The following section is a general guideline for Producers, Director Of Photgraphy and Creative Agencies who wish to use our services and expertise with various cameras and workflows.
DIT Process and Work Flows
Production work flows range in all aspects of final products, these being broadcast (SD&HD), Film, TV, Web, DVD & Blu-Ray. All of the footage starting out, as a native file format is the key to the work flow and process. As some cameras provide a larger array of options in terms of file formats, but others conform to a standard MOV format. As the RED camera gives an R3D file that is essentially a RAW and Lossless format, it tends to be a large fie because of all of the color and meta information that is held within the container.
Post-Production and editing workflows range from Apple Final Cut, Adobe Premiere, to Avid, Quantel, Etc. As most modern post and editorial software supports the use of the native formats that are given from each camera, other software packages tend to be limited in the amount of file formats.
RED – Epic Camera
RED tends to get a bad reputation because of the pipeline required to get the footage into a usable format. Where things tend to break down is when going into an editor like Final Cut Pro, which does not allow for the use of the Native R3D format, which requires a transcoding (ingestion) of the footage, or the rendering of the RED R3D files into Apple Pro-Res MOV files to be used in the software. As this still gives a large amount of options in the Pro-Res world given the Pro-Res 422 or the Pro-Res 4444, this can tend to be a limiting factor unless the footage is prepared correctly in the color space aspects prior to conversion into the Pro-Res format. The use of a RED Rocket card in the transcoding system is an absolute necessity!
The idea is that resolution is a key to filming with the RED. As the camera is native in 4K and offers plenty of resolution above and beyond HD, the camera does offer higher frame rate options for filming slow-motion, but at the cost of the lowering of resolution. This is due to a lack of information and media speed (Hard Drives/Solid State) options used for footage acquisition on the RED, as well as zooming in on the digital sensor.
Comparable to taking RAW still photography with an SLR camera, the RED camera records a Raw (R3D) file that hold a tremendous amount of color and light information. This is in the range of scanned film frames in terms of color and light latitude, which is great for color grading and finishing.
As most modern editorial and post production software allows the use of these R3D files natively; Adobe, Avid, Quantel, Nuke, etc, Final Cut Pro is the ONLY editor that does NOT allow for the use of R3D files unless they are transcoded, or captured into the software. As an editorial platform, Final Cut is a great editor, but it is extremely limited in the formats that it will allow on the time line without conforming to a strict Quicktime standard. Quicktime, which Final Cut is based off of, has a RED wrapper which allows for RED file to be ingested into Final Cut, but it ultimately results in a much slower experience than transcoding Pro-Res MOV files.
We recomend using an editing software that handles native RED R3D files (such as Abode CS5.5 or Avid) so you can get all the benefit and advantages of the RAW files. This results in much more creative freedom and ultimately allows you to end up with a much more pristine and beautiful imagery. There is a new saying in the industry "once you go RAW you never go back!". CINEMANIX can help you with your editorial and finishing needs as we are expert in the native RED workflow.
Color Space
Rec709 – HD Broadcast Color Standard where gamma is 2.2 (Most Apple machines use a lighter gamma of 1.8 which results in there being a large disconnect in what you see on your screen, and what the rest of the world will see. The absolute necessity of a calibrated color grading monitor is required for any color or grading!) Please DO NOT use or rely on an unproperly calibrated Apple monitor to judge colors and exposure.
RED Color – This is a RED derivative of Rec709. This is an emulated mode that gives richer and more saturated colors.
As other editors such as Adobe Premiere, and Avid allow for the RED R3D files to be pulled into the software and worked with natively, thee price to be paid at this point is hard disk space and system performance. There is a need to have large amounts of footage on your on-line system as opposed to a smaller Quicktime workflow, but the trade off here is that the color information for finishing is in place right from the start.
In a pure editorial where color means very little, it is fine to use the Pro-Res MOV files, but a strict pipeline must be followed in order to get the files into the color grading system after the EDL is locked in and exported. Apple Color and Systems like DaVinci and others can take advantage of the R3D native, but the conversion requires some work to go back to the RAW. Apple has a pipeline for round-tripping through Final Cut to Color and back.
Arri Alexa:
The Arris Alexa provides an amazing image with a great amount of color and light latitude. The base system records to an SxS card solution for Quicktime Pro-Res 422, 422HQ and 4444. The camera is capable of recording a RAW image format in 2.5K; however, special hardware is required for this option.
The camera records in Rec709 and LogC color profiles. To the eye of the observer, Rec709 would look better visually out of the camera, but from a post-production standpoint, the LogC is the preferred recording method due to the larger amount of exposure latitude. The Alexa gives you a great option on set to shoot to the cards as LogC and output a signal over the HD-SDI as a Rec709.
The Alexa will send a menu-less 1080P signal out of the HD-SDI ports on the camera, which allow for external recording devices to be used such as a KiPro, Gemini, Samauri, etc.
Canon 5D-7D:
As DSLR cameras have entered the market equipped with the capability of shooting HD resolution based video, there are some drawbacks to the format. As the camera is primarily designated to be a still camera, the HD recording has some limitations. First and foremost, the file format is an H264 MOV, which is fine for certain situations, but the footage typically has to be transcoded into a Pro-Res 422 movie in order to be used in a Final Cut Pipeline.
The footage looks great from the 5D because of the full sensor and more options for a shallow depth-of-field. One limiting factor is the camera not utilizing an image stabilizer for the video. Lock off shots as well as show moves are fine, but in larger moves or rapid adjustments, the footage results in rolling shutter or (jello cam) mode, which sometimes can and sometimes cannot be fixed in a software mode later on.