[Marc Wielage]

[Peter Robertson] “I have to say the my timeline contains many video formats : HD Prores 422, 4k mp4 and 8k mp4. That all works on my new 27 inch iMac i7.”
I would convert everything to a simpler codec, like ProRes 422 or ProRes 444 (whatever is most appropriate for the source material), and see what that does.

iMacs to me are not heavy-duty enough to handle 8K and highly-compressed codecs. They’re going to get stressed out and slow down, no matter what you do. You can either get a much more powerful machine, or use much less-stressful codecs — it’s your choice for the workflow.

[Marc Wielage]

Both MixingLight.com and Lowepost.com have tutorials on Resolve conforming issues. The short answer is that some of this is covered in the manual, and you can force the database string to look for file name vs. reel names (and vice versa). It always helps to have unique file names and non-overlapping timecode.

[Marc Wielage]

I have to say, this is a UI change I don’t like. I generally don’t mind when they add a feature, but I do object when they *remove* features. I would rather they restore the right-click contextual menu that has the Duplicate Timeline function, and ALSO provide the ability to duplicate clips or timelines in the Edit pulldown menu.

Cut-and-paste has been very dodgy for me throughout 15.2, particularly with nodes. Sometimes it works… sometimes it “forgets” what’s in the clipboard. Very disconcerting.

[Marc Wielage]

Check and make sure “Automatically confirm missing clips added to Media Pool” is checked in General Options. If necessary, delete the clips in the Media Pool and add them back again. It should work.

If not, I know of know other way except to recreate the XML, reimport that, and point the XML to the clips. And worst case, you’ll have to go through and manually relink clip by clip. Your timeline looks pretty short, so even that shouldn’t be too time-consuming. If you have 2000 clips in a feature, that would be a problem.

[Marc Wielage]

I think there will also be forthcoming Ripple titles covering Editing and fusion.

Other good sources for training are FXPHD and Mixing Light:

https://www.fxphd.com/product-category/resolve/
https://mixinglight.com

[Marc Wielage]

You can copy that one node, then paste the contents to another node in the regular clip grade. But bear in mind you’d have to remove the clip from the Group grade first or else you’ll have two of the same nodes affecting the shot.

It would be possible to create a new group for that one shot, copy over all the nodes (using Gallery Stills), then delete the one node you don’t need.

I think you have to be very careful about keeping the node structure as simple as possible and not complicate this stuff. Tracking nodes would be the last thing I’d think about for a Group or Timeline grade. I think using a Pre-Clip grade for camera setup makes sense, and Post-Clip makes sense for a look (or a minor trim) affecting one entire scene made up of multiple shots. Much more than that, this can quickly become a house of cards that falls apart.

[Marc Wielage]

I’d say to start off, don’t try using a computer monitor like an Asus. It’s not good enough for grading.

There are modest-priced consumer displays like the LG OLEDs (particularly the C8/E8) series that can calibrate to Rec709 pretty well. Calman and Light Illusion both have great systems for monitor calibration, but they’re not cheap.

Alexis Van Hurkman covers what goes into a professional color grading room in his book Color Correction Handbook. Placing low-level 6500° lighting behind the monitor and 18% neutral gray walls is also helpful. The SMPTE recommended practice document RP166-1995 covers this in detail. I’ve got some documents on HDR and Rec709 up at this link:

https://spaces.hightail.com/space/YRh1w7BlPO

[Marc Wielage]

There is a way to handle EXR Linear files with the Color Space Transform OFX plug-ins in Resolve 15.

The first node would be a CST node set to Input Gamma Linear, and Output Gamma 2.4. The second CST node would be set to whatever color space processing you want to use and wind up with. Experimentation should give you correct results.

(And my thanks to Juan Salvo for coming up with this idea.)

[Marc Wielage]

What happens if you set everything to automatic and try a test?

Be sure to export a short section of SMPTE color bars as part of the test, then bring that back into Resolve and check it on a scope. If it’s not measuring where it should be, I would expect a major problem with Color Management or possible an output LUT in the signal path. Or possibly an unwanted Timeline grade. This is one of those things you have to troubleshoot by working your way backwards and checking every facet of the signal flow.

[Marc Wielage]

[Alan Daly] “I am using Davinci Resolve 15. I am shooting on a Sony A7s2”
The file-naming procedures and the 8-bit H.264 codec used by the A7SII are not ideal for post. Even if you needed to exchange your material with Avid, FCPX, or other editing programs, you’re going to run into problems.

One easy way to overcome this would be to just export a flattened file from Premiere, then bring the flattened file into Resolve and color-correct there. DNxHQ would be fine.

When you have a non-timecoded camera like this, where many, many clips start with 00:00:00:00 and you’ll have dozens (possibly hundreds) of clips named “C0001”, there’s bound to be trainwrecks. It’s often best to test the workflow prior to a shoot to make sure what you plan to do will work. As one example: You could add the camera letter and shoot date to the head of every clip name, like “A1_101918_C0001” with a file-renaming program, and that way, you’ll always be able to sort them in shoot order. You’ll often get better system performance by transcoding to a simpler codec and avoiding H.264, so that’s an additional path that can help. Shooting with a better camera that avoids both problems (like one that can use time-of-day timecode, unique file names, and 10-bit raw) is the best possible method.