Michael Kammes
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I charge a pretty penny to do this – it ain’t easy.
I would recommend looking at other clean dialogue from the scene preferably the same character!) in a spectrum analyzer. This will give you an indication what frequencies are ‘hotter’ than others in the environment. Try and match that with EQ settings on the ADR’d dialogue.
Verb/Echo is tough. There is a lot of play with this. Lots of experimentation. A mentor of mine once said – find what you like, then back off 10%.
Another trick is to try and record the ADR with the same mic used on set. At least SOMETHING will be similar.
Other tricks include raising the background room noise of the scene, recutting picture around the bad audio, adding sound effects, and/or music. Some even go so far as to ADR the ENTIRE scene, so the viewer isn’t taken out of the scene when the ADR dialogue comes in – it’s ALL ADR! Obviously these are last ditch Hail Mary efforts.
Good Luck!
~Michael
.: michael kammes mpse
.: senior applications editor . post workflow consultant
.: audio specialist . act fcp . acsr
.: michaelkammes.com -
Download the FCStudio RED installer from red.com/support.
When you download the file, there is a EXCELLENT workflow PDF contained inside, chock full o’ good info AND it discusses multiple workflows!
There is also a RED forum her on the cow, chock full o’ more good stuff.
~Michael
.: michael kammes mpse
.: senior applications editor . post workflow consultant
.: audio specialist . act fcp . acsr
.: michaelkammes.com -
Glad you enjoyed.
NLE’s are finally at a point where XDCAM editing can be done relatively easily (provided your machine isn’t a dinosaur) and native at the same time. It’s great for ENG, news, and run and gun type people.
I find that it doesn’t give the latitude one needs for color work or advanced graphics work. That’s the trade off, however, for being able to go tapeless.
Pro Res will definitely give you better results if you are keying, adding graphics, concerned about gradients, etc. There is just *more* data and latitude – plus, it’s not Long GOP. XDCAM, at a common data rate is 35 Mb/s (about 4.375MB/s). ProRes 422 HQ is 150Mb/s (31MB/s) So – there is a trade off – more drive space, for more quality and latitude.
If it helps, any media that is XDCAM that I have to do ANY kind of efx work or color work too, I flip to Pro Res without hesitation.
Apple’s Compressor (heck, Quicktime Pro!) as well as more robust solutions like Telestream’s Episode (my fav) can do this transcode from XDCAM to Pro Res for you. I caution to research prior to buying, as many different cameras can shoot XDCAM, and save it in different formats. These formats may or may not be understood by the transcoder. JVC, for example, saves XDCAM in a MOV wrapper, while Sony uses the more traditional MXF folder hierarchy.
Worst case scenario, FCP can do your transcode.
I don’t know of a chart per se. When I lecture about it, I spend almost an hour just on the just the concept of pre-encoding and codecs.
A basic rule of thumb (and I await flames!): most camera acquisition formats (XDCAM, P2/AVC, H.264/7D&5D, etc.) look great, but fall apart in post when there is a good deal of efx and color work. This is not a 100% rule (Alexa, for example, shoots ProRes!). Virtually very complaint and problem I have heard regarding NLE performance in the past few years has always been related to new(er) codecs and underpowered machines.
As always, I recommend testing it and seeing if the quality trade off is worth the time waiting for the transcode.
Good Luck!
~Michael
.: michael kammes mpse
.: senior applications editor . post workflow consultant
.: audio specialist . act fcp . acsr
.: michaelkammes.com -
For faster editing, have the “auto conform” prompt you get, do it’s thing. This will allow you to edit the XDCAM footage, and you won’t have to render (much).
If you put the footage in a ProRes timeline, you will have to render everything. However, the quality of the render will be better.
I like to pre-encode the XDCAM into ProRes prior to bringing into FCP, then edit in ProRes…which, at this point, would be native.
I wrote a nice article on this very scenario: https://michaelkammes.com/editorial/i-bet-i-can-save-you-hours-of-waiting-in-the-edit-bay/
~Michael
.: michael kammes mpse
.: senior applications editor . post workflow consultant
.: audio specialist . act fcp . acsr
.: michaelkammes.com -
One thing to remember is color space.
DV has a color space of 4:1:1. DV50 & Pro Res are 4:2:2. Due to the low chroma resolution, DV is not very optimal for pulling a good key.
DV50, FYI, is a great alternative for broadcast quality, and many broadcast outlets who do SD still use it.
~Michael
.: michael kammes mpse
.: senior applications editor . post workflow consultant
.: audio specialist . act fcp . acsr
.: michaelkammes.com -
Why not cross convert the DV footage to another codec before attempting to pull a key?
DV isn’t that good for keying (as you know). DV50 is a bit better, and even ‘fatter’ codecs like Pro Res (if on a Mac) would work much better than DV.
I agree, the virtual sets do look cartoonish, plus the lighting of the subjects doesn’t really match the ‘set’ lighting. The contestant shadows also look pretty fake, IMO.
Good Luck!
~Michael
.: michael kammes mpse
.: senior applications editor . post workflow consultant
.: audio specialist . act fcp . acsr
.: michaelkammes.com -
FCP really isn’t ready to edit raw 7D or XHA1 generated material. Heck, the latest version of Media Composer has some issues.
Best bet (and practice) is to convert the footage to a more manageable format that is easier for the NLE to use. For FCP, this would be ProRes. I’d go with ProRes 422 or ProRes 422 HQ.
The XHA1 follows the same practice: flip it to Pro Res before attempting to edit!
.: michael kammes mpse
.: senior applications editor . post workflow consultant
.: audio specialist . act fcp . acsr
.: michaelkammes.com -
Quality is typically better on hardware up/down/cross converters. It’s also faster – real time.
Software is usually slower, and the complaint I hear / see most is “it’s soft”.
If I can, I try to use HW over SW anytime.
I say typically, because there are exceptions, albeit few and far between.
~Michael
.: michael kammes mpse
.: senior applications editor . post workflow consultant
.: audio specialist . act fcp . acsr
.: michaelkammes.com -
You can either push/pull or play directly from the Terrablock. For years, it’s been the only solution (other than Avid) I’ve recommended.
I really wish I had some docs for you. It’s just plan worked. I do recommend calling Facilis, or an integrator / reseller (full disclosure, I work for an integrator & reseller, where we sell many product lines, including multiple SAN solutions, so I’m solution agnostic). If you’re on the west coast feel free to drop me an email…. michael AT michaelkammes DOT com.
~Michael
.: michael kammes mpse
.: senior applications editor . post workflow consultant
.: audio specialist . act fcp . acsr
.: michaelkammes.com -
I can speak to Avid…
The bottleneck is your acquisition format.
H.264 looks great, but sucks in post. Yes I said it. It’s tough to decode in real time, let alone effects. See also: Canon 5D / 7D.
Let’s say we use Avid with the new AMA plug-in structure (i.e. most anything you can play at the OS level in Quicktime, Avid can understand *without transcoding / import* including XDCAM and P2.) If we run Avid on the fastest industry standard CPUs out there (HP z800, Westmere Macs) and use AMA for your footage, even Avid does not guarantee playback 100% at full quality. H.264 is a tough piece of gristle.
I’ve found Premiere to be able to chomp through h.264 a wee bit better…but still hit or miss, and FCP, well, that’s gonna be a crapshoot with playback set to unlimited, but usually will be the worst of the big 3.
Camera manufacturers (for the most part) need to get pretty pictures at low data rates (cheaper). H.264 does this. Since Post is an after thought, h.264 gets the nod in-camera. There are exceptions; Alexa (ProRes), for exmaple. XDCAM and P2 are a good balance of compression and editability…then again, they’ve been out for about 5 years.
You may want to look into a baseband conversion into a more edit friendly codec while shooting (all done in RT). (Ki Pro, Ki Pro Mini, Nano Flash)
~Michael
.: michael kammes mpse
.: senior applications editor . post workflow consultant
.: audio specialist . act fcp . acsr
.: michaelkammes.com