[Aaron Neitz]

First of all, FCP can only use 2.5 GB of RAM in its current incarnation.

When your project gets too big – it DOES turn into a slow running mess. You need to duplicate your project, and then cull it down. Get rid of old sequences, previous cuts, etc… will get it back to normal speed. Then if you ever really need to see one of those old cuts, you can open the old project file.

[Aaron Neitz]

170 mbits 4:2:2. D5 is really a solid format for HD. 90% of all HD we see in commercial production is D5. Albeit the decks are finicky and not as user friendly as Sony. But the SR is king, but a little late to the game so D5 has a better install base.

[Aaron Neitz]

Sounds like no one knew what they were doing on set. If they plan to deliver on SR, they should have rented an SR deck and recorded directly to that. Or at least a D5. Both of which are much better HD transports. But I guess we all run into this with HD lately….

HDCAM = 143 mbits
DVC-HD = 120 mbits -but it’s 8bit. No 10bits possible.

DVCPRO-HD has a better colorspace, but slightly heavier compression. However, pound for pound, I think the DVCPRO-HD captured directly to hard-drive will be the best bet. HDCAM is, IMHO, crap. For finishing you could send that DVCPRO-HD sequence out over SDI (via Kona, etc…) and capture it 10 bit 4:2:2 Uncompressed and it’ll hold up pretty damn well.

[Aaron Neitz]

thanks!

[Aaron Neitz]

I would drop them into something like Shake or After Effects… then you can render out 10 bit HD quicktimes. I don’t care for FCP’s handling of aspects and resolution sometimes – it can be a little dodgy.

[Aaron Neitz]

Don’t see why not…. just takes up a lot more space and gear than a nice little scope. But I hear ya on those prices… they’re not cheap

[Aaron Neitz]

Pretty much. I don’t know if the avid can take an EDL and automatically make cuts in a QT movie, but even doing it by hand should take a minimal amount of time.

[Aaron Neitz]

Export your entire finished timeline as a self-contained QT. Since it’s DV-HD to begin with, FCP is working with it at it’s highest resolution to begin with. He’ll have to ensure his AVID can work in this format.

Then make a simple CMX3600 EDL so the Avid guy knows where the cut points are.

[Aaron Neitz]

Point in case: we just did a 35mm filmout from 1080. They ran a proofing copy of the print side-by-side with our HD master projected on a Barco 2K DLP.

The DLP put the smackdown on the print. With all the noise from IP printing, gate chatter, film weave, and added grain…. just looked kinda, well, sloppy. The great advantage of digital projection is that ever single pixel lands exactly where it should – thus increasing the temporal resolution by a massive factor. I remember seeing much more detais in Star Wars Ep. X in DLP vs. 35.

But typically 2K won’t be cropped – it’ll be some form of anamorphic. So you’ll get those 2000 lines of horizontals resolution. So I still says it’s a great standard.

[Aaron Neitz]

Also depending on your DI house and your budget – they can take your negative rolls uncut and scan your EDL in based off timecode. That way you never have to actually cut and splice it together (esp. since 16 isn’t as tough as a 35). So a 2K scan straight from 16, color grading session for a week with the data on their server, etc…, straight out to 35mm.