2 editors...2 mac pros...one intel & one g5

[Craig Schober]

i am about to begin editing a few terabytes of data on a feature along with the director. i have a new mac pro with all the raw data at my place and wanted to cut proxies, perform a basic sound mix and send to color to grade. however, my director has an older g5 power mac and older fcp and also wants to cut her own version in parallel with mine. director will have "final edit" but only my system can handle any real red proxies or color grading.

i figured i would create smaller quicktime (h.264) 720p clips from all the raw footage via redrushes for the director but i'm still unclear on how i can smoothly import her cuts into my cuts when the time comes to merge the two and export to color.

is there a way to painlessly do this or do we need to just work out a more traditional system where i make a first rough cut and the director then works off my cut to create a more refined cut which would still have to somehow be imported back into my system for grading?

i've been editing for years but never in tandem with another editor and certainly not all the complications that proxies and outdated powerpcs introduce.

start editing in a week so any help would be appreciated.


thanks in advance.

 

[Brandon Kraemer]

Sounds like a bad scenario, tandem editing. First, I would say do not make H.264 files, they are not appropriate for editing with, ProRes would be better. Use something like Clipfinder or Monkey to make your transcodes in batch. Depending on your shooting ratio, your going to need lots of hard drive space to do this. Seems like if the director is so interested in having control over the cut they should upgrade to an intel box at least (ebay, not too expensive), to make your life easier. I assume your doing the online?

 

[Colin Hubick]

This is something that I have come up against since day 1 of using Red. We usually do a set of rushes, usually ProRes 1k quicktimes. It is these quicktimes that we send off to the editor, director and DP. As long as editorial keeps the names original, conforming the show in the end from an EDL or XML using Monkey Extract. Maybe one day Redline will support Red Rocket, which will allow us to do the conform via Red Rocket.

Since most of the features we do have editors working in other countries, having multiple suites in sync works great so everybody can see the progress of the cut.

 

[Tim Whitcomb]

Hi Craig- don't envy your situation there. I rarely let directors edit their own movies (im a producer) unless they have proven they can (i.e the film sold and made its money back) . Mainly, as they (directors) tend to fall in love with scenes more often than not, that don't propel the story. They also often get too close to the story with repetitive editing tasks.

I would suggest you work collaboratively with the director and ask (beg) her to let you assemble the rough cut, and then bring her in for refinements. Two separate cuts sounds like a cluster f$&% waiting to happen.

AS for workflow. Id go Prores 4444 because if you dont get a distribution deal, then dont waste your time or money on a conform back to the R3d's. The new Prores is suitable for most TV deliverables and maintains considerable latitude in post when color correcting. Looks great on DVD and Blu Ray as well.

As for her machine. Yeah, she needs to sell that and buy an Intel MacPRO
or she will be working with low quality proxies and struggling...but maybe thats
what you want?

 

[Jim Brennan]

I am going through a similar situation. I told the director that the footage was not viewable on his system. Then I gave him a terabyte HDD of footage to take with him to see for himself.

Having a rough cut before the director sees it is so helpful, because that gives you something concrete to work from.

Sadly, I have no additional suggestions from a technical standpoint.

 

[Craig Schober]

thanks for all the replies...and so fast. looks like i might have touched on a common workflow issue.

i was under the impression that non-intel machines don't support prores. that and the fact that the older system currently has no large storage volumes is why i thought h.264 would be the best way to go. maybe her old g5 (dual 2ghz i think?) can squeak by with prores but what about framerates? i guess i'll have to do a few tests.

and as far as a director editing, i'm not going to to be the first to throw any stones. i both directed and edited my first feature. some told me it was a big mistake and others said the movie was great so go figure. however, i am also producer so i'm trying to come at this from more of a technical viewpoint to give the director the most options so she gets what she needs and wants.

shooting ratio is pretty low. maybe 1:7. i have about 15 tb on my end so i could afford to render out quicktimes for both of us to edit. i just didn't want to cripple or slow the grading process in color. i finally got the proxy/fcp/color workflow working right without the need to transcode or create quicktime wrappers (which takes forever) and didn't want to shake things up any more.

if anyone's interested in our production...www.thecrabmovie.com

thanks again and keep the comments/thoughts/tips coming.

 

[JosephArthur]

ProRes is always the way to go for editing. We did it from r3d files from the RED Drive (backed it up twice). And slammed it into the RED Rocket on the desktop unit. (Although my laptop was used as a mobile RED Rocket - via esata) . Either way with or without the red rocket (preferably with), kick it out to ProRes.