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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 :)

5K to DCI workflow help needed

S

Scott Brown

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Hi Folks

I'm needing some help here!

We're shooting three 60" ads in 5K FF at 50fps + a few 100fps scenes at 4K. We plan to shoot with a 2.4:1 (Cinemascope) delivery in mind but I'm not 100% sure how best to proceed in terms of our edit workflow.

Our deliverable will be a DCI spec 4K 2.4:1 for cinema and also a full HD and 4K version for web use, again at 2.4:1 aspect ratio.

We are still using FCP 7 for much of our editing (living in the dark ages :001_rolleyes:) and therefore we'll offline there and then most likely finish in Resolve.

Using Redcine-X as our starting point, what's the best workflow for our FCP edit? Export 1920 x 1080 ProRes HQ and crop to 2.4:1 in Resolve? Ideally we want to see the Cinemascope version in FCP but again I'm unsure of how best to do this - use a matte in FCP to add black bars top and bottom or export a 2.4:1 quicktime? Can FCP work in non standard sequence sizes? I think it would be 1920 x 800 pixels?

Can anyone help please?

Many thanks.

Best wishes

Scott
 
Scott,

FCP 7 won't let you export 4k at all. the best you can hope for would be 2k in fcp7 which would be 2048 x 858 for dci scope. you would be better off finishing in davinci 10 if you want 4k at 4096 x 1716 for scope. the light version of davinci 10 is free and lets you do everything the full version does except for 3d , noise reduction and multiple GPU's

Cheers
 
Hi Bing

Thanks for your help here, much appreciated.

I was thinking we'd offline in FCP with HD ProRes files (not 4K) and then export a XML so we can relink to our R3D's in Resolve and output our 4K DCI Scope master from there after grading.

Our editor is keen to cut seeing the 2.4:1 aspect ratio images - can we export custom Pro Res files and work in FCP easily enough with these or would we be better just exporting 1080p 16:9 and then cropping in FCP?

Best wishes

Scott
 
Hey Scott,

I'm on the Premiere side of the fence, but if I were in your shoes the 16:9 HD exports from RedCine-X sounds like a pretty straightforward workflow for FCP. Add your masking in FCP (or perhaps work on a scope timeline) which will then give you guys the option to test and play with vertical re-framing if needed. Then link to your original R3D's in resolve and do your 4K scope exports from there.
 
Thanks Brad

I'm running some tests today to see if using the 16:9 ProRes HD files is better than trying to set a customs "scope" sequence in FCP. I suspect if we try a 1920 x 800 pixel customs sequence in FCP our realtime performance will fall off the cliff.

Best wishes

Scott
 
Scott Brown said:
I'm running some tests today to see if using the 16:9 ProRes HD files is better than trying to set a customs "scope" sequence in FCP. I suspect if we try a 1920 x 800 pixel customs sequence in FCP our realtime performance will fall off the cliff.
Click to expand...

You can also make a matte in Photoshop, put it on the top track in original 16:9 sequence and mute the track when not needed.
 
Make HD 1920x1080 ProRes dailies with a letterbox for 2.4, you can do this in Resolve or RedCine.
XML final edit to Resolve. You need full version for 4K finish. Lite version does UHD but not 4k DCP size.
For color correction you may want to do a version for P3 space and one for 709.
If the place is not set up for P3 and budget is tight you can do it in 709 and use Open DCP to make the DCP, It will convert the color space in the process.
 
Thanks everyone, I really appreciate your help and feedback on this.

Sergei - I think your suggestion will work well and allow our editor to actually see the "scope" 2.4:1 aspect and make edit decisions accordingly.

I'll check out Open DCP and give this a try. Kristin, if I get stuck with this I'll give you a shout.

Thanks again.

Scott
 
Bing Bailey said:
Scott,

FCP 7 won't let you export 4k at all. the best you can hope for would be 2k in fcp7 which would be 2048 x 858 for dci scope.

Cheers
Click to expand...

That is not true at all. You can export any resolution you want in FCP7. What you can't do is playback any higher than 2K. If you have a 4K sequence FCP7 playback will only be 2K.
 
Hi Patrick
25p works. 4K works.
Subtitles I am not sure. Never tested it myself.
I didn't notice a gamma shift and I'm picky.
There is a help file on they're website.

Peter
 
As others has mentioned and you yourself have guessed you won't het realtime performance if you have a non standard HD aspect ratio in FCP7 - you will be much better exporting in 1920 x 1080 and applying matte. This has the other advantage of allowing your editor to do vertical repositions in the offline. But bare in mind that repos will probably need to be manually recreated when finishing, they won't come theough correctly on the XML I think because of the differing frame sizes.
 
Hi Peter

DCP-O-Matic looks very promising and I'll certainly give this a try...thanks for the pointer on this.

Craig - we've decided to go with exporting 1920 x 1080 ProRes HQ from our 5K FF R3D's - as suggested, we've tested the Widescreen matte in FCP 7 which offers 2.35:1 which is near enough our 2.4:1 planned output and this looks certainly like it's the way to go. I'll test the XML out to Resolve but I do think you are correct in that we'll need to resize everything as this won't translate from FCP.

I'll keep everyone posted on our progress with this project.

Best wishes

Scott
 
Scott Brown said:
…we've tested the Widescreen matte in FCP 7 which offers 2.35:1 which is near enough our 2.4:1 planned output and this looks certainly like it's the way to go.
Click to expand...
Yes, it's close enough that it probably doesn't matter. Or you could just put a black layer above and mask that to exactly 2.4:1. Or if you like, you could try my aspect ratio converter plugin. It was designed originally for anamorphic footage, but can be used with spherical too. There's a demo version downloadable from my website.
 
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