Editing R3Ds Natively in Premiere CC

[Colin Nusbaum]

Hello all,

I am a cinematographer and editor, who recently put down a deposit on my first RED camera, the Scarlet-W. Needless to say, I'm very excited about it.

I have some questions about the post/editing workflow and I wonder if folks can shed some light...
Namely:

1) I am editing on a recently released 27" iMac (4GHz, i7) with the highest available specs. In this case, is transcoding and offline editing a necessity, or can I plan to work with 4K or 5K R3D files in Premiere? ...It is my preference to edit with the RAW/online media if possible. That said, I am often working on long-form, feature-length material with lots of media. Would a more powerful machine/vid card be necessary to edit the RAW?

2) When editing RAW R3Ds, if I change the Premiere playback resolution to 1/2 or 1/4, does that significantly improve playback and editing performance? ...I think I read somewhere that the RED wavlet compression makes this a good approach to improve performance, but then why not just do that as opposed to transcoding and editing offline?

There are likely a lot of things that I am overlooking here, as I am completely new to this workflow... but any thoughts or warnings would be greatly appreciated!

Cheers,Colin

 

[Kwan Khan]

1) I am editing on a recently released 27" iMac (4GHz, i7) with the highest available specs. In this case, is transcoding and offline editing a necessity, or can I plan to work with 4K or 5K R3D files in Premiere? ...It is my preference to edit with the RAW/online media if possible. That said, I am often working on long-form, feature-length material with lots of media. Would a more powerful machine/vid card be necessary to edit the RAW?

Working with 4K or 5K R3D (RAW/online media) in Ppro is fine (just drop resolution 1/2,1/8 or 1/16)

2) When editing RAW R3Ds, if I change the Premiere playback resolution to 1/2 or 1/4, does that significantly improve playback and editing performance?
Cheers,Colin

Yes.

 

[Will Keir]

Great questions. I've spent years playing and building the tech to edit 4K natively in full rez. My conclusion for where we are at with technology:

Edit in a 1080P timeline.

There are a few guys at the tip of the spear like Phil Holland editing in 4K and the major workflow for professional editors is a 1080p timeline. The real goal should not be playing with tech, it's to make your movies right?

I went back to 1080p even though I have a 4K display and the ability with the hardware to edit 4K native. I've been a part of the creation of 4 features films in two years. I send my work to a online editor and to a color correct team. Then there's the VFX guys, which I only use for some minor tracking and compositing work.

There are only a few guys that know 4K.

 

[Marc Wielage]

I went back to 1080p even though I have a 4K display and the ability with the hardware to edit 4K native. I've been a part of the creation of 4 features films in two years. I send my work to a online editor and to a color correct team. Then there's the VFX guys, which I only use for some minor tracking and compositing work.

I think this is very wise advice.

 

[Owen Rennie]

My 1080 timeline (same iMac as you) plays fine.. My 4K timeline struggles but I get through it..a few crashes and annoyances though

 

[John Shofner]

My 1080 timeline (same iMac as you) plays fine.. My 4K timeline struggles but I get through it..a few crashes and annoyances though

Agreed. Im using a PC I built when I started editing T2i, and 5D footage. i7 2600k (3.4Gghz) sandybridge with 16gb RAM, GTX 660, and no raid editing 6k dragon footage to a 4k timeline. Run at 1/4 res and youre in shape. I think people overestimate what is needed. My system def doesnt fly, and im upgrading soon because I also have a deposit on a Scarlet-W, but it certainly gets the job done.

EDIT: I just saw

That said, I am often working on long-form, feature-length material with lots of media. Would a more powerful machine/vid card be necessary to edit the RAW?

You will likely need a little more power for feature length, all my stuff is sub 20 minute.

 

[AndreasOberg]

Hello all,

I am a cinematographer and editor, who recently put down a deposit on my first RED camera, the Scarlet-W. Needless to say, I'm very excited about it.

I have some questions about the post/editing workflow and I wonder if folks can shed some light...
Namely:

1) I am editing on a recently released 27" iMac (4GHz, i7) with the highest available specs. In this case, is transcoding and offline editing a necessity, or can I plan to work with 4K or 5K R3D files in Premiere? ...It is my preference to edit with the RAW/online media if possible. That said, I am often working on long-form, feature-length material with lots of media. Would a more powerful machine/vid card be necessary to edit the RAW?

Congrats on your purchase!
You can absolutely edit with Red files, I have done that with a Mac Pro quite a bit. However personally I would not recommend it. Myself I like "to fly" with the video files, being able to scrub quickly back and forward and I do find that is only really possible with edit friendly codecs like pro res. H264 is usually not very good for this either.
We just upgraded to an extremely fast computer for editing so this will probably be the first time where we don't transcode.
Good luck!
/Andreas

 

[Kevin Reilly]

You shouldn't need to transcode as long as you do 1/4 1/2 resolution in playback and full when paused.