B/W on Epic - color gone?

[K. Møller]

Ok, so the DP just got back from a music video shoot and I'm transcoding their files to prores for an offline edit...


Apparently they chose to shoot half the scenes in black and white, except the footage shot at a studio on a greenscreen. The DP, being used to shooting on Alexa, set the camera for B/W (I personally don't know the settings), thinking that the original R3D raw files would be color.

So, when I've been opening these files in REDCINE-X they look pretty much just B/W to me. MY question is:

Are they just B/W or do they still magically obtain full color fidelity somewhere in the depths of R3D wizadry?

Cheers.

PS. The Director is in a fit and he's 2 meters tall and weighs 120 kg and the DP is half his size.... Help save a DP's life today!

 

[Antony M]

That depends whether they used the normal Epic or the new Black and White only Epic.
If it was a normal Epic, then just bring the Saturation value back up from 0 and your colour should come back!

If this doesn't work, then show us a screenshot of your RedCine settings.

 

[John Marchant]

Don't throw yourself / anyone off a window ledge, its all fine. Just reset the saturation metadata in RCX and carry on as normal. For a quick check, push the D button above the viewer to see the image at default meta. That's assuming it was shot on anything but a Monochrome Epic of course... Please tell me someone didn't rent one with chromakey on the shotlist?

 

[K. Møller]

Hi guys! and thanks for your quick replies... you were entirely right! Cheers for that.

Turns out that the director prefers the scenes in B/W after all so we don't have to to a transcode of the entire stock again. Also, just saved the DP's butt... Have a great weekend, all!

Greetings from Copenhagen