Amira to Adobe Premiere Post Workflow

[Jorn Bergmans]

It’s been a while since I worked with an AMIRA – that is, since the Alexa Mini came out a lot of my shoots have been with the newer ARRI body – but from what I know, the AMIRA records in ProRes (HQ or 4444 with appropriate license) which is super easy for the post workflow. Really, a basic drag and drop could be all that is needed.

As far as looks and luts go, AMIRA will record the ARRI LogC gamma curve, or has it’s own LUT to convert logC to r.709.
On-set the DP or cam assist can import a custom LUT that will be used for either monitoring, or monitoring + recording. (But please, don’t record the LUT, keep the logC image as your output if you plan on color correcting in post). They can provide this 3D cube LUT to post for the purpose of creating proxies and giving the colorist a starting point to build a look.

So that’s sort of it. ProRes files directly from the camera, which Premiere works great with.
If you want / need proxies for editing, they are easily made in Media Encoder or Resolve if you prefer a bit more control, where you can import the custom LUT (into ProgramData\Blackmagic Design\DaVinci Resolve\Support\LUT for your Windows env) and then output the timeline as separate files to your desired intermediate (I’m thinking, DNxHD 36/85 for offline editing, on windows?)
But if your machine is fast enough, it should even just pick up the rushes and have no problem with them.

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So, what the Alexa Mini does, is burn the LUT into the metadata. This translates to Premiere showing the rushes _with_ LUT -under an option called ‘masterclip effects’ in premiere- but the footage will be _shot_ in logC and will view in Resolve as the nice boring grey-ish look that you want as a colorist.
This is the part where I’m not sure if AMIRA does the same. If it doesn’t, you are better off creating proxies with the LUT burned in. The other option being editing under an adjustment layer with the LUT on a lumetri effect, but this takes Premiere a lot of effort and cpu, and will eat up your real-time playback capabilities.

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Hope this helps!

Kind regards,

Jorn

[Chris Wright]

keep in mind, premiere doesn’t support arri wide gamut directly. once you import your graded footage from resolve back into premiere, it will lose any work you did if you graded higher than rec. 709 in resolve. i.e. wide gamut, rec. 2020, p3, etc. All your work will be color clipped and show artifacts. So, if grading in a large colorspace, finish editing in resolve, there’s no going back.