Best Workflow for 15 Minute Short?

[flanfan]

I am editing a short film for a friend of mine who is looking to eventually distribute it on blu-ray and 2k DI for the festival circuit. I've been looking around the forums for a good idea for a workflow, and I'm getting some pretty good ideas, but I was wondering if anybody might be able to give me a little more guidance.

We're shooting 2k @ 48fps, 4k @ 24fps, and will probably end up with about 350GB worth of footage (3 day shoot, 12 hour days). I know for certain that they will need to rotoscope a couple of shots for special effects, most likely in After Effects. Sound is probably going to be sent to ProTools or Logic, which should be fine since they only need .aaf files. We also have will have a colorist do some correction after the picture is cut, most likely in Color.

This is the third RED short that I've cut, but I was not as involved with the post-production cycle the other two times. I want to make sure that my workflow can accommodate the other departments, and be flexible in terms of computer requirements.

Previously I was thinking of exporting ProRes422 quicktime files out of RedRushes, cutting with those, and then exporting an xml to clipfinder to conform back to fcp to send to color... but I didn't know if there was an easier way, or if I might be shooting myself in the foot.

I'm running a macbook pro 1.83GHz, although there is the possibility that I could get access to an octocore Mac Pro. However, hard drive space is limited in either one, and the time/power/space it to takes to make these ProRes files could be a problem.

Previously I'd cut using the _M or _H proxy files, hand off the project, and never see it again. It seems to take a lot more processing power, and I'm not sure how much extra wrangling it takes to accommodate the other departments. I'm going to be using two different film types, 2k and 4k, plus I will need to sync audio with several takes and thus merge clips.

The RedRushes method seems like it's the safer bet, although the Proxy method seems like it could potentially be faster and easier.

Suggestions? I'd greatly appreciate it.

 

[BigLu]

2 External hard drives fw800 1 master 1 backup a 3rd usb cheap drive for double safty
Drives are very reasonable now
no Western Digitals hate those
say 150 bucks for each and 89$ for the usb one

Transcode in ProRes 422 1080p regular not HQ easier on the drives and hard drive space.
HQ not necessary but you can go HQ if you wish being on a mac laptop i prefer non HQ.

Borrow your friends 8core Transcode in Red Rushes
Half res high debayer quality
look source camera
color space REDspace
Gamma Space REDspace
assuming your DP did a good job no clipping no crushing.

Resize to 1920x1080
Sample Filter CatmulRom is very useful

Edit in FCP
Send file to AE back to FCP send to color finish grading
Done.

dont use the proxys

hope that helps

 

[Michael Cioni]

Defining "Best"

Defining "Best"

It is a common question for clients to ask me "What computer should I edit with?" or "How many hours should we color correct?" My answer always is "spend as much money or time as you can afford."

Because the definition of best is contingent on the resources, time, money and talent you have available, you'll need to consider a number of options before you can determine which one is best for you.

You're doing the right thing in searching for information that offers workflow variations. We all have our opinions on what is the best workflow for a 15 minute short, and what is best for your project will likely be its own custom variation of another workflow. I have personally worked on 20 or 30 Red shorts and each of them explored slightly different workflows that are customized to the project (budget and editing platform being the most dominant factors in determining workflow specifics). However one way to strategize which workflow to lean towards can be based on your actual colorist. Timing with a talented, veteran colorist will take even ProRes files to a new level. Try to align yourself with the final (artistic) stop and let that help guide your workflow choices from back to front. That may help the project look as best as it can.

michael