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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 :)

Soderbergh's HAYWIRE Opens Friday

Michael Cioni

Michael Cioni

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Releasing in theaters this Friday is the most recent of 8 features Steven Soderbergh has photographed using RED cameras. He's gone through RED, MX and now Epic, which quite possibly makes him the cinema champion of 4K acquisition. -Well, he is in my book. I just hope he gets credit for it someday...

In the meantime, I posted on my blog some components about the film that I think this community might find interesting. The Haywire DI was our first work on a RED anamorphic film finished in 4K. But more significant than that, the Haywire DI was done in 4K using BMD DaVinci Resolve on a MAC (this was in 2011 using the release build of Resolve v7). Pushing Apple computers to their breaking points is honestly something I'm comfortable saying. We've broken our share of computers over the years, but this one was special in a different way as the challenges of 4K anamorphic created some new obstacles and being able to accomplish this theatrical release on a Mac was a challenge that everyone, included the director, wanted to see happen.

Checkout Haywire in theaters this Friday and you'll see Soderbergh's trademark style, only this time you'll get the sense of the anamorphic added organic feel. You can also check out more of our story on my blog which talks about the post challenges of anamorphic and Resolve on a Mac for this really fun film.

m



http://michaelcioni.tumblr.com
 
Great post, thanks Michael! Definitely looking forward to Haywire.
 
Michael, from your article it says you ran into problems, like overheating. You also partially describe your Macpro. Any chance you can give us an insight on your specific system- Amount of ram and what raid system you guys were using- as well as the main issues in post production beyond the heat? Did it "fry" any of your Macpros? Were you getting real time performance on the editing? Other particular issues in the workflow? I'm basically planning to do what you describe (in a much smaller scale, of course), with an Epic/Premiere/Resolve setup with redrocket. Your insight would be really helpful! Of course the editing experience of this film was for 2010 and some of the issues might have been addresed with the new version, but knowing how you went through your problems and made it happen would be invaluable for us jumping in!
 
Micheal, great post and thanks for sharing your info regarding the DI process and the BMD equiptment used in your system.
Congrats and keep up the good work!
 
Michael, what a great article! I'm so looking forward to seeing HAYWIRE! Can't wait really.. after seeing GDT on the big screen (even though it was 2K) I was blown away by the clarity and detail. Only now i realize what you were talking about in the RC interview w/ Mike Seymour ... "2K from 4K." and at no point did it look artificial or "digital." I was just totally immersed. Anyway, MUPPETS opens tomorrow for me (sometimes we get movies later than the US) and i think the week after that it will be HAYWIRE. That's 3 LI DI movies in a row - what a coincidence :) *thumbsup*
 
Sergio Perez said:
Michael, from your article it says you ran into problems, like overheating. You also partially describe your Macpro. Any chance you can give us an insight on your specific system- Amount of ram and what raid system you guys were using- as well as the main issues in post production beyond the heat? Did it "fry" any of your Macpros? Were you getting real time performance on the editing? Other particular issues in the workflow? I'm basically planning to do what you describe (in a much smaller scale, of course), with an Epic/Premiere/Resolve setup with redrocket. Your insight would be really helpful! Of course the editing experience of this film was for 2010 and some of the issues might have been addresed with the new version, but knowing how you went through your problems and made it happen would be invaluable for us jumping in!
Click to expand...

Sergio-
No need to be too worried. You're in good shape with Resolve. The amount of RAM you have or raid configuration aren't really factors here. With MX R3Ds, a decent eSata raid is a cheap and effective choice. With larger EPIC R3Ds, we tend to favor protocols with slightly more bandwidth like SAS or fiber. But it's important to know that I'm not suggesting Resolve has a tendency to destroy computers. Any system, regardless of what it is or what you pay for it, when pushed to the limits will start to reveal cracks. On Resolve 7, the cracks were based largely on all the work the GPU was doing *before* the grade was started/calculated. When you ask that much of a GPU card and then ask that much of a RED Rocket, the temperature rises and eventually that temperature starts to affect system performance.
But everyone is different, and the software itself is becoming more and more efficient at doing complex tasks as the versions improve. But overall, these problems are rare and only represent (then) current limitations.
m
 
Michael, any reason why you guys didn't decide to throw in a gpu/pci expander and get some extra gpu/rocket power in there? the distributed task of all the calculations would have given improved performance and separated the heat into another unit with more fans. Just wondering why a big feature would stick with a bare bones Resolve setup. (Unless the color budget went straight to that sweet resolve control surface) :)
 
Tom-
We did actually do that and included 2x FX4000 cards. So outboard stuff was okay...it was the on-board stuff (or in-CPU-housing) that was a bit tight.
Either way, once we took the door off and put more air on it, it became more like an expansion chassis anyway;-)

Again, I don't want to make this all about overheating tools...it happens on every tool...what's important to me is to understand the process of Haywire and some of the tips we found to get anamorphic RED footage to work correctly with "off-the-shelf" tools.
m
 
I'm a bit confused on the lenses. Were they the 1.3x Hawks and they shot for 16x9? Or were they 2x and they shot for 2.4:1? Just wondering why it ended up being 3K if they were using the 1.3x Hawks. From the resolution listed further down in the article, it looks like they were 2x anamorphics. Just curious.
 
Paris Remillard said:
I'm a bit confused on the lenses. Were they the 1.3x Hawks and they shot for 16x9? Or were they 2x and they shot for 2.4:1? Just wondering why it ended up being 3K if they were using the 1.3x Hawks. From the resolution listed further down in the article, it looks like they were 2x anamorphics. Just curious.
Click to expand...

You guys are totally right! I totally wrote 1.3x but they were absolutely 2x lenses.
Apologies. And thanks for the heads up!
m
 
I found in my first test of the Cubix expander that a GPU under full load stays cooler than in a MacPro. But then, it is much noisier too…
 
At the theater that I saw this movie at the entire film looked out of focus. I remember even thinking the trailer was out of focus when first viewed a few months back. Am I the only one that think it wasn't focused properly? The open scene was also blown out... many scenes were over exposed. Can't say I like this movie from a technical perspective or even artistic perspective. On the way out of the theater the audience was muttering how they wanted their money back... I can't say I disagree.
 
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