Michael Phillips
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COW Coin
Forum Replies Created
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It won’t be a problem – but it is strongly recommended that you transcode to an Avid optimized codec like DNxHD once you AMA link to the camera originals. The codec is potential a better quality and most likely the subsampling process in the camera might be different to give you a better image.
Michael
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Certainly DS was/is designed to be the all-in-one type solution that combines editing, effects, audio, and color correction. And as it typical with many of these approaches is that can be good at all of them, but perhaps not great at some of them. So it depends on the type of work you do and if the feature set meets or exceeds your needs today and in the future.
There is a free trial of DS available, so you can certainly give it a spin to compare. You do have NAB right around the corner (next week) and you can wait to see what changes/updates/ and potential pricing changes might occur before you make that decision.
I would also look to the development history of the product. Usually the downloads page gives a history of releases, dates and what was in them. I know that DS owners have never been happy with the commitment to development the past 5 years or so – but who ever is? There are dedicated DS forums you can go through to get a sense of that which I would recommend.
I have been getting into Smoke more and more. I have both Mac and PC myself – for the type of work I do, long form narrative (features), it is not really ready for that – nor would I choose DS. They are not designed for the daily needs of a feature film cutting room. I look to smoke as being my online editorial and finishing. Once I have edited in Media Composer, managed my workflow and process and reporting (for the producers and such), I can conform in smoke and still make editorial changes if needed.
I don’t think smoke or DS have the same level of functionality as Resolve. This is the difference between a whole team dedicated to one function, versus many.
As far as the future of the Mac? Who knows – perhaps we will hear something at the development conference in June. It’s difficult to make one’s way through all the rumors, wish lists, die-hards, fanboys and haters to get a sense of reality. And an email reply from Tim Cook that it will be awesome is not enough to base anything on – everyone has their own sense of “awesome” based on their needs. Jobs said the next version of FCP was going to be awesome. It was for some, and not for others. We can only wait and see. But I know developers at Autodesk and they have been pretty pleased with performance on the beefed up MacPro and Thunderbolt RAID. Depends on what formats and resolution mastering you are doing – but it is something to consider – again, based on your needs.
Michael
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You have actually done everything correctly considering they shot two very different looking formats to start with, before the hand-held shakiness…
Once these formats are intercut next to each other, the difference becomes even more noticeable. The 59.94i is probably more forgiving to the shaky hand held material as it has more motion resolution than 23.976p. Considering that most screens these days from mobile, to home, to theater are all progressive – the interlace material will be manipulated at some point on those screens depending on the quality of the processing that goes on. I would have considered a 59.94p format…
That being said, when you drop a 23.976 into a 59.94i project, the only motion adapter being applied is a 2:3 pulldown – exactly the same process an Alchemist would apply – so there should be no difference at all at the clip to clip level.
But – what an Alchemist can provide that Media Composer does not, is continuous pulldown from cut to cut. I believe that every event starts at the same cadence start (A?), I need to confirm that. Unfortunately the additional work of looking to last cadence frame and starting on next continuation one is not part of the algorithm. Also, if you have layers, their cadence alignment may be different to each other – and of course if you layer 59.94i and a 23.976p, they will be very different. An Alchemist type conversion pass takes all that into consideration when creating a new submaster and tried like hell to make it look as good as it can – that’s where the magic of an Alchemist type product is used (as well as resize quality). And speaking of resize, that brings some level of quality hit, especially of the interlace footage was shot HD? It was unclear from your posting.
Michael
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I believe taking the class is a requirement to taking the certification exam. Here is a sample exam online with some info on the process:
https://apps.avid.com/training/mcu5_practice_exam/quiz.htmlThat exam is for MC v5 and things changed a lot (for better and for worse) in follow up versions to current v6.5.2.1. But you can get an idea of how the exam is administered. I have found many of the questions to be hard to follow with different interpretations possible which lead to an incorrect response. I also wish the courses were designed for assistant editors and editors – when I look to hire someone, it is usually for assistant editor duties and would prefer more knowledge in that area. And while on the job can learn the subtleties of the editing interface and functionality. There’s also a whole section on tape-based capture and output which is well – somewhat dated and the systems in the class did not have decks attached – so it was mostly an exercise in theory.
Avid used to have an online course, but I don’t think that is available anymore, or has been updated. I would suggest you post this question on the Avid forums and Marianna is great at responding quickly with whomever you need to connect with.
Michael
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I think that adding native MXF/DNxHD is the start of adding flexibility to many more workflows. I agree with Steve that a proxy editorial workflow is many times preferred due to amount of footage, performance (multicam and such), ability to quickly copy to a cheap small drive and go edit on set, etc.
Michael
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That’s what I was referring to – it would be good to see the case study of Premiere Pro being used in this type of postproduction workflow and management of all the elements that come and go from the cutting room. I am sure it is capable of doing so – just want to get more insight into how.
Great trailer – have to track that film down. I am looking forward to Stephen Chow’s “Journey to the West” as I loved Kung Fu Hustle and Shaolin Soccer. Would love to work on a film with him as he blends in so many of the styles.
Michael
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That’s a pretty straightforward workflow (film always is… 😉 ) with the lab creating all the dailies with syncing and logging for the editorial. What gets interesting is the processes during editorial with change management, audio delivery and such.
I wonder what will change in their workflow with Premiere Pro – seeing as they are writer/director/editor – I always thought that ScriptSync or in this case, the script integration with Adobe Story would be a place to start. I wonder if they are writing the screenplay for the film in Adobe Story, or if they opened a Final Draft and then took advantages of the Adobe Story feature set.
Michael
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Did permissions change so that a new file cannot be created by Media Composer on start up? What happens if you copy one from another folder into that one, does the OS try to overwrite it? Once there, can you delete it?
Michael
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I have seen some funkiness when transcoding 1080p/29.97 to 720p/59.94. One would expect the cleanest method being a 2:2:2:2 pulldown, but it seems (in 6.5 at least) I am getting a clean/blend/clean/blend which look bad on progressive displays.
Michael
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The configuration I saw it working in was a two-system, with one of the systems acting as the server. I suspect there is a tipping point with number of users when a dedicated server system becomes necessary.
Michael