Marc Wielage
Forum Replies Created
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François Dumoulin commented: “My question is, you, how do you do your Pro Tools sessions from DaVinci Resolve to keeping the audio automation keyframes?”
I agree with David above: the LA Pro Tools sound mixers and editors I know throw all the editor’s pan/level decisions away, but will refer to a temp mix rendered from the editor. Two audio utilities out there that will create conformed Pro Tools sessions from XMLs include Preconformer and Conformalizer. This is a very standard process for TV and film mixes from Avid, Premiere, and FCP.
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I agree 100% with David Weiss above: you’d be much better off cutting the one giant timeline up into (say) 6 x 20-minute timelines. At the very end of the project, you could create a “Super Timeline” composed of all the other timelines and render one continuous 2-hour project. Is the source material literally one 2-hour piece of media, or is it multiple clips? One single piece of media will be a real struggle both for the system and the drives.
I would also avoid running anything in the background, and pre-allocate the maximum 12GB of system RAM to Resolve in the User Prefs.
What specific GPUs are you running? This can also have a big effect on system performance. I assume you’re monitoring in HD and correcting in HD. In a pinch, you could set the timeline resolution to HD as well, which should at least let you correct in real time.
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I do use Lightbox quite a bit for some projects, particularly when the director wants to jump to a specific sequence. It’s also handy if I work on (say) Reel 3, and the director points out we had a similar shot in Reel 1. Lightbox allows me to find the identical shot, quickly pull up that still, then compare it to the new scene. It does help quite a bit in copying over corrections and in navigation.
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Your Pro Tools engineer may find that Conformalizer is a better choice to put together audio sessions from Resolve and some other editing programs:
https://www.thecargocult.nz/conformalizer.shtml
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No, there’s no way to adjust that. I just use the Lightbox to find similar shots that happened X number of scenes earlier and center-click them when necessary. I don’t look it over and judge how the project looks, especially on a GUI monitor. It’s only a rough guide.
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What happens if you click “Render at Source Resolution”?
I have literally never heard of anybody getting Quicktime Uncompressed RGB 10-bit in post, but that’s me. DPX, EXR, TIFF, yes.
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“but still default gamma in resolve is 2.4 and I’ve found out on other forums that 2.5 is good for this king of work in dark room. and d65 on monitor and rec 709 on monitor.”
Well, as luck would have it, I just happened to watch a Rec709 job I did about a year ago at a film festival tonight, and it was shown on a 20′ screen, from a DCP in P3 color space. And after all that… it actually looked fine. Parts of it were among the best-looking images shown among that group of shorts (and that’s due more to the DP than me). Gamma was not an issue — blacks were still blacks, grayscale was still fine, whites were still reasonable. My only thought was I felt I could’ve used about 5 points more saturation, but that’s about it. And this was a straight, very normal Rec709 -> P3 conversion through a LUT.
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“It’s mixed media, and happens with every kind. I currently have 720p MPEG2 29.97 and it’s doing it on that, whereas the example shots were 1080p H.264 24.”
I would agree with Joe: it’s a miracle you got anything at all out of it on a laptop.
MPEG material is not good for post, and H.264 is also bad for post — both of them eat up a lot of system overhead just in playing back, even before you try to color correct anything.
I would convert them both to an easier codec like DNxHD 220, and then see how that does. In truth, Resolve is a demanding application that needs a lot of hardware for good performance. The config specs on BMD’s support page are pretty specific.
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I would just keep it set to the normal 100 nits and Rec709, and let your DCP conversion software handle everything else.
In truth, I don’t think it’s possible to get perfect theatrical results grading on a small monitor, because so much of your perception changes when you look at a 20-foot display vs. a 25″ (or 50″ or whatever) display. There’s also a major change in how you perceive reflected color off a theatrical screen rather than the direct color in an LCD or plasma or OLED monitor. It’s not the same. Ideally, I’d suggest scheduling a screening in a grading theater once the project is done, and take notes and make changes as needed. In a perfect world, I’d book a day or two doing a trim pass in the theater if that’s possible.
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I would tell them not to use 2.33 since it’s not an accepted aspect ratio for theatrical or home video. 2.39 or 2.40 can work just fine; some have used 2.35 in the past, but I generally tell them that 2.40 makes more sense for home video because the math is easier.
More from Brad Allen’s excellent “Resolution/Aspect Ratio Cheat Sheet,” which I use all the time and highly recommend:
https://unravel.com.au/files/Unravel_Resolution_CheatSheet.pdf