the pro res. that portion you really won't have to worry about, but that's probably the most likely choice of what they'll do. or they'll go native r3d and alexa pro res and just work in a 1080 timeline.



food for thought though, alexa and epic don't mix on the timeline too well in my opinion. unless you're shooting everything with hdrx. the native dynamic range of the alexa is higher than the epic, thus all your lighting decisions are gonna be way different, and highlight rolloff/shadow detail are gonna look completely different. and the epic is gonna look a lot sharper than the alexa for a lot of obvious reasons. i'd recommend doing some camera tests if you can before you go forward with this.

they are very different cameras.

Thanks you Tom, I'm passing that along now......Because it's kind of Greek to me.......

[steve green]

I would transcode all your footage to dnxhd 36 for your edit in Avid and then when you go in for color correction they will go back to the original files.

But how do they go from the edited sequence back to the original files.

[Tehben Dean]

It is a common workflow, they just have to relink the edited sequence to the original footage before grading etc. Post guys will know how this works. Pretty much as long as none of the versions are renamed different then the originals it's easy to swap them back and forth.

[Frank Cueto]

We do this a lot on our grading suite with a Baselight as well. You will have NO issues doing it. You will be able to bring your R3D's raw and mix it with the alexa footage no problem and on the same timeline. Be sure its a recent baselight and up to date. Some older baselights wont playback prores quicktimes (unless they are on the latest software OR have a Baselight Kompressor option)

[steve green]

We do this a lot on our grading suite with a Baselight as well. You will have NO issues doing it. You will be able to bring your R3D's raw and mix it with the alexa footage no problem and on the same timeline. Be sure its a recent baselight and up to date. Some older baselights wont playback prores quicktimes (unless they are on the latest software OR have a Baselight Kompressor option)

This is the answers we're looking for. I'm forwarding these to him now.....Thanks so much for sharing your knowledge with us, it's a huge help!