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  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

Social Network...

...I can make a post later with some before/after images (from another RED film) that went through the same process which significantly improved its ultimate large-format exhibition if people think that is useful.
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That would be really interesting to see! :thumbsup:

Your posts always contain great insight, thank you Michael :-)

All the best,
 
After this article RED Team should seriously consider to add ProRes Module

(that also I was before jokingly called "Alexa module") to Epic and Scarlet.

AJA KiPro Mini and similar devices that will come soon on the market are

all nice but original RED-Epic-Scarlet ProRes 1080p recording module also

on 1.8" SSD media would be really the best option.

Jim should make real analysis about that what was important

for postproduction of The Social Network that is probably

going to be soon the biggest box office movie shot on RED1 MX till today.

Also to mention that everybody knows here that in camera ProRes

recording the main competitor already has it.

EPIC project should not make the same mistakes as RED1...

RedRocket is nice but should be recommended only for use for help

of faster final conform rendering output.

But many productions would extremely need also a fast direct-to-edit solution...

Just saying it...


Videography | September 2010

Feature

The Network for The Social Network

Developing the RED/ProRes Post Workflow for
David Fincher’s New Feature
pages 14-15

Editor Angus Wall explains the workflow:

“From our standpoint as editors,
it was a very easy filmto work on.
Tyler Nelson and Alex Olivares,
the assistant editors, handled all the data
management and file conversions at David’s
production offices. They converted the native
RED camera files to Apple ProRes 422 (LT)
for us. After that, it was pretty much the same
for us as on Button or Zodiac, except that
this time we were working with 1920x1080
images, which was great.”

.....


Shooting with the RED ONE cameras
introduced workflow changes for this film.
Tyler Nelson (first assistant editor) handled
the data management, creation of dailies
and the final conforming of files to be sent
to Light Iron Digital for the digital intermediate.
Nelson explains, “I’m very particular
about how the files get handled, and I so
maintained control throughout the process.
I was using two workstations with
RED Rocket accelerator cards running
ROCKETcine-X software to process our dailies.
I would generate ProRes 422 (LT) QuickTimes for
Angus and Kirk. However, when it came to
delivering visual effects elements and our
final conform, we needed a bit more control,
so I used a script that I wrote in FileMaker
Pro to reference our codebook and pull our
online media.”

Nelson continues, “When I received the
locked cut, I generated an EDL for each
video track and then used my FileMaker
Pro script to parse the EDL to drive the
transcode of the RED files into 4K DPX
image sequences. I used these same EDLs
to import each reel into [Adobe] After Effects
CS5 to assemble our final conform. The
footage was shot in 4K [4096x2048]. David
framed his shots with a 2.40 matte, but with
a twist. We added an extra 4 percent padding
on all sides so that if we wanted to reposition
the frame north, south, east or west, we had
a bit more image to work with. Effectively,
we had 3932x1638 pixels to use. The final
images were exported as 2K [2048x1024]
DPX sequences for Light Iron’s DI.”


LINK>>>
 
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-et-social-network-20101001,0,1914455.story

"Presented with an involving central character cold enough to suit his chilly but considerable filmmaking talents, the director does his best work, convincingly presenting a story about conflicts over intellectual property as if it were a fast-paced James Bond thriller."

The reviewer also draws favorable comparisons to Citizen Kane...

Congrats Red and all involved, there is no better validation of your efforts than this.
 
Sanjin:
While I agree it would be fantastic to have a ProRes module, the article you linked and the editors themselves seem to make it pretty clear transcoding with the RedRocket is the simplest workflow they have dealt with and it really didn't cause any problems. It's not that transcoding R3D's to Pro Res LT was a hiccup in their workflow at all, in fact, it was probably one of the simplest processes thanks to the tech that RED has already offered up. ProRes module is FAR from absolutely necessary in my opinion, another add on that could easily come later on. How is not having a ProRes module for REDONE a mistake on RED's part really?

As the great Louis C. K. once said, "Everything's amazing, and nobody's happy. . ." (and take it easy on the double spacing will ya' ;))
 
Sanjin:
While I agree it would be fantastic to have a ProRes module, the article you linked and the editors themselves seem to make it pretty clear transcoding with the RedRocket is the simplest workflow they have dealt with and it really didn't cause any problems. It's not that transcoding R3D's to Pro Res LT was a hiccup in their workflow at all, in fact, it was probably one of the simplest processes thanks to the tech that RED has already offered up. ProRes module is FAR from absolutely necessary in my opinion, another add on that could easily come later on. How is not having a ProRes module for REDONE a mistake on RED's part really?

As the great Louis C. K. once said, "Everything's amazing, and nobody's happy. . ." (and take it easy on the double spacing will ya' ;))

Andrew,

the article I was referring above showed us importance of ProRes in overall R3D workflow

and an idea was to get ProRes module for the future cameras Epic/Scarlet if it's possible.
 
Saw it... great movie, but the picture didn't look quite right. Maybe it was the digital projector, but it seemed kind of soft, video-ish, and, at-times, weirdly colored. Almost the whole film seemed either underexposed, or improperly color corrected (gray blacks and stuff). Wondering what the deal is with this. On a positive note, it was extremely clean (noise free) in all situations.
 
Saw it... great movie, but the picture didn't look quite right. Maybe it was the digital projector, but it seemed kind of soft, video-ish, and, at-times, weirdly colored. Almost the whole film seemed either underexposed, or improperly color corrected (gray blacks and stuff). Wondering what the deal is with this. On a positive note, it was extremely clean (noise free) in all situations.

I will say it was the digital projection. We had the worst experience with digital projection in the Venezia Film Festival with our movie. The colors were out, the contrast was off the charts and it even was generating banding in all the picture. It happened there the 2 days they projected the movie (in 2 different theaters with different projection systems). Anyway, the people from the festival were more annoyed with that than we were (and that's saying they were a lot!) and organized a third showing. When they saw the movie well projected they were amazed at the good work our colorist had done.

There we find that some projectionist don't even deserve that name 'cause they couldn't give any explanation to us. We even talked with the Barco people from Spain (were we are from) but they couldn't help 'cause there was not a Barco representative. Those guys were really cooperative and worried about all the situation.

Knowing the work of Fincher and his team I quite doubt there was a bad colour correction. That man is an image freak! :coolgleamA:
 
There we find that some projectionist don't even deserve that name 'cause they couldn't give any explanation to us. We even talked with the Barco people from Spain (were we are from) but they couldn't help 'cause there was not a Barco representative. Those guys were really cooperative and worried about all the situation.

Can't imagine anything more frustrating, although you can't blame the projectionists. Projectionists are very limited by what they trained and allowed to touch on a digital projector. It has to be done by a service engineer.

The IMAX projector for example, there are keys on-site to open the lower part of the projector but even the head projectionist doesn't have the code for the keysafe. And if it is opened they are pressure sensitive, alerting Canada that it has been opened, they will they remotely shut the projector down.

Daily calibrations should be done, but these are automated and the calibration settings are again done by a service engineer.

As far as a projectionist is concerned on the DIGI's, their hands are tied and kept in the dark. 35mm projector there is a lot more freedom, apart from they will not be allowed to touch the turrret alignment on the lenses.

Just for information sake.

But that doesn't stop it from being an explosion moment for the film maker and the audience.

Knowing the work of Fincher and his team I quite doubt there was a bad colour correction. That man is an image freak! :coolgleamA:

Oh so very much thankfully! Am viewing it tomorrow morning and will be particularily looking toward the acting ability of this Rooney Mara and see how she might fare in the Girl with Dragon Tattoo.
 
Really nice to know about the IMAX projectors, I certainly didn't and I find it amazing. Those projectors are a nice piece of engineering so it doesn't surprise me all that protocol. Good to know about it, Tim.

About the Barco's, we talked with their people and their were amazed about none of their people being in the Festival. Anyway, they told us to connect the projector to the Internet so they could try to fix it that way... the pity was that it was being projected in a hall the festival puts up in a really large tent in the middle of nowhere... so there was no way we could solve that.

No hard feelings with the projectionists now. Just had wished the festival had had someone from Barco around.

Back into topic, I'm dying for TSN to be released here in Spain. The trailers look just gorgeous and the reviews I've read so far make me think it can be a really good movie. 'Till then, I'm still enjoying the trailer! :cheers2:
 
Congratulations Jim and Co. Just Saw SN. Fantastic. A thoroughly MODERN movie.

When we look back on the end of chemical film, SN will surely be remembered as a turning point for digital. Huge, huge congratulations Red!!!!
 
I'm far from the most trained eye when it comes to these things ... but for me, the focus seemed to be very slightly off at certain points.

I'd have to see it again to point to the exact scenes -- but I noticed a slight blur at certain times in characters that should have been in focus. And this wasn't during a focus rack, so much as just being slightly off.

Or times where the focus seemed to be slightly in between two characters.

I could be wrong though, I'd like to see if anyone else felt the same.

But overall, I agree with everyone -- this was an amazing movie. And this is phenomenal validation for Red -- especially since nearly every critic has given it an "A" and they all seem to think it will be a shoe in for Best Picture nomination.

Heck, it could win! And in that case, I think it would open up the industry's eyes even more to the power of the Red platform. :-)

Congrats Jim and team on great work!

Anthony
 
Saw it yesterday, good movie. Interesting, funny and would see it again. The images were nice, a dark movie but I'd read that before about David Fincher wanting to shoot it as such, which is a compliment to RED. Started to try and watch it for any "issues" but honestly just enjoyed the movie, isn't that the point? Did notice it had the RED quality of smooth images, no grain, no artifacts, not video-ish, not filmic, just simple very pleasing. The CGI of the twin's face was never noticeable and that amazes me. In Benjamin Button it was a distraction still, but this was like they were actually twins, spooky good.

Fun to see Light Iron in the credits along with "Shot on RED", always a treat. Great work you guys.
 
AWESOME film! Congrats to everyone involved. SOLID!!!

Hey, and what about the rowing scene in the UK? I think I forgot to breathe when my eyes gave those images to my brain.
 
AWESOME film! Congrats to everyone involved. SOLID!!!

Hey, and what about the rowing scene in the UK? I think I forgot to breathe when my eyes gave those images to my brain.

YES! Love that miniature tilt-shift technique.
 
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