[Marc Wielage]

[Milivoj Ivkovic] “Has someone ever found the reasons for these weird choices in the standards? I’m curious too. Most cameras also offer recording with 1:89, probably for no other reason than it being “compatible” with that strange 2048/1080 ratio.
“
My guess: 1.90 is the native aspect ratio of the chip, and some filmmakers are not aware that this is not an acceptable aspect ratio for final release. I think the chip makers basically decided that 1.90 was the biggest chip they could make and still get effective yields from their factory, and if you shoot with that and then crop to 1.78 — very typical for TV — now you have a little extra room for reframing.

The problem comes with people who don’t know that and edit the entire project in 1.90 and assume that’s how it’s going to play on TV and in the theater. There are channels and streaming services that will take almost any aspect ratio you throw at them, but there are others that demand normal 1.85 or 1.78 or 2.39. As long as the deliverables contract says it’s OK, there’s no real issue.

[Marc Wielage]

Is there a setting to switch Video and Full Data Levels?

I would export a short piece of SMPTE bars and look at them on a scope to determine what’s changing (if anything) within Avid.

[Marc Wielage]

One thing to make this process more streamlined is sort the clips by USAGE in the Media Page (you’ll have to turn that on to see it), update the Usage function by selecting all clicks and right-clicking, then deleting the unused clips that are not in any Timelines — assuming you know you’re not going to need them. Now, if you ever Media Manage, everything can be located quickly and easily.

When new files come in, I have the source folders broken down logically, so that Audio, Camera Files, Graphics, Transcodes, VFX, and so on are all separate and can be located and taken care of as needed. I also keep copies of EDLs & XMLs just in case, and I save off DRPs to an external drive for backup.

[Marc Wielage]

Yes, it can be done. Read the section in the 12.5 manual from page 485-493 on Media Management.

My advice: only use COPY mode (not move), use a different drive if possible, make sure you have enough space, and be sure to click on “Relink to New Files.”

You may also want to use a duplicate of your current session so that if anything fails, you can always go back to the original and diagnose what the problem is. Note that if Resolve encounters a missing file, it will cause the Media Management process to abort, even if it’s a minor file like a 2-second audio file. (I would rather they just pop up an error message at the end of the process, but that’s me.)

[Marc Wielage]

Highlight the clips in the Edit page or the Media page. Right click and choose Clip Attributes. Change the run time to 24fps (or 23.976, whatever your timeline is). You should now see 1/2-speed slo-mo from these clips in the timeline.

This is covered in the 12.5 manual, page 206.

[Marc Wielage]

I seem to recall that the minimum acceptable resolution for the Resolve GUI is 1680×1050. At least it was.

I think you’re going to have a lot of performance difficulties with a 2013 laptop like this. It is possible to run Resolve on a laptop, at least with light-duty files and the ability to use fairly powerful GPUs.

[Marc Wielage]

Wow, that’s really great — much appreciated, Peter.

[Marc Wielage]

Everything in the Face Refinement tool can be done manually. What helps if you have pre-made templates as PowerGrades and then track them one at a time.

What’s convenient about the Face Replacement tool is when you don’t have the time to do the forehead, the eyes, the face and so on separately. I agree, it does need some work and they do need to provide some kind of “user intervention” on keyframing and so on. To me, where this kind of thing will work is when you have interview situations or some other close-up where the actor isn’t moving much. If they turn sideways, it goes to hell fairly quickly… but in fairness, it’s a small miracle the thing works at all.

[Marc Wielage]

I think the same is also true for Baselight, Lustre, Mistika, Nucoda, Pablo, and many other color-correction programs. The color-correction within FCPX or Premiere or Avid is unique to those systems and cannot be transferred to other systems. You can export CDLs (for simple primary corrections) and then use the that, but it’s only a very, very basic setting. A LUT would be another possibility, but my usual preference is just to export the editor’s temporary grade as a reference and compare what I do to that.

[Marc Wielage]

This won’t work, because the cameras have no genlock, meaning whatever frame rate they’re at is kind of “free-running.” It could be a fraction of a percent off from true 24.00fps or 23.98fps, so they’re both going to drift. This is the problem with non-timecode cameras — especially DSLRs. They generally will not stay in sync over a long period of time.

One partial solution is to do a slate clap at the head and tail of each clip, then line those off and see how far off they get over time. Chances are, it might only be a frame or two every 10-12 minutes, but they do slip. If it’s short takes, you can get away with it to a point, but it does require manual line-up and a close eye.