Log & Transfer Times?

[Harry Clark]

Trying to convince a long term client with tight schedule constraints that Red can offer a quick workflow.
He's curious about L&T times. On my MBP, I can get about 4x-5x real time (meaning 4 minutes L&T for every 1 minute of footage) if nothing else is running on the computer. I assume a faster 8-core Pro would improve this. But admittedly, I'm not a post guy.
Anyone out there have a solid benchmark on this for me?
Cheers,
Harry

 

[Steve Sherrick]

Harry, biggest question is how are they planning to finish? Right inside FCP? Color? Taking it to a finishing house?

I really think Clipfinder can be a great solution too for some of these quick turnaround projects that need to finish in FCP or Color. Hans has some nice tools for conforming, and you can spit out 1/4 res quicktimes fairly quickly if they are looking to do an offline /online solution.

What is also important is determining where this is going to end up? Broadcast TV, web, DVD? That too can change the approach. How much footage are they starting off with? If documentary, it might be better off getting this material into a manageable file size using codecs like DVCProHD.

There are many ways to approach RED post, but I have found the best way is to work backwards. Start at the deliverable and that will really help clarify what approaches work best. If you have 4-5x L+T rates, this could be too slow or just fine depending on resources, deadlines, etc.

Feel free to contact me if you want to go over some of the details of the project and I can try to advise on what I would do.

 

[Harry Clark]

Broadcast TV. They usually use Final Cut but then do a real CC in a room. Sometimes there is flame work involved.
We currently do a lot of the work in DVCPro HD, because, as you point out, it's a very easy codec to deal with.
I'm kind of staying out of it, but I wanted to see if there were any way to speed up L&T.
I will mention clipfinder to them.
Cheers,
Harry

 

[Noah Kadner]

REDrushes is faster. But yeah anything will be much faster on a decked out Mac Pro than your laptop.

Noah

 

[Steve Sherrick]

Broadcast TV. They usually use Final Cut but then do a real CC in a room. Sometimes there is flame work involved.
We currently do a lot of the work in DVCPro HD, because, as you point out, it's a very easy codec to deal with.
I'm kind of staying out of it, but I wanted to see if there were any way to speed up L&T.
I will mention clipfinder to them.
Cheers,
Harry

In that case, I would definitely opt for getting this footage into a manageable codec such as ProRes and use 1/4 debayer quality. Any of the Redline apps (Redrushes, clipfinder, etc.) can export these files in a reasonable amount of time in a quality that should be fine for broadcast editing. Once the edit is locked, you can then provide EDL, XML, whatever you need to do to get it into the grading room. If they have the ability to use native R3D files in the color correction, great. If not, it will probably be conformed with uncompressed quicktime, DPX, whatever. The bottom line, their offline editing should go rather smoothly with those smaller file sizes that can be transported on small drives if necessary without needing to also have the R3Ds with them. This workflow should go faster than L+T. Plus, much easier to apply some one light if you need that for the offline edit.

If it's Color they are using to do the finishing, one of the fastest workflows I've been able to use is shoot 4KHD with Max off, do a native L+T ingest into FCP, edit, send to Color, finish with the R3Ds, then export a ProRes 444 final movie. But this workflow relies on that Max button being unchecked (at least for me and my system), and the newest version of Final Cut Studio. You need a beefy system and fast hard drives.

 

[Harry Clark]

REDrushes is faster. But yeah anything will be much faster on a decked out Mac Pro than your laptop.

Noah

HA!
Yes, I knew that much.
Harry