Most Postproduction Setup Advice Needed

[Hunter Snyder]

Edit* Title should read Modest Postproduction Setup Advice Needed

New here to the forum, currently without a camera. I am planning to get a Scarlet if everything goes according to plan. It was either an HVX200 or Scarlet, so I am holding out.

I am going into my freshmen year of college next year, and I know Drexel has an excellent edit room with new Mac Pro's with 23" in dual Apple Cinema Displays, DVCPROHD VTR's, and panasonic LCD preview monitors, unsure about graphics yet, my guess is some AJA variant.

I have a 15" MacBook Pro with 4GB RAM and 128MB GeForce 8600M GT (don't think that is going to cut it). I am curious what would be recommended for my possible transition into the 3K post production workflow. I am considering a Mac Pro with NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT 512MB, and 30 inch Apple Cinema Display. What would be a recommendation for a graphics card that can handle 3k without issues? Kona3? What about storage? And is 23" too small for a display?

I am trying to spend no more than 5 thousand for a modest Scarlet set up and 5 thousand for a postproduction setup (take into consideration academic discounts on Final Cut Studio..etc).

Please post your current setups and if you could change anything within reason to improve your setup what would it be? What would you recommend?

 

[Chris Kenny]

It's really hard to say at this point, because by the time Scarlet hits the market next year, workflow will probably be in a very different place.

 

[Noah Kadner]

Yeah I wouldn't be making any sort of forecast as far as what gear to get for Scarlet today. Let's see the camera in the wild first before we do that...

Noah

 

[eskatonia]

I agree with the others, wait. But I can say that the Nvidia 8800 has many driver problems and is not fast for core image processing.

The ATI HD 3870 512MB mac edition card will be out very soon and is retail only around $220US, this will be the way to go for speeding up effects processing in FCP/Motion when it comes out.

 

[Tar]

Remember that the camera is a tool-its how you use it. By the time you're out of film school and looking for freelance gigs and/or jobs the technology will have changed drastically and your new 3K camera from freshman year might be considered 'old.' (computer will, at least)

 

[Nick Gallegos]

I am considering a Mac Pro with NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT 512MB, and 30 inch Apple Cinema Display. What would be a recommendation for a graphics card that can handle 3k without issues? Kona3? What about storage? And is 23" too small for a display?

Unless you're using the Mac Pro to play games, avoid the 8800 GT. The drivers aren't up to snuff yet for Core Image performance (this basically affects any Apple Pro app). Hypothetically, if you were to buy right this second, the stock Radeon HD 2600 XT would be the best choice.

Also keep in mind that processing RED footage is more CPU intensive than anything else, at least at this point. As for displays, buy the biggest one you can afford. The 23" ACD isn't a bad monitor (I wouldn't go any smaller), but the 30" model certainly helps a lot. You only need a Kona solution if you plan on doing your own color grading. Here, you'll also want a calibrated HD-SDI monitor connected to it (like a 17" Panasonic HD broadcast monitor, not a computer display).