[Marc Wielage]

[Duke Sweden] “Dell XPS 8920
Intel i7 core 7700 build
GeForce GTX 1050ti
32 Gigs of RAM
3 7200 RPM SATA Drives
Windows 10 64-bit
DaVinci Resolve 14.3”

If it were me, I would up the CPU to 2 x 16-core i9 processors, and I would go with 2 x 1080ti GPUs. 64GB RAM would not hurt, either. What you have will work to a point, but the moment you throw large Raw files at it or need to do intensive processing (particularly NR or OFX), or use a lot of nodes, it’ll slow down drastically. A fast RAID is better for i/o. What you have will be fine if you’re just using DNxHD files and don’t do a lot of processing. H.264 is more problematic, as is 4K-5K-6K.

So there’s a lot of “it depends” here.

[Marc Wielage]

The grade is the accompanying DRX file; a DPX (or JPG or whatever) has no correction in it per se. The Gallery needs both a DPX and a DRX to provide a still reference and a stored color-correction, by design.

[Marc Wielage]

[Glenn Venghaus] “And lastly , keep in mind the budget and target audience. Its not big facilities, A+ level graders etc. Its for the indies, small poor freelancers that dont have tons to spend…”
For those people, I’d say go and find a used set of Tangent Element panels. Huge bang for the buck, and you can do terrific work on it. Great support, very good implementation, 90% of everything you need is in there.

[Marc Wielage]

The easiest reply is: get lots of cores and a very fast, recent 2017-2018 machine. Lots of fast GPUs with lots of VRAM helps, too. And fast i/o.

[Marc Wielage]

I’d use tracking windows to pull the guy out of the background, and consider using very slight defocus to shift our attention to the actor. But a lot depends on context and intent.

As to Waveform monitors: read what Steve Hullfish had to say in this free booklet written years ago for Tektronix. It applies mainly to Tek, but the general principles apply to all color corrections. First important point: the “skintone line” is not a skintone line.

A Guide to Using Waveform Monitors as Artistic Tools in Color Grading
https://www.tek.com/document/primer/guide-using-waveform-monitors-artistic-tools-color-grading-high-resolution

[Marc Wielage]

[Joseph Owens] “At last count, there are three surfaces that work; DaVinci’s dedicated set, the Artist, and the Tangent Wave.”
Don’t forget the Tangent Elements and the Tangent Ripple — both of which use the standard Tangent protocol. They all work very well.

Having just gone back to the big panels for the first time in years, I’m reminded of how well-tailored the program is to those. You can work on anything, but there’s a reason the Advanced Panels are used at the big shops all over the world.

I went through the whole “MIDI / kludgy” thing with Pro Tools, and it was exhausting just trying to keep up with drivers and patches and macros and interpretations and things that would stutter and go wrong, or automation that would go south at the worst possible moment. I wouldn’t wish that on anybody. These little toy boxes don’t work for me. I have no problem using macro boxes — I’m a huge fan of the programmable XKeys buttons, and the Elgato Streamdeck is very promising — but the Midi stuff leaves me cold. The advantage of the purpose-built panels is you can develop the muscle memory required to use these surfaces quickly. And speed is the whole point. I don’t have time to spend 10 minutes per shot — we have to get through features and episodic TV very quickly. I concede there are some projects where you can spend much more time, but it’s not the way I’m wired.

[Marc Wielage]

[Eric Santiago] “I am sticking with v12.5 till summer. I cant afford any upgrade mishaps like I am dealing with Adobe CC 2018 :P”
Resolve 14.3 has been very good for me, and (as I said in another thread) I just did about 100 hours with clients over a 10-day period, and I would guess we had three major crashes and lost about 10 minutes of time in each incident. No actual work was lost (I’m saving every 10 minutes). If that means 99.5 hours of uptime, that’s a better average than NASA.

[Marc Wielage]

My opinion is that most drone footage is problematic for post. If I’m asked by the client, my preference is for them to take 8-bit drone footage, give it a unique name with a date (like “33018_C001”), and transcode it to something simple like ProRes 422HQ with sequential non-conflicting timecode. From that point forward, consider the transcoded footage the new “negative” and only use that for offline and online.

If the drone material is 10-bit (rare) but still H.264, I would still transcode it but go to DNxHD 444 or DNxHR 444 or ProRes 444, whatever is easiest for your systems to handle. GoPros, A7S, all that stuff is just a nightmare. I recently did an A7S feature, and I’m considering a “never again” policy because of issues during that conform.

What is not a problem is if the editor opts to just render out a flattened file for color, and then all we have to do is just slice it up with scene detection, color-correct it, and hand back a finished version. That can work just fine, assuming the transcodes are done well. (Watch the levels carefully and check them on a scope just in case.)

[Marc Wielage]

Call me crazy: the job of the assistant editor IS to sync up the picture and sound.

If it isn’t the same, yell at the crew and make them get a jam box on the camera that syncs with the sound timecode. In general, camera timecode is not as reliable and will drift under some cases. Sound timecode is usually pretty rock-solid. The sound recorder, a timecode slate, and the camera should all be jammed at least once every 4-5 hours (even with a atable TCX oscillator).

Even if the assistant has to sync up with just sticks, and camera and sound timecode are different, it should not take more than :30 seconds per take. A moron in the middle of the night can do hundreds of takes in a few hours (and I was that moron on occasion).

It is automatic under ideal circumstances — like when camera, sound, and slate are all precisely in sync. And that often happens with the right gear and the right people.

[Marc Wielage]

[Glenn Sakatch] “We have all stared at a drop down menu and said “I’m sure it was right here”, or stared right at the correct item, and not been able to read it. That’s usually when I say “time to go home””
I generally say, “time for a break and another 5-Hour Energy Drink” and push on! ????