Really Sorry: Question about Proxies in a mixed format timeline

[Jim Brennan]

I tried to find the answer for this, but I can't figure it out, so many thanks for your patience on a question that has probably been asked before.

I am cutting a feature on an 8-Core running FCP 7.

About half the movie was shot on Red, and half shot on an HVX (don't ask...I tried to talk him out of it). So I am almost done with the picture cut and used Proxies for the Red footage and did a L&T for the HVX footage. I realize now that wasn't the best way to go, but it's what I have.

So what is the best way to replace the proxies with either QT-wrapped R3D files, or transcoded Prores files (not sure which is better) so I can do my color grading and compositing and output the final product? I know I can go back and output prores files through RedCine or RedAlert, or do a L&T and replace all the Red Proxies by hand, but I am thinking (hoping) there has to be a better way.

Although we will probably screen a few times in HD, most of the deliverables will be in SD-DVD

Any tidbits will be helpful (aside from "well that was a bad idea"...since I already know that :beer: )

 

[jimhare]

Have you tried Clipfinder? This will go through and replace all your ProRes with Proxies, and should leave the HVX clips alone.

It's free and works great!

http://www.daun.ch/software/

 

[Jim Brennan]

I have downloaded it, but can't seem to get a handle on it for this particular situation.

 

[Jim Brennan]

I should add that the main sequence settings were set up for DVCPRO HD 720P60 to accommodate the HVX footage (we had more of that in the beginning of the shoot), and most of the Red footage was cut in nested sequences so I could use different sequence settings to avoid having to render every time I made a change in the edit in each scene.

Will the nested sequences have to be done separately?

 

[Brandon Kraemer]

If you cut with proxies, then you don't need to relink to proxies with clip-finder, right?

I cut with proxies often, and I usually pre-transcode using Crimson-> Redcine. Then I send my conformed transcodes to Color for grading. Color prefers to see same media format on a timeline, so you might have problems with mixing your formats in a Color round trip. Best case scenario would be to grade each format on it's own timeline (although not ideal) or transcode the .R3D in Redcine to something like ProRes, that ideally matches the ProRes your other format was L&T too, so you have common media.

You might have luck just sending your timeline to Color with proxies that refer back to the .R3d and your other camera footage, worth a try I suppose.

 

[Jim Brennan]

Well, that's the thing. I don't want to output with proxies. I want to replace them with either prores (using clipfinder?) or using QT wrapped R3D files. I'm, just not sure which way is best, or the best way to proceed.

 

[James Press]

Clipfinder is your tool. Check out the video tutorials at www.DigitalCinemaLessons.com if you're not sure how to use it (also search for threads on its use).

You want to replace the proxies with transcoded ProRes 4444 or ProResHQ. Doing the transcode will take some time if you don't have Red Rocket (recommended!--but if you don't have it, you don't have it). Expect somewhere between 3 and 10 times realtime, depending on your quality of debayer.

Run a test first to check you're happy with your debayer choice before you race into transcoding your whole film--you don't want to have to wait for days to discover you don't like the result!

It's a bit daunting at first but you'll be right! Good luck with it all.

 

[Jim Brennan]

Thanks for the link to the tutorials. I was pretty sure that was the right road, but I couldn't get my head around the instructions from the clipfinder site.

Thanks for the help everyone.