DVCproHD to ProRes-New Post

[Richard Herd]

I’m really not picking a fight, here, but I’m just not one to accept answers in that fashion, and I don’t see a problem with testing 4 minutes of footage. Nor do I feel the need to share my resume, but it ain’t so shabby. Normally, I do as you do send DVCPro-HD to color. But this particular project is a bit different, and the article in the American Cinematographer talking about Aaron Peak’s work flow is worth more than a second look; his IMDB profile speaks volumes. Hey, I’m giving it a try. My original question was the best way to put the DVCPro-HD footage into HQ. I’m using Color for that, so I thank you for that! My first impulse was to use media manager.

[Jeremy Garchow]

[Richard Herd] “My first impulse was to use media manager.”

Oh god no. The ‘damage’ has been done with P2 material so there’s no point to transcode to ProResHQ and then trancode again on your Color output. Simply put your DVCPro HD media to Color and then render ProRes. If you are capturing from a DVCPro HD tape, then online your final sequence to ProRes (capturing with a Kona or similar) to get the 8 bit to 10 bit conversion done in hardware from the deck, and then render back to ProRes out of Color.

Jeremy

[Richard Herd]

I hope you get a chance to read the article, in The American Cinematographer “Crafting a Stylized Caper” by Stephanie Argy (May 2009, page 74).

Here’s a cool quote, “The grading theater at Hollywood-DI is equipped with a Barco 2K DLP projector and a 20′ Stewart DI screen[.]…Though we could keep our files digital all through color-correction, we did one file-format conversion when we did our media management in Final Cut Pro immediately prior to grading. A friend of mine once observed…” [I already posted this quote].

Here’s another one: “Color-correction and its various methodologies are topics that can ignite religious wars.”

A 20 foot screen! While the overwhelming majority of my projects reach a 60″ screen, this particular project is designed for a 20-footer.

Having myself followed the dvcprohd w/o hq when I read the above mentioned article, I was immediately intrigued, and am now running a test. Hopefully will have some results on Friday.

[Walter Biscardi]

[Richard Herd] “A 20 foot screen! While the overwhelming majority of my projects reach a 60” screen, this particular project is designed for a 20-footer. “

Our short film was screened on a 75′ screen in a Regal Movie theater playing straight off a Panasonic 1200A deck. That particular film was capture DVCPro HD and color graded using the FCP 3Way CC tool. It was flat out amazing. Shot 24 and 25p and looked just like a feature film.

The DVCPro HD workflow works just fine, ProRes is a nice option to make it look even better after color grading.

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Biscardi Creative Media
HD and SD Production for Broadcast and Independent Productions.

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