Looks...

[Jannard]

There is a very powerful tool in REDCINE-X called Looks. You can create a look by adjusting just about any setting and saving/naming it in the Look Preset folder. Or you can right click in that box and import one from your friends. After you have created or imported a Look, go to Look Setup and de-select anything you don't want to carry over to your clips... like ISO, Kelvin and Tint.

This is a standard one I have created and apply to just about every one of my clips as a starting point. It is based on REDcolor2 and REDlogFilm. From here I adjust Shadow (or Lift) if the blacks need adjustment... and usually saturation if needed. You can adjust just about anything necessary to work with a particular setup and then save that Look for similar files. You can also export a Look back to the camera if you want.

Jim

 

[Jarred Land]

Here is Jims look file. http://red.cachefly.net/RCX10.zip

Download it, unzip it, then in REDCINE-X right click in the " Look Presets " box. Click load and goto the above file.

Press " apply " to enable the effect.

 

[Dan Kanes]

Nice one!

This is the second thing I taught myself in RedCine-X...

Right after opening a Clip...Scary how mystified people are by the whole process.

I love how you showed it without any irony though.

 

[Graeme Hay]

Thats a nice set of controls there.

 

[Mike Smith]

Whoa! Nice facility. Thanks for showing the way on this Jim and giving us all a starting point.

 

[Danny Murray]

Very nice...

 

[Hunter Peterson]

Really cool!

 

[Christopher Barrett]

I had just been playing with RedLogFilm tonight with some clips from my last project. Once you apply a curve to get the contrast where you want it, the tonal transitions are exquisitely smooth.

Yes... I skipped the screening in Burbank that the rest of the class went to and came back to my hotel room to play with RCX. So looking forward to Michael's Post class!

-Dork

 

[Stephen Lovett]

Looks are indeed a powerful feature.

The preparation of the SD card for looks transfer to camera can be a little tricky, and as its a question that always gets asked at REDucation, I put together a little tutorial on card prep on my blog a while back.

http://uroborosfilms.com/Blog/Blog.php -> How to format a SD card for RED One looks transfer

Big Lu was driving REDCINE-X for Ted today as we reviewed the students footage, and it's pretty remarkable for these folks to see the work they shot a bit earlier in the day, played back and graded in real time on a 40+ foot 4K screen, run from nothing more complicated than a MacPro with a Rocket.

A few quick adjustments to tune the first clip, create a look, and apply it to all the clips shot in that setup, and with the click of button you have a one light done for all the footage.

Yep, RED post is a giant pain in the ass.

 

[Alexander Ibrahim]

Yep, RED post is a giant pain in the ass.

I am increasingly convinced that people who don't want to learn are the problem with Red post.

There are a lot of things to learn. Until you do learn, stuff mysteriously looks bad or good. Once you do learn though - the post is a breeze and frankly the post process is a joy.

A little investment in time goes a long long way with Red!

So ... is there a Reducation class happening right now? Cool to see you guys using the forum as an interactive learning tool!

 

[Marc Wielage]

Be warned that the looks are only an approximation of what you can get in post. And there's also the variable of trusting the on-set monitor, along with the viewing conditions. Unless you can precisely calibrate the camera monitor, your edit display, and the final color-correction monitor, you can wind up chasing your tail in terms of the look you're trying to achieve.

Most DPs I know have told me they're so busy worrying about lighting the scene (and the next one after that), dealing with unexpected shooting problems, moving the camera, working with the director, etc., that having to worry about dialing in a look is the last thing they want to deal with. I do think a temporary look is fine, especially if you do it just once a day or on every major scene change. Doing it shot-to-shot is counter-productive, in my opinion.

As long as you know you can get the look you want in post, and you can give the editor a usable image to work with during the edit process, I don't think this is a big deal.

 

[Jannard]

I wouldn't under-estimate the power of setting the looks in RCX. Brook can correct me but Schwartzman lived on the looks that Brook and crew were doing on a "minutely" basis for Spider-man on set. I also understand that a big screen presentation was done using footage generated in RCX and people were blown away. Don't get me wrong, there will be trained professionals doing the post grading on this movie... but RCX and the generated looks were a key part of the process. Somebody step in here.

Jim

Be warned that the looks are only an approximation of what you can get in post. And there's also the variable of trusting the on-set monitor, along with the viewing conditions. Unless you can precisely calibrate the camera monitor, your edit display, and the final color-correction monitor, you can wind up chasing your tail in terms of the look you're trying to achieve.

Most DPs I know have told me they're so busy worrying about lighting the scene (and the next one after that), dealing with unexpected shooting problems, moving the camera, working with the director, etc., that having to worry about dialing in a look is the last thing they want to deal with. I do think a temporary look is fine, especially if you do it just once a day or on every major scene change. Doing it shot-to-shot is counter-productive, in my opinion.

As long as you know you can get the look you want in post, and you can give the editor a usable image to work with during the edit process, I don't think this is a big deal.

 

[Deanan]

Looks are indeed a powerful feature.

The preparation of the SD card for looks transfer to camera can be a little tricky, and as its a question that always gets asked at REDucation, I put together a little tutorial on card prep on my blog a while back.

http://uroborosfilms.com/Blog/Blog.php -> How to format a SD card for RED One looks transfer

Big Lu was driving REDCINE-X for Ted today as we reviewed the students footage, and it's pretty remarkable for these folks to see the work they shot a bit earlier in the day, played back and graded in real time on a 40+ foot 4K screen, run from nothing more complicated than a MacPro with a Rocket.

A few quick adjustments to tune the first clip, create a look, and apply it to all the clips shot in that setup, and with the click of button you have a one light done for all the footage.

Yep, RED post is a giant pain in the ass.

Epic can load the look in an RMDs directly so that will be easier.

 

[Marc Wielage]

I wouldn't under-estimate the power of setting the looks in RCX. Brook can correct me but Schwartzman lived on the looks that Brook and crew were doing on a "minutely" basis for Spider-man on set.

That's easy for a $150 million dollar feature crew; not so easy for the vast number of users here. I believe that Stefan Sonnenfeld of Company 3 is also closely involved on the look of this film, and he's pretty much the best guy in the world for work at this level.

I'd also bet you that Schartzman (who's a very bright guy) will have calibrated the monitors on the set, in the edit bay, and knows what to expect when he gets into the color-correction room. My concern is that few people are doing this, and they're trusting a set display that's very questionable (at best).

 

[Alexander Ibrahim]

I wouldn't under-estimate the power of setting the looks in RCX. Brook can correct me but Schwartzman lived on the looks that Brook and crew were doing on a "minutely" basis for Spider-man on set. I also understand that a big screen presentation was done using footage generated in RCX and people were blown away. Don't get me wrong, there will be trained professionals doing the post grading on this movie... but RCX and the generated looks were a key part of the process. Somebody step in here.

Jim

Not fair - the Amazing SpiderMan had all sorts of things a lot of shows that use Epic will never ever have ... like Brook Willard and calibrated monitors for example.

That is an example of best practice, and an amazing example of the power you have at your command with Red. The downside is that it takes the time of talented humans to deliver that benefit.

So, I agree with Marc Wielage. Working with Red gives you terrific control, but in practice sometimes you have to just find a "default" look for your picture and shoot. Only later - sometimes not until post - can you really use the tools available to deliver a great look.

 

[Jannard]

Lots of disagreement from me on this one. RCX is a primary tool on set of almost every project I can think of, big and small. Everyone wants to see what the footage can/will look like as soon as possible. You think everyone is flying blind? Not sure what you guys are smoking.

Jim

Not fair - the Amazing SpiderMan had all sorts of things a lot of shows that use Epic will never ever have ... like Brook Willard and calibrated monitors for example.

That is an example of best practice, and an amazing example of the power you have at your command with Red. The downside is that it takes the time of talented humans to deliver that benefit.

So, I agree with Marc Wielage. Working with Red gives you terrific control, but in practice sometimes you have to just find a "default" look for your picture and shoot. Only later - sometimes not until post - can you really use the tools available to deliver a great look.

 

[Brook Willard]

I'll chime in when I'm not on my phone, but suffice it to say that I agree with Jim here.

 

[Steve Freebairn]

spot reserved for comments about RCX


First comment

Co3 has nothing to do with the look on the Amazing Spider-man. Stefan Sonnenfeld isn't setting the look on the Amazing Spider-man, Brook Willard is. Our workflow is very simple when you look at just the core elements. Brook loads the SSDs up and sets a look under the direction of John Schwartzman and then with the help of the stereographer dials in a post HIT value. We use RCX's Master RMD folder so all the looks are saved on a per clip basis to a thumb drive. Zach and I use that thumb drive and a master RMD folder on our computers to then load in all the footage and check sync, HIT values, color settings, etc. Then we create all the dailies for Editorial, Producers, Screenings and anyone else that needs to see anything USING RCX. I know that is a simple sounding workflow and there are finer points to each area, but that's a birds eye perspective.

In case you care, we're using the same version of RCX that everyone else has access to, build 454. Obviously all the credit goes to RED for writing it (thanks Matt and Deanan and crew), but you can thank the Amazing Spider-man and lots of other huge shows for lots of the things that are in RCX as it is being used all around the globe as an invaluable tool in any RED show.

That's easy for a $150 million dollar feature crew; not so easy for the vast number of users here. I believe that Stefan Sonnenfeld of Company 3 is also closely involved on the look of this film, and he's pretty much the best guy in the world for work at this level.

I'd also bet you that Schartzman (who's a very bright guy) will have calibrated the monitors on the set, in the edit bay, and knows what to expect when he gets into the color-correction room. My concern is that few people are doing this, and they're trusting a set display that's very questionable (at best).

I don't want to speak for John here, and I'm sure he'll chime in, but John did his testing before the show started, he knows how the camera reacts to light. During shooting, he knew what could be created from the way he was lighting without needing to see everything on a calibrated screen in a dark room.

Not fair - the Amazing SpiderMan had all sorts of things a lot of shows that use Epic will never ever have ... like Brook Willard and calibrated monitors for example.

 

[Zach Hilton]

As Steve mentioned, Stefan doesn't have anything to do with what is currently going on with this project. Also, John is a very very talented DP. He knows how to use the camera. Early on, there was a test screening of the footage that he shot and WE [Steve, Brook, and I] developed using RCX of all things and everyone involved were floored at the image quality. And that was 1080 MXF 115 side by side. A little while after that, they were able to see a sequence in 4k 2D and were even more floored by the quality. In both accounts, they were using the color that was set on set, by Brook. During conform tests, very reputable and talented facilities had a hard time matching the color and tonalities of what was done on set by our team, once again, using RedcineX and very very accessible tools. So to say that only 150 million dollar projects and the like can have access to this kind of workflow is unfounded. I don't remember the exact wording, but it was mentioned that John felt like he could do the DI with RedcineX. I don't know about you, but that speaks mounds about the potential of Redcine.

 

[Jannard]

1st off... that is the point. It is easy for the cheapest budget project to use the value of RCX.

2nd. Stefan and Co3 are terrific. No question about it. But that has nothing to do with the value of seeing looks on set right after shooting.

Certainly having calibrated monitors is important. What does that have to do with RCX's value?

Now I'm fired up...

Jim

That's easy for a $150 million dollar feature crew; not so easy for the vast number of users here. I believe that Stefan Sonnenfeld of Company 3 is also closely involved on the look of this film, and he's pretty much the best guy in the world for work at this level.

I'd also bet you that Schartzman (who's a very bright guy) will have calibrated the monitors on the set, in the edit bay, and knows what to expect when he gets into the color-correction room. My concern is that few people are doing this, and they're trusting a set display that's very questionable (at best).