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  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

First Epic Grade Airing Tonight (5/7)

Emery Wells

Emery Wells

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We are grading our first Epic project for broadcast today. I find myself sitting in my Scratch suite and not want to change anything because it just looks SO good. We've all read the comments about there being something special about the image coming out of Epic, somehow different than a RED ONE MX. It's all true. From a technical standpoint I don't understand why but this image just feels different, better, unique. It should be the same image we see out of a RED MX but it's not. I've seen literally hundreds or even thousands of RED jobs come through our shop, many shot by the top DP's in the business... EPIC is a whole new ballgame.

If you'd like to see the results, watch Saturday Night Live TONIGHT (5/7) and look out for a special "Mothers Day" commercial. Wish I could post images.
 
You'll have to watch and see for yourself :) And generally, I think the commercials are always pretty funny.
 
I wonder if EPIC has faster/better processors, GPU and other hardware that can do a better job at image processing and compression. It would make sense to me that other factors in the pipeline between the MX Sensor and the SSD Drive would have some effect on the quality, feel and overall look.

Perhaps cooling plays a factor.

michael zaletel
 
I would think the only two factors would be resolution and R3D encoding but who knows what other magic might be going on in there.
 
Mark Toia said:
The problem between watching it on your broadcast screen in your post house and watching it on TV heavily compressed and a 1/25 of it's original size.. no one will see or care.
But Im sure the master copy is amazing.
Click to expand...

Believe me im well aware. It's rare that we ever see any of our work look good when it's broadcasted. I wish everyone could see what we see in our suites.
 
I think the big point people notice about Epic footage is the increase in clarity. Debayering down to a full 4k and under image instead of shooting right at 4k really makes the image look better. And a lot of people were happy with the redcode compressions out of the R1, but going down to a 5:1 compression or less is a huge increase that can bring a lot of subtly and even more clarity to the image. Highlight rolloff, skin tone, it all just feels better.
 
I will definitely be watching tonight, thanks for the heads up Emery :)
 
For those of you who missed it:


Shot 5K on Epic-M by Alex Buono, a brilliant DP that shoots all the SNL commercials. Graded in Scratch, realtime at half res with 1 Red Rocket at Katabatic Digital. I think this is a prime example of how quick and efficient the Red workflow can be. We basically do all of these SNL commercials in a single day. Shoots on Fridays, 'hourlys' made on set, editing done with ProRes transcodes in FCP into the wee hours of the morning on Friday, graded in Scratch Saturday AM, goes to air that same evening. I have to say, it's really exciting to be working on something in your suite and then see it on TV a few hours later. Doesn't hurt that the SNL team is awesome to work with. We have some really good ones coming up!
 
can't view in UK either.....can you post it somewhere else?
 
Andrew Huse said:
Very nice, love the grading
Click to expand...

Thanks, the footage had a really beautiful pastal quality that got a bit lost in these web encodes. The objective was to make it look "Hallmark" while preserving a bit of the desaturated palate that really lends to the spots creepiness. Typically we try to stay as true to the source inspiration as possible. i.e. if its a parody of a hallmark commercial, we make it look like hallmark. In this case we strayed just a touch with the desat. On a proper screen, this really plays well.
 
Emery Wells said:
We've all read the comments about there being something special about the image coming out of Epic, somehow different than a RED ONE MX. It's all true. From a technical standpoint I don't understand why but this image just feels different, better, unique. It should be the same image we see out of a RED MX but it's not.
Click to expand...

Emery Wells said:
I would think the only two factors would be resolution and R3D encoding but who knows what other magic might be going on in there.
Click to expand...

4096 times larger colour palette.

R1 = 12 bit = 68 B colours
Epic = 16 bit = 4096 fold = 281 T colours

Leap from 8 bit to 12 bit colour sampling may provide some reference.
 
Can´t view it in Norway either, omg I hate DRM in any shade, fashion or color!

Saw the youtube link now, well did I say how much I hate DRM?!
 
Emery Wells said:
For those of you who missed it:


Shot 5K on Epic-M by Alex Buono, a brilliant DP that shoots all the SNL commercials. Graded in Scratch, realtime at half res with 1 Red Rocket at Katabatic Digital. I think this is a prime example of how quick and efficient the Red workflow can be. We basically do all of these SNL commercials in a single day. Shoots on Fridays, 'hourlys' made on set, editing done with ProRes transcodes in FCP into the wee hours of the morning on Friday, graded in Scratch Saturday AM, goes to air that same evening. I have to say, it's really exciting to be working on something in your suite and then see it on TV a few hours later. Doesn't hurt that the SNL team is awesome to work with. We have some really good ones coming up!
Click to expand...

Looks great but you should save time with the ProRes transcode and edit natively with Epic in PPro 5.5...

Cheers

Dave
 
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