Feature Film Finishing Question

[filmmakernate]

Okay here is the situation...

Shot a feature 2 years ago on RED (I know, I should be finished by now). We used FCP 6 and transcoded the 4K R3D to 2K quicktimes. No money left and wondering what the best way to finish the film...to do color correction.
I just upgraded to FCP 7.

I know the new FCP 7 has a bunch of great new features to read R3D files and quicktime wrapers (I think that is the term) but I am skeptial our 2K files, which were made from FCP 6, has any of theses these functions.

I will have to do everything in house from here, so I wonder what the best way to go about this is.

We have done a ton of re-framing also, so I worry about loosing the settings. We plan to do meg-tons of color correction and would like to, of course, in the easiest way possible reference the R3D to do color.

Question:

Can I simply import the sequence into Color and reference the R3D files or does this only work if you started the project with FCP 7? This seems the easiest but seems like few people are using Color.

Should I re-transcode to 444 quicktimes and do color? This doesn't seem right. If so, is there an easy way to do this just for our picture locked sequence?

Do I have to export an XML or some other files. I have never used these and fear the unknown!

Sorry for length of post but any advice would be greatly appreciated.

My eye is really film fest circuit, until if/when get distribution (knock on wood).

My system is Mac 2.8 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon, 5T ESATA RAID


Thanks,
Nate

 

[Ben Brainerd]

Okay here is the situation...

Shot a feature 2 years ago on RED (I know, I should be finished by now). We used FCP 6 and transcoded the 4K R3D to 2K quicktimes. No money left and wondering what the best way to finish the film...to do color correction.
I just upgraded to FCP 7.

Don't feel too awful. I'm just going back to a Build 16 project this week. It's kinda nostalgic, in a way.

When you say "Transcoded", do you mean "Wrapped R3D Files" (AKA "Native" in the L&T settings) or "ProRes Files"? It makes a difference.

We have done a ton of re-framing also, so I worry about loosing the settings. We plan to do meg-tons of color correction and would like to, of course, in the easiest way possible reference the R3D to do color.

Again, I feel you. You shouldn't lose any of your reframe data in the FCP7 upgrade, and there are a number of good workflow ideas to keep it intact through the process.

Can I simply import the sequence into Color and reference the R3D files or does this only work if you started the project with FCP 7?

In theory that should work. Might as well give it a shot. If it doesn't work, go ahead and download Clipfinder and reconform to the camera proxies.

Should I re-transcode to 444 quicktimes and do color? This doesn't seem right. If so, is there an easy way to do this just for our picture locked sequence?

Here's where it gets tricky. Color still doesn't support the new Color Science. Personally, I think the new CS makes a big difference in older footage. I would suggest doing some tests with RedAlert or RedCine-X and seeing what you think. If you want to use the new CS, you're going to have to transcode.

Clipfinder will do transcodes with just your final sequence, in one of two ways: 1) You can transcode all of your used clips, but you'll end up using the *entire* clip, not just your edited section. The upside is you can reconform it into FCP, then use the Media Manager to bring it back down to just the used sections. 2) You can also transcode just the used sections (Import Subclips from FCP XML) but it won't reconform to FCP. With a little bit of work, depending on your edit, you can conform in Color using an EDL.

You can also do transcodes with Crimson Workflow and RedCine, or with Monkey Extract, but those options cost money. Crimson is $189, Monkey Extract is $349.

Do I have to export an XML or some other files. I have never used these and fear the unknown!

Can you fit "Don't fear the XML" to the tune of "Don't fear the reaper?" It's not that bad. You'll only need to use an XML if you're going with the transcoding route.

All of my advice here assumes you're going to be using Color for your grade. If you're not, let me know, and I'll pull a whole new set of advice out of some random bodily orifice.