Question about Red Workflow Possibilities

[Tom Burns]

Hi all,

I’m working as a Producer with a DOP who has just got a Red One camera. One question that we cannot seem to get a definite answer from (at least from our own research) is:-

Can we real-time stream footage from the camera into a computer network or computer system? Is it possible? Perhaps through the monitor outs, or is there some way or bypassing the raid mags and going straight into a computer network or system?

Basically what we’re looking to achieve is for a director to wrap, and then instead of waiting to watch crap old dailies in his lunch break the next day, I want him to be able to head on down to the offline editing suites, sit in the theatre, and watch a rough-offline-cut of the day’s shoot – same-day.

What neither myself or my DOP can figure out is:-
is it possible?

 

[Trevor Meier]

You can get SDI video out of the camera, but you lose the main point of the RED, which is shooting RAW.

You can play quicktime files directly off the Mag if need be, so turnaround time can be next to nothing. A music video on our cameras a few days ago shot 10 hours and cut overnight on a laptop in their hotel room with a rough-cut ready the next morning.

This may be helpful to understand what I mean: Red Mythbusters

 

[Michael Cioni]

Trevor is right-
Moving the media to a FireWire drive and editing off that is pretty fast. So here are two options for fast dailies turn-around:
1. Stream out of the camera to an SDI-Composite AJA converter and capture it to a real-time DVD-R recorder (about $150.00 at BestBuy). Then you can make dailies on set right out of the camera.


2. Make yourself a copy from the FireWire drives and bring them home after you wrap. You can load the files on a laptop running either Final Cut Pro (Mac) or RedCine (Mac & PC) and watch the footage that way.

Version 1 is really fast, like recording 35mm video taps, but it is not meant to be used for edit lists, roughcuts, etc. Version 2 is quick and cheap and allows for a pull list to be created out of FCP and sent to the edit room the next day.
michael

 

[Mathew Mackereth]

Trevor is right-

1. Stream out of the camera to an SDI-Composite AJA converter and capture it to a real-time DVD-R recorder (about $150.00 at BestBuy). Then you can make dailies on set right out of the camera.
michael

surely one of the points of dailies is to ensure no glitches, dropped frames etc. - the above method is great for on-set review of performance - but not so good for a technical check... FCP method seems the best.

macka

 

[Lucas Wilson]

Hi all,

I’m working as a Producer with a DOP who has just got a Red One camera. One question that we cannot seem to get a definite answer from (at least from our own research) is:-

Can we real-time stream footage from the camera into a computer network or computer system? Is it possible? Perhaps through the monitor outs, or is there some way or bypassing the raid mags and going straight into a computer network or system?

Basically what we’re looking to achieve is for a director to wrap, and then instead of waiting to watch crap old dailies in his lunch break the next day, I want him to be able to head on down to the offline editing suites, sit in the theatre, and watch a rough-offline-cut of the day’s shoot – same-day.

What neither myself or my DOP can figure out is:-
is it possible?

Hey Tom,

In addition to the workflows Michael laid out, you could output frame accurately from 1/2 Rez High in realtime with primary color grading, LUTs, burn-in and reframing or pan/scan to any format from NTSC/PAL up to 4:4:4 HD-RGB to SR.

SCRATCH-CINE paired with the redBOXX does all that...

Best,

Lucas
-----
ASSIMILATE, inc.
LA, CA, USA

 

[Greg Huson]

Basically what we’re looking to achieve is for a director to wrap, and then instead of waiting to watch crap old dailies in his lunch break the next day, I want him to be able to head on down to the offline editing suites, sit in the theatre, and watch a rough-offline-cut of the day’s shoot – same-day.

What neither myself or my DOP can figure out is:-
is it possible?

I guess I don't even see what the problem is, to be honest. You should be backing up on the set anyway. Use a raid 1 device as your backup, then you've got two copies of the same material. When the last file of the day is backed up, one drive goes to safe keeping, the other can go with the director to editorial. Now, I don't think the single-drive 'mirror' copy will play in real time reliably (correct me if I'm wrong power users,) so he might have to have the editor (or, it sounds like in this case, the assistant) copy the material a second time onto a raid 0 or better array.

You could save even more time, I suppose, by having a 'writeable node' (partition, drive, etc.) of a san-type setup (terrablock, for example) right on the set (since it sounds like editorial is in he same facility as the stage) and do your backups to that. The the material would be ready to play seconds after editorial got the call the director was on his way.

Definitely check out the mythbusters thread- you only need to add the backup/archive beat to the story and you've got a winning plot.