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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 :)

codex shoot.. is this crazy?

Zakaree Sandberg

Zakaree Sandberg

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I only do commercials, and have yet to do arriraw.. until now..
I have a job shooting on 2 alexas, both of which will have the arriraw codex..

I'm starting to think this isn't a one man show...

in other words.. i might drown in work, between data management for these two cameras and transcoding..

are my fears legit? or is this manageable?
 
for the record.. my sweating about this all day is making me really hate arriraw.. the codex and offloading it just sounds like such a nightmare between how much time it takes to offload a data pack, and all this nonsense about it being virtual files..
 
Zakaree, I recommend you do some testing prior to the shoot. There is a workflow to this, and you'll want to get familiar with it and see what is possible and what is not. Typically, there would be a near set Codex Vault S Process and Archive system. How are you planning on managing media and transcoding? How much look creation are you doing? How much material are they looking to capture?
 
Also, there are other options available now for Arriraw, such as the Gemini recorder. Problem is, they were just recently certified, so the track record isn't quite there yet. But in the case of a commercial, you may be able to implement it if the Codex workflow doesn't work out for you.
 
Im honestly not sure if we will have the codex vault or not... and I'm not really going to do any looks.. except maybe a rec709 look. unlike a tv show or a movie.. my only workflow test is tomorrow during the prep.. I'm a little freaked out on the whole situation.. its a low budget spot... with big budget aspirations

i think ill only have a transfer station.. which I'm hoping can actually self create the DNxHD files..so I can bypass needing to go into resolve and transcode..

any tips would be greatly appreciated.

my main goals are to safety back up the raw files, and have edit ready dnXhd files created
 
I think the bottleneck for you is going to be the dailies creation. You'll need to determine how fast you can transfer files and then how long your system will need to process for dailies. Sounds like you have quite a task ahead of you.
 
Just go to rental house and play with Codex for couple hours. It works fairly well. There is no transcoding as you are used to with RED Rocket but actually faster way to create your dailies files. You can have different codecs at the same time. Virtual file system is coolest part of Codex
 
Crazy part is that you took a job without knowing system. Good part is that you can learn it in a day if you ask friendly technician at the rental house for some tutorial. VFS is very fast and efficient way to create dailies. You will like it.
 
you'll want a full tower and a really fast raid. a single codex pack and download roughly close to 290 mb/sec. pretty fast but you put a md5 checksum in there and it blows the whole speed of download. your call if you want to do finder copy or not.

i recommend sled to a really fast raid first, than doing the backups from the raid. fastest production can offer up. codex uses a h680 via download, i'd try to get a second card in there so you can dedicate on sas card for for downloading 2 packs at once, and another just for esata. and get a second download station. unless they plan to alternate the use of cameras you'll have no way of downloading 2 packs at once without it.

the virtual file system creating dnxhd will be insanely slow. you won't even come close to real time let alone get the downloads done and backed up, just to be hung up on their transcode method. you'll need something else like resolve or scratch to do the job.

get yourself a dedicated loader. you'll need the extra help especially if you are doing looks too.

it's not a easy task but it's manageable. I've done it, but it was a group effort, and it was a lot of number crunching and making sure I had the pipeline to handle it. it's not difficult if you got everything you need and you aren't understaffed. once you get the ball rolling on it it's simple, it's just the files are huge. get a quality checkout with the cams and codex, a run through at the rental house in depth. and again, the faster the drives the better! good luck.
 
With the Codex line of products for dailies creation, you should be fine. Just read up on it as much as you can. Then some hands-on training and hopefully you'll be good to go.
 
i personally never found the codex file creation system fast enough at all. but depending on the pace of this project, like if it's table top, it should be ok. since I already own scratch lab, that's my default for dailies creation. real time dailies creation!
 
Tom.Wong said:
i personally never found the codex file creation system fast enough at all. but depending on the pace of this project, like if it's table top, it should be ok. since I already own scratch lab, that's my default for dailies creation. real time dailies creation!
Click to expand...


from what I've been told.. its non stop shooting. not table top at all.. so I'm effed I'm pretty sure
 
Mariusz Cichon said:
Crazy part is that you took a job without knowing system. Good part is that you can learn it in a day if you ask friendly technician at the rental house for some tutorial. VFS is very fast and efficient way to create dailies. You will like it.
Click to expand...

took the job last week when i was told arri alexa..

found out today it was arriraw
 
Steve Sherrick said:
Tom, which system are you referring to?
Click to expand...


the virtual file system built into the codex server. you can set it to generate dailies as well married and baked with cdl. you just punch in the what you want in the codex server UI, and it can generate it on the virtual drive. but I always found it too slow for what producers want out of a day for on set dailies. not to mention i don't think it can do sync sound.


Zak, I suggest telling production they need to rent another tower on top of yours, and make sure everything is specced out right. with a second tower and another hand on deck you'll be fine. just transfer to a fast raid and than do the backups, and expect a decent amount of overtime.

it's not unmanageable, you just can't go in ill prepared. you could even do it with a laptop with a thunderbolt raid and pci expander. all it requires is the h680 connection.

make sure you're on the right drivers and firmware as well. and get a really good run through on codex operation. there are a handful of quirks you need to keep in the back of your head.
 
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