How to fix one mess of a project?

[Joseph Mastantuono]

In those kind of situations, that’s often the best way.

Just make sure to be clear with the client, and explain that you could do a full conform, ie change all the frame rates, bake in some effects by hand etc.. But explain and bill them for the time involved. But yeah in those situations often the qt with EDL is the path of least resistance.

Joseph Mastantuono
Online Editor – Colorist – Post Consultant
Brooklyn based finishing at reasonable prices
917.969.1583

[Jeremy Ball]

Since this is a show shot on 5D and XDCAM instead of RED, what would be the difference if I just did a created a render of the whole show with out graphics.

My client will wonder why I just can’t take a render of the show with out graphics instead of charging him hours of conform time.

I still need to prep the timeline and take out graphics and heavy Final Cut plugin effect shots but I would save time overall by letting Final Cut do the frame rate conversion. For this particular project it seems to be doing well with a mix of 23.98 and 59.94 footage. I have had projects in the past that needed a manual conform of frame rates, for instance 25 to 29.97, but for this project it seems like Final Cut is doing a good job on its own.

I realize the slight generation loss by using a render but if I use ProRes HQ would I really be loosing anything visually compared to the original footage? In my experience I have not seen the generation loss when using ProRes HQ.

Is there any other reason that I would need to do a manual conform on this type of compressed footage (5D and XDCAM) as opposed to a “baked” render of the show?

Thanks

[Sascha Haber]

Cant you just get it all in, grade on the clips and send the mess back to FCP for final output ?

A slice of color…

DaVinci 8.0.1 OSX 10.7
MacPro 5.1 2×2,4 24GB
RAID0 8TB eSata 6TB
GTX 470 / GT 120
Extreme 3D+ WAVE

http://www.saschahaber.com

[Jeremy Ball]

I did not think that Resolve supported multiple frame rates in the same project. Am I wrong?

I am also not trying to make this overly complex when I don’t need to. What would really be the quality difference if I used the original footage or a “baked” ProRes HQ version of the edit?

[Joseph Mastantuono]

Damage from the original recording format to the 5d/7d h.264 & the XDCam format has already been done. The very slight damage from going to pro-res HQ will be negligible.

Joseph Mastantuono
Online Editor – Colorist – Post Consultant
Brooklyn based finishing at reasonable prices
917.969.1583

[Jack Jones]

I believe someone on here wrote an article about the “Speed <> Cost <> Quality” triangle that applies nicely to this scenario.

Doesn’t help you I know, but it’s a good read for future self-reference!

Jack Jones
Freelance Colourist

[Danny Scotting]

It is correct that its only a single frame rate per project.

I would create a new project for each frame rate (if you didn’t want to go down the single QT path – which would be the most “cost effective” way of doing it). Make sure the offline is available in each set to play through gaps so you have a constant reference then send all your renders back to FCP for reconform, sounds like it has to go back there anyway.

Danny Scotting – Senior Colourist
Post Op Group Sydney

https://postopgroup.com.au/site/?page_id=1052

[Dave Williams]

In all my 30 years of doing this the one thing I have had to learn time and time again is that you would be surpised at how one simple little phone call to your client explaining what your up against and just seeing if between the both of you can come to a solution to meet both people’s needs. By trying to handle it by yourself sometimes you are putting yourself in a position where you might not be able to finish and you will not be able to grade it as good as you want because of the time.
99.9 percent of the time the clients are understanding and will either give you what you need to make it right (even at the cost of maybe rediting the show) or they can give you more time to maybe and I say maybe find a way to work with what you have. Now if the client is that other .1 percent well then you need to figure out if they are worth the cost and headache and maybe cut your losses. There are too many good clients out there to deal with those types anyway.

[Craig Mieritz]

Good advice from Dave. Find out where they’re coming from and then decide what you are willing to do. Bad clients are easy to find.