[Ryan Holmes]

[Magnus Roervik] “I’m trying to fix these now by creating a vignetted still in photoshop and overlaying this on the footage “

You should be able to do this in Resolve.

1. Create a node and apply a power window to it
2. Adjust power window size, shape, feathering, and location to your liking
3. Create an outside node just after the power window node and adjust darkness level to your liking

This would avoid any PSD work and allow you to control everything within Resolve’s “Color” tab.

Ryan Holmes
http://www.ryanholmes.me
@CutColorPost

[Ryan Holmes]

[Matt Harris] “I don’t know what DCI-P3 means”

Google is your friend here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Cinema_Initiatives
https://www.noteloop.com/kit/display/color-space/dci-p3/
https://www.technicolor.com/en/solutions-services/technology/technology-licensing/image-color/color-certification/color-certification-process/color-spaces

[Matt Harris] “Can anyone comment what this does for grading in resolve?”

It allows the monitor to display a wider gamut of colors. See also this concurrent post in the FCPX Debate forum: https://forums.creativecow.net/thread/335/84692

Ryan Holmes
http://www.ryanholmes.me
@CutColorPost

[Ryan Holmes]

Their 1024kbps is likely a combined audio+video data rate. So whatever you set your audio to (128K, 160K, 192K, etc) you’ll need to subtract that amount from your video data rate. Given these specs make sure that you’re doing a CBR (constant bit rate) encode. Otherwise, you’ll be on a VBR (variable bit rate) encode and the data rate will fluctuate depending on the motion contained in the video.

Now with a VBR you can set a ceiling and the encoder won’t go over that ceiling. If overall file size is a concern then VBR is a good option (2-pass VBR specifically), but your encode will likely take longer. If overall file size isn’t a concern then CBR is probably the best option.

Ryan Holmes
http://www.ryanholmes.me
@CutColorPost

[Ryan Holmes]

[Blase Theodore] “Does anyone have a concise history or explanation for the difference between 1.85:1 and 1.89:1?”

Blase, there’s a great video from filmmakeriq about the history of aspect ratios, though I’m not sure if it got into 1.89 vs 1.85. But it’s still worth a watch if you have 15 minutes (or leave on in the background while doing something else): https://vimeo.com/68830569

Some ratios are tied to the actual sensor within the camera. So the manufacturer is just utilizing the sensor in such a way that XYZ aspect ratio comes out knowing that the post-community will pan/scan/crop and pop to make it work. Other times I think manufactures just like to troll us and see if we adapt! 🙂

[Marc Wielage] “There are cable channels that expressly forbid 1.85 matted films.”

And for good reason…who, outside of our industry, would understand why their widescreen TV still has black bars on the top and bottom of the frame. Grandma just bought that new 4K TV and it still has black bars?!

[Marc Wielage] “Crop it to 1.85. Nobody cares. It’s a couple of pixels — let it go. “

Marc you’ve been around the Cow long enough to know that there’s always somebody who cares about this stuff! 🙂

Ryan Holmes
http://www.ryanholmes.me
@CutColorPost

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[Ryan Holmes]

Trial and error is usually the best. I would guess around 120-125% you’ll start see a distinct softening of the image. It largely depends on your quality standards as what’s an acceptable loss visually. Some people won’t got past 110%…so it’s very subjective.

If possible I’d run some tests and project on the screen you anticipate showing it on. That may give you the best idea of how it looks.

Ryan Holmes
http://www.ryanholmes.me
@CutColorPost

[Ryan Holmes]

[Daniel Benzler] “2014 Macbook (16gig ram, 2.2GHz i7, 1536Mb Iris Pro Graphics) “

[Daniel Benzler] “Are there any protips you guys have to speed up the encoding? “

Get a beefier computer. I’m assuming you meant MacBook Pro, which is fine for editing or rough cuts, but if you’re looking for fast encodes or realtime playback while doing motion graphics or color work a MBP is not up to the task. They don’t have enough horsepower. If you’re actually doing this on a MacBook (not a Pro), then I’m amazed that it’s only taking 2.5 hours to encode!

Encodes are determined by:
(1) Source Footage codec
(2) Encode settings
(3) CPU power of the machine (both speed and number of cores)
(4) GPU power of the machine (taking advantage of OpenCL or CUDA)
(5) Speed of the media device reading the data
(6) Speed of the media device writing the data

Ryan Holmes
http://www.ryanholmes.me
@CutColorPost

[Ryan Holmes]

[Laurence Bartone] “Now, what’s the difference between ProRes 422, 422LT, etc… (it’s always something…)”

They’re different quality levels depending on your needs. For the majority of jobs ProRes 422 or 422(LT) will be fine. If you need higher quality due to extensive color grading, visual effects, motion graphics, etc there’s HQ, 4×4, and XQ. I don’t ever shoot much more than standard 422…it holds up great. For the detailed breakdown read through Apple’s ProRes white paper:

https://www.apple.com/final-cut-pro/docs/Apple_ProRes_White_Paper.pdf

Ryan Holmes
http://www.ryanholmes.me
@CutColorPost

[Ryan Holmes]

[Neil Sadwelkar] “I do agree that, at least if they wish to keep the ‘Pro’ in the name, there should be a provision to switch off the magnetic timeline, and to have some kind of a ‘track’ methodology.”

If you do a “Lift from Storyline” with your selected clips it breaks them out of the magnetic timeline structure. It’s basically like a track based editor without the clip collisions at that point. I should emphasis that doing this is “basically like” a track-based editor, but it’s not “exactly like” a track-based editor, especially if you’re getting audio heavy with music, sound fx, dialogue and you need to get that out to another program for finishing.

I was at a FCPX event at an Apple store in Dallas last week where the FCPX certified guru was showing this “Lift from Storyline” as his primary workflow on projects. Most of the editors in the room (including myself) were Premiere Pro users. I believe, he was arguing that FCPX is a clip based editor and therefore more visual and fluid than the other track-based editors when using either the magnetic timeline or the “Lift from Storyline” approach. All that to say, I’m still a Premiere user… 🙂 But I just wanted to be fair to X saying that it could work track-esque (track light?) if you want it to Neil.

Ryan Holmes
http://www.ryanholmes.me
@CutColorPost

[Ryan Holmes]

It depends on what version of Mac OS you’re running as to where the codecs are stored. If you’re installing them to the same spot as Media Encoder (Macintosh HD/Applications/ then that’s not going to work.

If you’re running on 10.8.X or earlier the codecs should be installed here: /Mackintosh HD/Library/Quicktime/

Downloading the .pkg file directly from Apple assumes that you have one or more of their Pro Video apps installed on your system (Final Cut Pro, Final Cut Pro X, Motion, Compressor). The installer will look for those apps when installing. If you don’t have those apps you’ll need to use the workaround method presented in this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tlpwuGTc1tk

Ryan Holmes
http://www.ryanholmes.me
@CutColorPost

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[Ryan Holmes]

[David Chan] “any consensus on best codec to transcode XAVC to for easy grading on Resolve on a PC?”

If you’re on a PC DNxHD is probably you’re best choice. If you need resolutions beyond HD look at DNxHR codec, also from Avid. HR handles 4K resolutions, whereas HD only does HD resolutions (as the name implies).

Ryan Holmes
http://www.ryanholmes.me
@CutColorPost