Marc Wielage
Forum Replies Created
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[Nathan McKay] “I can’t export any ProRes files because I am running Windows (unless I am totally missing something). I am looking to get as uncompressed as possible, so would Quicktime YUV 422 10bit work or RGB 10bit be better? File sizes aren’t an issue.”
DNxHD 220 or DNxHD 444 looks very good and holds up well for broadcast. If you’re going to theaters, then DPX would probably be the best (and lossless) method, but be warned the files are fairly huge. -
I wouldn’t touch the Offset if the basic picture looks good. Adjust the qualifiers to match the picture; don’t move the Offset to change the qualifiers. Ignore the numbers.
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Change Pixel Aspect Ratio in the Timeline Format and see if that solves the problem. You can also highlight the clips themselves in the Edit window and change the Clip Attributes that way.
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I wouldn’t worry about the numbers. Just worry about the results you see on screen and on the scopes.
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Yep, and when you export the project(s), make sure it includes the stills. If you want to dot the i’s and cross the t’s, you can also include thumbnails, which will make a bigger project. I also take a snapshot of the directory structure in case I have to redo the session elsewhere on a different computer, which will help preserve the media links in the database.
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[Mike Most] ” Continuity is about feel, not necessarily precision.”
I have been reminded many times by directors and cinematographers that lighting and exposure aren’t all about scopes and levels and pixels; it’s about emotion. To that end, I will often ask the client about the beginning of the scene, “what’s the mood we’re going for here? Happy/sad, poignant/hilarious, grim/frightening… which?” Matching the last out and next in is easy… it’s the feel and the mood that’s hard.
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Yes, the side-by-side comparisons are part of Baselight. But it’s been awhile… I’m not sure if you can see the outgoing frames of one scene simultaneously on the screen with the incoming frame on the other half of the screen. I just used stills like I always have and popped back and forth.
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And of course, I agree 100% with Mike’s post above.
I know of a very famous A-list director (whose initials are Michael Bay) who gets irate if any colorists show him still frames to match to. He has to see the cuts in context, and couldn’t care less if the stills precisely match. For him, it’s all about the flow. I totally see his point: I don’t give a crap about the match as long as it feels right in the specific cut.
Side-by-side comparisons are nice, but I have had directors balk because then the image size is too small and they can’t make a relative choice with a picture 50% smaller than normal. We had that feature for years and years in Baselight, and it’s helpful for certain things but not always important in the grand scheme of things.
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[Chris Oben] “For now grabbing a still of the last frame and comparing it the first frame of the next clip works but is too many key strokes to be viable for a 500 shot edit.”
Wow, I’ve been doing it that way for about 30 years (or at least as long as we’ve had still frames in a color correction program), and it actually works pretty well, even for projects of many thousands of cuts. The other philosophy is to just roll through the scene and see how the two moving shots work against each other and whether the color naturally flows or not. If something sticks out, it’s wrong.
Muscle memory, dexterity, and experience will get you there. It helps to use a control surface.
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[Paul Rijkaard] “I understand that s-log 2 provides the greatest possible colour range (potentially at least), but fail to believe that once a pro-res 444 is baked from the raw file that this can contain any more potential colour range than Rec 709. “
It can, but it depends on how the ProRes files were prepped. The key to me is to make sure the SLog files are adjusted correctly for color temperature and ISO, assuming the exposure is reasonable. When there’s no time to create ProRes 444 files, SLog2 or SLog3 decoding can yield a reasonable result. I don’t think there’s a massive difference from Arri LogC or even RedLogFilm… it’s all in the same ballpark. You can either come up with a curve/gamma setting to push it down into Rec709, or you can use a LUT to essentially accomplish the same thing. I prefer to do it manually to avoid clipping or crushing anything early in the chain.
I think the right question to ask is “can ProRes files made in Log space have the same color range as the original Raw files.” And the answer is “it depends.” In perfect circumstances, I think it’s very close.