[Angelo Lorenzo]

I disagree with Tero’s answer. Some informal testing seems to show that Adobe Media Encoder is slower than Redcine-X for transcode to the same codec. Seems logical as Adobe is just patching in RED’s supplied program code.

There are, however, ways of saving you huge amounts of time. Chances are, as this is the default setting, that you’ve been decoding your footage in Redcine-X at 100% full quality. In Redcine-X in your export settings, hit Debayer Quality and set to “nearest fit” for all sizes. This should greatly reduce export time although the resulting file won’t have as much detail – not really an issue if you’re relinking the original RED footage later.

——————–
Angelo Lorenzo

Need to encode ProRes on your Windows PC?
Introducing ProRes Helper, an awesome little app that makes it possible
Fallen Empire Digital Production Services – Los Angeles
RED transcoding, on-set DIT, and RED Epic rental services
Fallen Empire – The Blog
A blog dedicated to filmmaking, the RED workflow, and DIT tips and tricks

[Angelo Lorenzo]

Even here there are a few ways to go about things.

First and foremost I suggest using Dropbox Pro instead of FTP. Your field unit and your editor are both logged into the same account. Your field unit could, with whatever program they decide to use, export proxies straight into this folder. Dropbox will upload them and sync them to your second computer where your editor can move them out of the dropbox folder and onto your editing drive. What makes this more attractive than FTP is that Dropbox uses file deltas/checksums to resume uploads and so you can be confident knowing the file on your drive is exactly the file that ends up with your editors. You don’t have to fight with FTP disconnecting and then trying to resume and corrupt a file.

I’ve spoken to the people at Imagine Products and they’re a solid company. Proxy Mill, for its core fucntionality, seems expensive to me but it’s nice because it’s idiot proof. It’s a super automated way of doing things. I haven’t used it personally.

The other product I recommend is Adobe Prelude. It’s $400 but if you want a creative cloud cancel any time subscription then it’s $30 a month for the duration of your production. With this you could, in a slightly more manual way (aka point it to your footage folder and hit ingest), load up all your footage and batch a big group of proxy files.

You could also do some preroll-postroll trimming with Prelude or, if your field producer feels inclined, do a rough edit within Prelude and export it as an Fina Cut XML (it will also do a Premiere Project but the Project file it spits out may not be compatible with you editor’s CS5.5, but Premiere can take Final Cut XML).

——————–
Angelo Lorenzo

Need to encode ProRes on your Windows PC?
Introducing ProRes Helper, an awesome little app that makes it possible
Fallen Empire Digital Production Services – Los Angeles
RED transcoding, on-set DIT, and RED Epic rental services
Fallen Empire – The Blog
A blog dedicated to filmmaking, the RED workflow, and DIT tips and tricks

[Angelo Lorenzo]

I would test a proxy workflow (including bringing the original files online) before making a decision. The EX3, if I recall since I used it briefly on a Comedy Central show, produces footage in a self contained MP4 file, rather than a group of MXF files so relinking media should be rather painless.

With that in mind, I would consider a hybrid workflow. I would generate 640×480 or other small proxies, upload them nightly (if you know you’re staying in a hotel with stable internet), and then overnight the footage.

You have to remember the turn around time of an overnight, as FedEx drop spots usually have a pickup time of 3:30-4:30. If you miss the deadline, a drive gets toasted in the mail, etc then you still have the proxies being edited.

This is, of course, assuming you have the budget for all the back and forth overnights (you’ll need to get the drives/cards back).

Its kind of a risk management situation. Option A (proxies over the internet) cost nothing extra while Option B (overnighting media back and forth) increases cost and shot complexity. Both options open you up for possible issues (bad or no internet connections, missed shipping pickups) but you’re fairly safe using both in tandem. Ask your producer about the cost and figure out if at any point in time is losing a day because of a possible issue catastrophic to your production?

You could, for instance, do proxies during the beginning of the shoot where losing a day isn’t so critical and then switch to shipping drives and using proxies as you near the deadline. This could substantially decrease shipping costs while still keeping you on track.

——————–
Angelo Lorenzo

Need to encode ProRes on your Windows PC?
Introducing ProRes Helper, an awesome little app that makes it possible
Fallen Empire Digital Production Services – Los Angeles
RED transcoding, on-set DIT, and RED Epic rental services
Fallen Empire – The Blog
A blog dedicated to filmmaking, the RED workflow, and DIT tips and tricks

[Angelo Lorenzo]

I answered this exact question a few weeks ago: https://forums.creativecow.net/thread/3/934503

——————–
Angelo Lorenzo

Need to encode ProRes on your Windows PC?
Introducing ProRes Helper, an awesome little app that makes it possible
Fallen Empire Digital Production Services – Los Angeles
RED transcoding, on-set DIT, and RED Epic rental services
Fallen Empire – The Blog
A blog dedicated to filmmaking, the RED workflow, and DIT tips and tricks

[Angelo Lorenzo]

You’re probably dealing with some light bounce. Low contrast images inherently look less sharp. Add a curves filter, pin the center highs and then bring the shadows down. After that you could try some gentle sharpening with an unsharp mask effect.

——————–
Angelo Lorenzo

Need to encode ProRes on your Windows PC?
Introducing ProRes Helper, an awesome little app that makes it possible
Fallen Empire Digital Production Services – Los Angeles
RED transcoding, on-set DIT, and RED Epic rental services
Fallen Empire – The Blog
A blog dedicated to filmmaking, the RED workflow, and DIT tips and tricks

[Angelo Lorenzo]

While I will admit I can test the transparency bug on the drop shadow, you won’t win any fans with the shout from the mountain top approach. It makes sensible people roll their eyes. If it’s any consolation, I will submit it as a bug. In comparison to the average tester, I was a full fledged QA tester for software companies which means I write competent bug reports.

Ultimately, it’s still the decision of Adobe whether or not to fix a bug. Calling a transparency issue a serious issue is misguided especially since Premiere 1) does not tout itself to be a compositing application and 2) this is a visual issue and does not affect the result of the output so far as my testing methodology is sound.

You also may not be privy to the reason if a bug is marked do not fix by a development team. It may be a GPU shader limitation that Adobe has no control over, or they may simply not want to spend resources on a bug that doesn’t affect a user’s output.

With that said, I see no issues with the standard dissolves in GPU mode. Using a white solid with a 10 frame transition with both dip to black and crossfade, watching the waveform scope shows a discrete linear drop from 100 to 0 in 10IRE increments. It may be unique to your setup or perhaps your testing methodology isn’t as strict as mine.

——————–
Angelo Lorenzo

Need to encode ProRes on your Windows PC?
Introducing ProRes Helper, an awesome little app that makes it possible
Fallen Empire Digital Production Services – Los Angeles
RED transcoding, on-set DIT, and RED Epic rental services
Fallen Empire – The Blog
A blog dedicated to filmmaking, the RED workflow, and DIT tips and tricks

[Angelo Lorenzo]

Tero is correct, but I would do the following if you want some extra quality:

General quality (first slider): 5 (max)
Bitrate encoding: vbr 2 pass
Min bitrate can be set to 4
Target can be set to 6
Max can be left at 7

Although you can set the max to 9, you need to leave headroom for audio. DVD, as standard format, has bitrate restrictions.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DVD-Video#Data_rate

——————–
Angelo Lorenzo

Need to encode ProRes on your Windows PC?
Introducing ProRes Helper, an awesome little app that makes it possible
Fallen Empire Digital Production Services – Los Angeles
RED transcoding, on-set DIT, and RED Epic rental services
Fallen Empire – The Blog
A blog dedicated to filmmaking, the RED workflow, and DIT tips and tricks

[Angelo Lorenzo]

Use the Luma Key effect, or you can use Ultra Key and just select your white.

Luma keys are notoriously messy. You may have better results using After Effects and the rotobrush to create a clean cutout (good edge definition should make this rather easy) rather than using a keyer.

——————–
Angelo Lorenzo

Need to encode ProRes on your Windows PC?
Introducing ProRes Helper, an awesome little app that makes it possible
Fallen Empire Digital Production Services – Los Angeles
RED transcoding, on-set DIT, and RED Epic rental services
Fallen Empire – The Blog
A blog dedicated to filmmaking, the RED workflow, and DIT tips and tricks

[Angelo Lorenzo]

It depends on what country you’re in. In the US, the FCC has a rule about legal disclaimer text being at least 4% of active picture area, but I believe these are reserved specifically for political ads. There, at this time, seems to be no rules concerning commercial disclaimers.

https://www.lafcpug.org/phorum/read.php?1,231400
https://forums.creativecow.net/readpost/21/856248

If you need a disclaimer, I would ask that the lawyer saying you require one do the research for your jurisdiction.

——————–
Angelo Lorenzo

Need to encode ProRes on your Windows PC?
Introducing ProRes Helper, an awesome little app that makes it possible
Fallen Empire Digital Production Services – Los Angeles
RED transcoding, on-set DIT, and RED Epic rental services
Fallen Empire – The Blog
A blog dedicated to filmmaking, the RED workflow, and DIT tips and tricks

[Angelo Lorenzo]

There is no “best”. It depends on where the video will go. Are you making a video for YouTube? DVD? For an archive backup? All of these will use different optimal formats.

——————–
Angelo Lorenzo

Need to encode ProRes on your Windows PC?
Introducing ProRes Helper, an awesome little app that makes it possible
Fallen Empire Digital Production Services – Los Angeles
RED transcoding, on-set DIT, and RED Epic rental services
Fallen Empire – The Blog
A blog dedicated to filmmaking, the RED workflow, and DIT tips and tricks