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XDCAM native files? iPhone video?
Resolve 12.5 seems to handle my BPAV files just fine, but I’m a Resolve newbie and don’t even know what I don’t know about the entire workflow.
So I wonder whether a more-experienced Resolve editor could advise: should we use camera files directly from their original BPAV/CLPR folders, or should we transcode to ProRes using another program first?
My priority is a solid, problem-free workflow. The worst problems are the ones that surface at the very end, at deadline time.
EDIT: What about iPhone video? I don’t seem to be able to import it into Resolve at all.
Thank you.
Bob C
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3 Replies
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Workflow often depends on your hardware, operating system, drive speed, and delivery intentions. My opinion is that a lot of the time, converting to ProRes 444 (on Mac OSX) is wise provided the transcodes are done well. You do have to stay right on top of the conversions from Raw -> ProRes, lest you get into a situation where you don’t have sufficient range to get the job done.
An iPhone is not an ideal camera for video use for a lot of reasons, including the fact that it won’t do 23.98 (yet), as far as I know, plus it’s fairly severe H.264 compression.
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I understand the problem with iphone is that it may vary frame rate to control exposure. However, people do use it, eg the feature film Tangerine. I used some iphone shots but can’t remember how I imported them, through image capture, FCP7, or Premiere 7.
Robert Withers
Independent/personal/avant-garde cinema, New York City
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I think it’s a very bad idea to use an iPhone for anything in a professional production. I get that people who have zero money, particularly students who are learning, have few other options. If you do have options, my advice would be to use something like a Blackmagic Pocket Camera, which at least has manual gain and 10-bit color. You can show an actor *pretend* to hold an iPhone and then cut to the Pocket camera shooting the same image, and that will work for dramatic purposes.
If it’s already shot, convert the H.264 material to ProRes (for Mac) or DNxHD (for Windows), and it’ll work fine in Resolve, within the quality limitations of the original material. I find it often takes more time to color-correct bad cameras than it does good cameras, because a lot of the time you’re trying to come up with bandaids for non-defeatable automatic level issues and lens problems on top of just making reasonable pictures. There is no justification for bad cameras in a world where $995 will buy you something reasonable, and less than that will rent you an extremely good camera for a couple of days.
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