From R3D to DCP

[Joel Mielle]

There's probably been a whole lot of talk on this subject however I'm yet to find it throughout all the threads. I have just finished as DP on a feature film called the Water Stinger in filmed in Australia and China. The film was edited in Premiere Pro and I recently received a call from the director that there are some technical confusions on the best settings for DCP output. The main dilemma is the debayer vs quality. It appears that the debayer removes resolution quality (not sure how much) and if you set up the sequence for a 2K output at 1.85:1, you're in fact only getting a 1.5K output. Increasing the resolution doesn't work as it no longer conforms to the 2K output. Would this be correct? Could someone enlighten me on this subject and clearly highlight how to setut up a Premiere Pro sequence to get a real 2K output?

Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

Joel Mielle

 

[Terry VerHaar]

Is someone getting measured resolution mixed up with nominal / actual resolution? If you output 2K, you get 2K.

 

[Joel Mielle]

It's the debayer that is confusing as it removes some color resolution resulting in quality loss. Sure 2K is 2K, but with debayer it's 1.5K upscaled to 2K. So .5K is lost. The way I see it, the only way to get rue 2K would be to submit a 2.5K DCP.

 

[Craig Parkes]

Hi Joel, I am unsure of what the signal chain is like inside Premiere pro, but historically the workflow recommendation for full bit depth and highest quality output has been to move the project into After Effects or AAF it into another finishing program before final export.

Going straight from Premiere Pro to your XYZ file for DCP mastering doesn't appear to offer as clear cut a working environment in terms of managing debayer and bit depth etc - Especially as Premiere Pro has a lot of settings around providing real time playback that could impact on quality when it comes to R3D footage.