[Paul Abrahams]

In a completely non pro situation, which is mine and my partners, we both do the shoot, one directs the other is on camera. My work station is a current imac running Davinci which handles RAW DNG’s, I send him the proxies to edit in Adobe on Windows. He sends me the XML I do the grade then I send him the final grade. He then replaces the proxies on the timeline with the Graded files and adds VFX and finishes.

So a basic edit seems to work best as Adobe and Davinci deal with complex transitions differently.

Transitions, stabilisation and VFX seem to be best done after the grade and before the final render.

Hopefully this helps any others in a similar situ, or gives me exposure to be shown a better way which I’m always willing to learn.

[Paul Abrahams]

Hi Matthew,

This is the sort of insight I need, having not used any of these monitors I don’t know (jack) 🙂
My knowledge of waveform and use in Davinci is growing every time I practice correction & grading so I agree, waveform would be great to have live.

So a small SDI field monitor with waveform or perhaps an SDI EVF with waveform?

[Paul Abrahams]

Hi David, I’ve had my BMCC for a few months, fairly low budget here trying to decide which monitor to get. My first shoot was a live band under typical bands lights. You guess it, not enough light to do much in post. 2nd experience is underway now, a short 20 min student film.

The outdoor shots were pretty easy to expose but indoors again I was fooled by the REC709 on the BMC. I was considering the BMD Smartscope Duo (8″) to have scopes and to see the lighting/framing and DOF better. The other option is a regular monitor with some exposure tools, false colours perhaps.

I’m in two minds as I know the Smartscope will work great but lots of people get by with a small field monitor.

I don’t have the experience like most of you guys here, lighting for me is experimental and without the proper exposure tools I’m winging it and while it looks good to the eye… I need to judge exposure better.

The director insists on using incidental lighting and I can’t stress enough to him the need for me to have more light for this sensor. If I had scopes I can visually show him what is truly happening with exposure.

Any advice appreciated.