REDCINE > SD AVID: What color space?

[Mike Prevette]

I'm getting ready to do a job that entails me taking all our footage down to SD AVID. I don't have a ton of AVID experience, and the post house while being highend, hates technical stuff. So the job of trans-coding has fallen into my lap. Which is OK since there will be no real online, and I can do a color correct.

We won't be shooting a ton, so I figured I can do a REDCINE > Uncompressed 10bit QT > then dump that into a AVID friendly codec. Also on my side is that we are shooting all MOS.

Anyone have any hints, tips, tricks, or ideas on this workflow.

What color space should Redcine work in? obviously rec.709 isn't right for SD.

Many thanks!

 

[MichaelP]

Have you considered working in HD even for an SD finish? The Avid will then take care of the 709 -> 601 conversion.

Michael

 

[Mike Prevette]

Unfortunately the post house and budget will not support a HD finish. The only reason I'm using the RED is that it's a good low risk job to kick the tires.

 

[Dylan Reeve]

I think Michael is suggesting doing the edit with a DNxHD resolution, and then just mastering the finished edit at SD. This makes sense as REDCINE can export to DNxHD in one step, avoiding the time and potential difficulty of a two step process to a SD resolution.

 

[Mike Prevette]

I see that now, I missread his comment. Forgive my ignorance, but can most AVID's deal with DNxHD?

 

[MichaelP]

Yes - All recent Media Composers support DNxHD. You do not need the DNxcel board with file based HD. Import to an HD project to make media, then go to SD. Also, you can import the 1080p/23.976 QT refs from Red Alert into an SD project and Avid will do the color space conversion. I would do that in a NTSC 23.976 project then output 29.97 with pulldown when ready to master.

Michael