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Mixed Format Edit to Grade – Best workflow?
Been given various formats for a short doco project.
As ever, a tight deadline so minimal conversion time would be a plus.1/2 hour xdcam ex 1080p 25 – Ex3
1/2 hour xdcam ex 720p 25 – Ex3
20 mins h.264 720p – Flipcam
20 mins Super8 (telecined 720×576 digibeta)
20 mins Super16 (baselight 720×576 dpx)Going to be graded on baselight, with final delivery on SD digi.
Working FCS2, quad-2.66, aja lhe.
Is it possible to convert xdcam frame sizes within the import tool,
or do I have to reconvert them afterwards?
How will this affect the conform?What codec would be best to edit?
(Will need to scale in to recompose some shots)
What should I convert to what, and with what?
How do I deliver with best results for grade?Thanks for the help.
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3 Replies
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[Seb Ratcliffe] “As ever, a tight deadline so minimal conversion time would be a plus. “
Well, then perhaps they would have considered that before choosing to use five widely different formats.
There’s no easy answer to this. You’re in for a whopper of a render/conform session.Your best bet is to convert EVERYTHING to a single, common format, creating essentially new submasters from which you’ll edit AND conform. I’d suggest proresHD, and work in that resolution/timeline downconverting the final delivery master. That way you retain all of the benefits of working in HD, and you’ll have an HD master for future use. You’re going to have to up convert the film transfers… unless you can have the film retransfered to HD.
Good luck with this!
mark
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since you know you will go to SD no matter what, use a SD TL. ProRes since its 10 bits ( or can be ) will probably be the best choice. you can place your HD clips right in, and have the option to pan / scan / move them around for reframing. FCP does well with mixed formats for the most part.
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Thanks for the replies.
Final Cut does seem to work very well with mixed formats.
As time was of the essence ended up cutting everything in its native format in a xdcam 720p timeline, as in the breakdown it worked out we were going to use mostly this footage.
The only thing coded was the flipcam h264 to xdcam 1080p. (no xdcam ex in compressor)
Despite intial reservations and worries about drop frame warnings, everything was very smooth.
For the conform provided a 1080p tif seq for the xdcam/ flipcam footage, edl for the super8 on digi, and edl for the 16mm scan. This all went into baselight and the picture was graded at maximum quality.
Given more time I would have eased the worry and gone the prores route.
Cheers.
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