RED MXF WORKFLOW - GUIDLINES

[Nick Morrison]

Hey guys, I freelance at AETN, have been for 10 years, and I'm kinda a well known Red enthusiast. And well, we got some footage in today that as opposed to being the standard RED R3D's converted to Quicktimes with AVID DNXHD Codecs...we got MXF files.

My head almost exploded.

I've known this is possible for a while, but never seen it happen till today. The engineers were all about to AMA and do the standard workflow, assuming we had QTs, but isntead, we are happily copying over all the MXF media to the ISIS and getting ready to edit isntantly!

My question for all of you that know this workflow better than us is...what are your main guidelines for doing this the most efficiently?

Our plan right now is to copy over the MXF media to the ISIS, import the AAF files into the project (which has all the metadata and links back to the MXF packets), and we're assuming it should all link up once the Avid scans all the new media when it finishes copying.

We'll know in about 2 hours if this works. But still, would love any other suggestions or advice you guys have, re: working with MXF render outs from Redcine X.

But this is huge for us...normally a three camera RED shoot delivered as Avid Quicktimes could take up to a day to import and transcode. Now? A couple of hours.

Sweet.

Thanks yall.

 

[N_Villers]

You can also add richer metadata via relinking from an .ale. I have used this workflow for quite a while and works great. When exporting an edl for conform through rc-x or other program just be sure to use file16 instead of cmx3600 and that there are no time warps or reverse playback. It makes it super easy to conform from for instance dnxhd36 mxf to graded dnxhd185 mxf. Just add them to the Avid MediaFiles folder and relink to highest res. Avid and Red have really figured this out well.

 

[Michael Dalton]

Is there anywhere that this work flow is outlined in detail for a dummy? I'd love to use it over AMA, and then grad the final project only. (I'll do a quick grade for the initial cut in Avid DNX 38 or 115 and then do a final in 175.

 

[N_Villers]

Is there anywhere that this work flow is outlined in detail for a dummy? I'd love to use it over AMA, and then grad the final project only. (I'll do a quick grade for the initial cut in Avid DNX 38 or 115 and then do a final in 175.

Avid has a good whitepaper on their website. Whether you generate the .mxf through AMA or RC-x it shouldn't matter. Just don't lose track or your clipnames or TapeID.

 

[Nick Morrison]

Looks good. Helpful. Thanks guys!