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FCPX to Resolve with RAW footage
Hey all –
Just finished a 48 Hour Film Project gig. For an unknown reason, the director/DP/colorist wanted to shoot RAW on some BMD camera. Having a history in these competitions, I knew this would add more time, but she wanted to shoot and color that way. So, we made proxies to ProRes LT through Resolve and sent them to me to sync and cut. After a few computer problems at the host facility, I started logging and syncing. Cut through the night and gave her an FCPXML at about 10am on Sunday. Here’s where it gets interesting.
The XML to Resolve worked well, (everything came across nicely) but with one big oddity. If I changed any of the names of the clips in FCPX (not at the finder level), Resolve will still relink but not see the clip as a RAW clip and have all the handles on the metadata you get on a RAW clip. It wasn’t as if I broke the link, just made Resolve not look at it as RAW. Has anyone seen this? Resolve 11.
We submitted our cut with 30 minutes to spare…
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16 Replies
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Are you sure that it’s really linked to the raw files and not the transcoded files? The colorist needs to make sure that ONLY the raw files are in the Resolve media pool. Is it a raw format that Resolve understands as raw?
– Oliver
Oliver Peters Post Production Services, LLC
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com -
PS: BMD cameras only shoot raw as CinemaDNG image sequence files. Is that what you have? If it’s a movie file from the camera, it’s not camera raw.
– Oliver
Oliver Peters Post Production Services, LLC
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com -
Yes, it was DNG files and I misspoke, we transcoded to proRes proxy, so there was no mistaking it. It just seemed that anything I changed, and it was not much, lost the metadata handles. Very odd.
Scott Witthaus
Senior Editor/Post Production Supervisor
1708 Inc./Editorial
Professor, VCU Brandcenter -
[Scott Witthaus] “It just seemed that anything I changed, and it was not much, lost the metadata handles. Very odd.”
I’m not sure that’s possible. Did the colorist make sure that NONE of the transcoded files show up in the Media Pool? Does the Resolve timeline show the original media name or the altered name you gave it? OTOH, the FCPXML roundtrip between X and Resolve is a mess.
https://digitalfilms.wordpress.com/2015/06/13/the-fcp-x-red-resolve-dance-ii/
– Oliver
Oliver Peters Post Production Services, LLC
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com -
Possible or not, it happened. The ProRes proxies would have been very easy to spot. Bug? Who knows? But we ended up doing a quick color balance and then a ProRes HQ output back to me and I tweaked colors on entire scenes for the final (hey, it’s a 48 hour thing. Do what it takes!). I switched back and forth between my proxy cut and the HQ and it was extremely obvious. Very strange. When I get done with this AE gig I have going, I am going to try it again with the same footage and see if I can replicate.
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[Scott Witthaus] “The ProRes proxies would have been very easy to spot.”
Not a given at all. Especially without burn-in. Depends on their monitor and the lighting in the shot.
[Scott Witthaus] ” I switched back and forth between my proxy cut and the HQ and it was extremely obvious.”
Only because it’s been color corrected. Not necessarily because of the format.
But you haven’t answered the original questions. Did the colorist confirm that the ProRes files were NOT in the media pool? Plus what did the colorist’s timeline say for clip names?
I’m trying to eliminate operator error. For example, if they imported the clips automatically based on the FCPXML, Resolve could have linked to the wrong files. The current, correct procedure is to load the Media Pool FIRST and then import the FCPXML without enabling automatic import of clips.
– Oliver
Oliver Peters Post Production Services, LLC
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com -
Trust me Oliver, I could spot the difference using the same monitor, switching back and forth on the same shot. Pretty obvious. The colorist confirmed that there were no ProRes files in the media pool. However, I have all the material and will do a test soon.
Scott Witthaus
Senior Editor/Post Production Supervisor
1708 Inc./Editorial
Professor, VCU Brandcenter -
[Scott Witthaus] “The colorist confirmed that there were no ProRes files in the media pool. However, I have all the material and will do a test soon.”
OK, thanks. It will be interesting to see what you find. I guess I’ll stick with my old axiom – never change master clip names except in Media Composer.
– Oliver
Oliver Peters Post Production Services, LLC
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com -
[Oliver Peters] ” never change master clip names except in Media Composer.”
I am with you on that! This is just a very weird thing. I will let you know.
Scott Witthaus
Senior Editor/Post Production Supervisor
1708 Inc./Editorial
Professor, VCU Brandcenter -
Is the box for “Automatically import source clips into media pool” selected? If so, this might be why Resolve is linking the proxies and not the RAW files.
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