[Marc Wielage]

I did an XAVC F55 project back in January, and I definitely delivered in ProRes 444 with audio. The difference is that I did not use camera audio — I only used a finished track. I suspect there is some issue with the camera audio if this is internal production sound.

If it’s a synced track, I don’t see how there could be an issue. Resolve shouldn’t treat a WAV file any differently depending on what kind of video is playing back with it. I would call BMD support and see if they can duplicate the problem.

[Marc Wielage]

That’s a total drag! I’m sympathetic.

Did you back up the user database? In theory, you can do a Restore on that from within the Database Manager. I don’t know if all the links are automatically reestablished for stills and the cache and all that, but at the worst, the sessions themselves should come back and you should be able to re-create all the Gallery stills and cache files and so on.

I have successfully migrated whole sessions via export/import quite a few times, which is helpful if I work on something at home, then have to transport it to a client facility. In my case, in the past I know the Gallery stills and cache files don’t come along for the ride, but you can import all the Gallery stills if you export them all to an external drive (even a thumb drive) and import those back in to the session.

I just made the jump to 12.5 and — so far — all my old sessions have come back fine, cache files intact, Gallery, everything. I’m using an external SSD just for the Scratch disk (at the top of the Prefs -> Media Storage menu), and it’s been OK. I did have some flakey behavior the other day where I lost all the links in a session, but my hope is that this was just a fluke. I was able to relink everything after a few harrowing minutes; it was sobering because nothing was ever moved, and no drive ever became unmounted. This was also under OSX 10.11.4, so I’m walking a series of tightropes here.

I made the decision to go to an external Scratch drive for the simple reason that I wanted to get it out from under the boot drive, and I decided that Thunderbolt and SSD would be so fast, almost any file type (short of 4K DPX/EXR) would work fine for the cache. If it fills up over time, I’ll just copy it over to a bigger Scratch drive.

[Marc Wielage]

Alexis Van Hurkman has a very good (and long) article on grading for HDR and some of the complexities involved:

https://vanhurkman.com/wordpress/?p=3548

[Marc Wielage]

A lot depends on your choice of camera format and how you intend to deliver the project at the very end. Choice of editing and finishing format can be complex, weighing on a lot of factors like budget and available computer hardware, and that’s basically what workflow is all about. There is no simple answer.

I’m not a fan of Sony Vegas, but I have (reluctantly) dealt with Vegas projects before. We generally conformed back to the camera originals in Resolve and graded from those, and that hinges on using transcodes for offline editing in Vegas. There’s a more clear-cut path within Premiere, FCP (and FCPX), and Avid.

[Marc Wielage]

[Ross Wilson] “Rather be a newb with a legitimate problem and question than a very unprofessional spud. Have you read the manual… And remembered all of it, never have any issues, never felt lost with a new product that’s so vast and expansive, had your creative flow broken by something that needs several hours reading a book to get an answer? “
Calm down. We’ve all been there. Many people can help with a legitimate problem, but one that boils down to “I’m trying to learn a program I’ve never used before and haven’t read the manual” is going to garner sarcastic responses.

Remote/Local Grading is covered on pages 893-895 of the 12.5 manual. There are good reasons to use either, but I generally go with local grading for a lot of reasons. For reality shows and documentaries, you can make a good case for Remote grading. And there are those who use both under different circumstances.

[Marc Wielage]

They really should display a meaningful error message that says, “You need to upgrade to Resolve Studio in order to use higher resolutions.”

But in fairness to BMD, it’s in the manual and config specs.

[Marc Wielage]

How does it work in 1/4-res good? That should be good enough for realtime playback, and you figure that’s roughly the equivalent of the HD screen on which you’re monitoring.

[Marc Wielage]

Resolve 12.5 added the ability to add 3/2 pulldown to 23.976 material for 29.97 renders.

[Marc Wielage]

A lot of power windows, very aggressive grading, and selective pushed saturation could do it. So much depends on the original material, it’s hard to say. Some people like the Color Boost control for added punch.

I’ve told students before that much of what we do is giving added punch to images, and also finding ways for the actors to stand out from the background. Windows can help, a little defocus can help, a shaft of light here (through a window), a little log control tweak… there’s a couple of dozen steps. There is no one thing that makes it happen besides experience.

[Marc Wielage]

And to add what Glenn says: the longer I work in the business, the more convinced I am that the look is mostly due to the work of the cinematographer. 90% of the magic happens in front of the lens. It’s lighting, it’s the exposure, the lenses, plus the art direction, the costumes, all the various stuff that goes into a set. The colorist can only do so much if most of the desired look isn’t already there. We can always enhance great material, but we can’t make bad material good.