Best work flow for red footage shot in 4K for release in HD?

[Johnny Smith]

bump.

Wow, can’t believe nobody replied. I remember when this forum was really happening. Like ten years ago..

[Shane Ross]

Problem is that FCP 7 was end of lifed 6 years ago. Many people have moved on. And I don’t know RED workflows, so can’t offer advice…

Shane
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Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def

[Johnny Smith]

I think the problem is this forum end of lifed 6-10 years ago. I’m guessing folks moved on to twitter, facebook, etc. I joined creative cow in 2009 and recall lots of experts contributing right away.

[Mark Suszko]

So you feel you got your money’s worth, I’ll chip in and say this: trying to edit 4K in FCP7 is “doable”, but of course is going to chew up a lot more system resources as well as storage. Whether you cut “native” red files or first down-convert to 2K, to me, rather depends on what the subject matter of the thing is, and if staying in the 4K environment offers enough reasons (like being able to make fake zooms and pans in a 2K master) to make the extra overhead worth it.

Frankly, if I went to the expense of shooting 4k, the extra couple hundred for FCPX seems like a simple decision.

[Johnny Smith]

I shot a feature film on 35mm and edited in FCP7. It’s still in post. I’m too scared to upgrade to FCPX. What if something funky happens with those files? I rather finish the feature in FCP7.

I think what I’ll do is find a local freelancer ( Los Angeles ) with the right gear to convert my 4K R3D files to 1080p ProRes422. I’ll then cut it on my FCP7 then take it to a post house to conform and grade. If I need to punch in I can do it on the offline HD files and show the post house how big of the fake zoom I need and they’ll recreate it from the 4K files.

Sounds like the plan? Hopefully I’m not missing something.

[Michael Gissing]

You can convert the r3d files to ProRes using either tools from RED like RED Cine X (I think it is still current or a variation on it) or da Vinci Resolve. Both are free, although there is a paid for version of Resolve but you don’t need that to convert the files.

After edit you could reconform in Resolve and do the grade and finish. For that matter you could do the whole edit in Resolve and not go near FCP7. Your computer is a bit underpowered in the graphic dept for editing r3d files in Resolve in real time so you may wish to do a proxy workflow.

[Johnny Smith]

Can’t use RED Cine X because I don’t meet minimum requirements. Like I said my Mac Pro is 10.6.8.
Anyway, looks like I’ll have someone transcode the 4K red files into ProRes 422 just to chop them up. Then I’ll worry about the online later.