Is this a good work flow?

[Jay Rodriguez]

Hey guys... First post here but I'm a longtimer on DVXUser.
I have a RED project that I'm editing and need to know if what I'm doing is ok. This project is meant to end up on DVD for festivals and also for web. I directed it and usually edit my own stuff but this is my first RED edit and it's overwhelming, lol.

I installed the RED Final Cut Studio Installer. (just wanted to add more info to the post)

So I open up FCP 7 and imported one of the QT clips (H). I chopped it up and then exported and all seems well but what exactly am I exporting?

I read about the R3D files being the 4k version and all of the other QT files being the proxies but if I import the "H" proxy into FCP and export then am I getting the best resolution? I'm not sure is I even make any sense to you guys.:banghead: haha

I'm sure what I'm doing is wrong so if you can link me to anything that'll help I'd appreciate it. cheers

Oh also, if I start renaming the QT files will that screw anything up?

 

[James Press]

Hi Jay,

Welcome to RedUser!

Well, righto, where to start [big breath]. You are not the first to ask, and won't be the last, but you should know there are heaps of posts/threads here on workflow, and I recommend you use the good search function--you can't read too much on this topic.

My suggestion to you is that given it's your first time with Red, and given your deliverables are DVD and web, you are (far) better off transcoding your footage to ProRes and editing per normal with that.

You'll need to download the free red apps RedAlert! and RedRushes inorder to set a look (like a primary colour grade) to the r3ds and then to transcode them into ProRes.

Editing with the proxies is possible, but I would strongly recommend against it if you have limited red knowledge for lots of good reasons that I'm not going to go into here. ProResHQ files should give you more than enough latitude for colour grading, assuming the footage was sensibly shot.

Good luck with it all!

Oh! And YES renaming the QT files will KILL THEM so DON'T! But, hey, you won't be using them now will you...:nono:

 

[Uli Plank]

You can always rename clips inside of FCP, but never change the filenames!

 

[Dylan Macleod CSC]

There is a white paper on RED FCP workflow that (I think) is part of the download of the FCP installer

http://www.red.com/support

2/3 way down the page.

 

[Jay Rodriguez]

Hey thanks guys! Late last night I started transcoding them to ProResHQ with redalert and so far, so good!

James, you said I should CC them before transcoding? Is there a major difference in CC'ing them in RedRushes and then transcoding or transcoding and then CC'ing in color?

Uli, thanks.

Dylan, thanks. I printed it out and reading.

 

[Pietro Impagliazzo]

CC before transcode means you're using the full info from the RAW file, so if a scene is going get graded dramatically at least give it a one-light on REDCine.

 

[James Press]

James, you said I should CC them before transcoding? Is there a major difference in CC'ing them in RedRushes and then transcoding or transcoding and then CC'ing in color?

Jay,

As Pietro says, you should set a colour look in RedAlert! prior to transcoding. You can then send the transcoded files to Color later to complete the CC.

The "look" you put onto your R3Ds (RAW Red footage) in RedAlert!/RedCine/Cine-X (all free Red apps) is not, strictly speaking, "colour correction", although it has a similar effect. When you transcode you are telling the computer "take all the colour info in my R3D and narrow it down to fit within the colour confines available in (for example) ProResHQ (ie 4:2:2, 10 bit)". You also set the colour space (RedSpace/ Rec709 etc).

So you just should set a colour look that is close to what you want your final product to look like- close but not perfect--close enough is good enough at this stage. Then, once you've transcoded the R3Ds into ProResHQ, you'd edit and then send that to Color where you can perform a proper colour grade and get the footage grade to exactly what you want. If you get the colour close in the initial transcode, you should have more than enough latitude to push it around in Color (unless you are wanting to make radical colour changes, as Pietro points out--but I have never hit that limitation).

Best,

James

 

[Jay Rodriguez]

Makes complete sense to me now. Thank you for the information guys! I really appreciate it.