A suitable redcode level or other memory saving solution for tv-production.

[Daniel Riley SWE]

Hi there!
Im about too buy a Red epic and use it for shooting TV. The standard format in Sweden is just normal SD or 1080HD. My problem is that filming in 1K HD directly on the epic crops the field of view too mutch, and too film in 5K HD will eat up the redmag too fast and will be too heavy for the postproduction. What is the best way too solve my problem? Are there any good external recorders you can use while wating for the red proxy module? How low can you bring down the redcode quality, too save space, withoute loosing too mutch information? Qualaty eaqual to sonys IMX50 codecs is good enouth for me.

And another question, do you recommend any good setups or something i just cant be without when shooting TV with a red?


Thanks for some hopefully helping answers.

//Daniel

 

[M Most]

Use 7:1 or 9:1 compression. That will give you essentially the same image but with much more reasonable file sizes, very similar to the Red One's Redcode 42 mode. Or shoot at 4K, which will reduce the data payload even further. Or both.

I understand why cameramen and others seem to always gravitate towards using what they perceive as "the best" quality options across the board. But honestly, this is not particularly practical in many cases. Red's compression has always been very acceptable, especially for television work, even at the more extreme ratios used in its earlier days (Redcode 28, for instance - which, BTW, produced 4K files that were smaller than Prores444 in HD). One shouldn't be afraid of using it, particularly in situations where big data is not practical.

 

[luigivaltulini]

Hi there!
Im about too buy a Red epic and use it for shooting TV. The standard format in Sweden is just normal SD or 1080HD. My problem is that filming in 1K HD directly on the epic crops the field of view too mutch, and too film in 5K HD will eat up the redmag too fast and will be too heavy for the postproduction. What is the best way too solve my problem? Are there any good external recorders you can use while wating for the red proxy module? How low can you bring down the redcode quality, too save space, withoute loosing too mutch information? Qualaty eaqual to sonys IMX50 codecs is good enouth for me.

And another question, do you recommend any good setups or something i just cant be without when shooting TV with a red?


Thanks for some hopefully helping answers.

//Daniel

I did not compromise and always 5:1 5kHD Raw, when you do not have the time or the material has to go on the air the same evening use an Atomos Samurai in Red proressss or the new module Proxy.
Otherwise, I bring home files, grade with Davinci and delivery proress the next day.
If you want to have the fluidity of the TV 50i, shot in 50 timebase and framerate 50 with Epic

 

[Patrick Tresch]

If you shoot 1k with the Épic it is like shooting Pal on a ex-1.

Buy the ex-1 it will be cheaper.

Pat

 

[Robert Ruffo New]

If you shoot 1k with the Épic it is like shooting Pal on a ex-1.

Buy the ex-1 it will be cheaper.

Pat

Actually 1K is way less sharp than an Ex1

 

[Ayan Pratap]

Daniel: I recently DPed a feature on the Epic at 7:1. We chose that redcode because our B cam was a RED One and were matching to the highest on the R1. Recently saw a rough cut of the film. The footage intercuts beautifully and holds up very good IMO. They sent me a compressed file and I was watching on Vimeo (only 2GB). Even after all that compression it was pleasant to look at. (the Vimeo compression might be hiding some noise). I was worried about some of the dark shots on set about noise levels and being at 7:1, how much I will be able to process it in post etc, but I was surprised with the results. My initial plan was to shoot at 5:1, but that would have been overkill for a project that long. In your case, definitely give 7:1 a try, beyond 8:1, the quality starts dropping in bigger chunks...

 

[Steve Gibby]

When me and my crews use Epic for programs destined for HD broadcast or HD cablecast we usually shoot in 10:1 compression in Quad HD (3840 x 2160) resolution. Quad HD resamples down to 1080 HD very cleanly and naturally allows for reframing in post if needed/wanted.

If we need additional higher frame rate sequences we sometimes shoot in 3k at 7:1 compression. Well shot 3k short sequences will cut fine with Quad HD.

The above setups give you more than enough quality images for HDTV destined programs, while also keeping the size of the files and backup drives smaller.

The HDTV programs I produce/direct/shoot are highly mobile EFP in production style - alternative sports, adventure travel, wildlife, music, tourism, nature, and documentaries of various kinds.

 

[Freya]

I think Steve is really onto something with the QuadHD suggestion as it also has the advantage of being much faster to scale down to 1080p as it is mathematically related. It gives the additional benefit of future proofing you a little for UHD-TV in the future.

I think you are better keeping the resolution at QuadHD and compressing the data more. The more data there is to start with, the more compressible it is, so theres an advantage from having more data to start with and then adding a fair bit of compression. If you do find yourself having to increase the compression further or to drop to 3K or something then maybe you can do that for just part of the video but do make sure that you start out the video with some nice QuadHD footage. First impressions last remember.

Freya