• Overview
• Plan
• Shoot
• Cut
• Post
• Master
• Distribute

Now the fun part begins! You’re going to cut your next masterpiece! However, before you jump in, think through the whole process, from creative cut through final delivery.

If you’re going to another facility to finish, color correct and output the final show master, make sure you, the post supervisor and your post house is all on the same page so you know exactly how to deliver your offline sequence or project file.

Cut

Editing is an art form unto itself regardless of the technology used. However, technology and art go hand in hand so before you start cutting on your Avid or Final Cut Pro system, clearly understand you have entered the digital realm. Whether your source material is film, analog or digital, you will establish a logical production, editorial and postproduction pipeline, a process typically referred to as workflow.

Workflow is a term used virtually by every video manufacturer and post house on the planet today. But what does it really mean? The answer depends on too many variables based on the type of production and delivery involved.

Our focus is on digital cinematography, file-based production. The first step in understanding this type of workflow is to first recognize that there is no single workflow solution but many. And each one is likely to evolve in rapid successions. What didn't’t work just three months ago could very well work today and vice versa. Devout enthusiast of any particular solution and methodology could have their system undermined by a new firmware or software upgrade or the introduction of a new codec. Open mindedness and patience are key requisites.

From this perspective, the editorial pipeline will be based on solutions that will work now and into the future, long enough to complete the postproduction and delivery process. Defining your workflow requires that key members and decisions makers work in concert to identify the best tools, solutions and practices available and then commit to a plan and properly execute that plan. A many bodies - one mind approach is required. We call this teamwork.

BECOME ONE WITH THE FLOW. (Workflow that is)

Your camera selection and final show master format will determine your workflow. This means planning ahead to avoid problems in final picture and sound mastering that often occur as a result of poor planning and disorganization in preproduction and offline process. Organizing and setting up your workflow before you begin editing is essential to keep postproduction cost inline.

A key responsibility of the offline editor and the post supervisor is to make sure that the final cut you and the director are creating can be faithfully recreated during the final stages of picture and sound mastering. If your project sequence was not correctly managed, if source elements are mislabeled and other oversights occur, there is a good chance you will blow the budget and the deadline.

PREPARATION

1. Verify final show master and deliverables.
2. Label all videotape, files and other source elements before you start editing.
3. Identify all source footage that may have different standards, frame rates, resolutions and aspect ratios.
4. Consult with your postproduction vendors to coordinate your offline setup.
5. Make sure your offline cut is in line with the budget. {Learn more}
6. Don't nest your sequence. Maintain discreet video and audio tracks. Be prepared to export a separate sequence or EDL for each track or layer.
7. For digital cinema camera production, make sure media files (RAW footage) is backed up on at least three different drives stored in different locations.
8. Avoid large project files. Set up a sequence for each reel. {Learn more}
9. Routinely backup your project files (on a separate drives or disks if possible).
10. Routinely create a backup reference movie for each sequence as you cut.

COMMUNICATION

Beyond a solid workflow is good communication. Make sure you and the key production members have an organization chart or at least a crew sheet with titles and contact info. Once production is done, the camera operator, the DIT, the audio guy and other key production people will move on to the next rodeo. They won't be around for postproduction so make sure any and all your questions are answered before it's too late. Hopefully, the project will have a budget for a post supervisor. It will be their responsibility to establish a communications channel among key postproduction crew and vendors down line. If you don't have a post super on your team, then this responsibility falls on you, the editor.

The phone numbers and email address of the following will be required.

• Director
• Producer
• Associate producer
• Assistant(s)
• Post Production supervisor
• Editor
• Assistant editor
• Post house
• Online Editor
• Colorist
• Visual Effects supervisor
• Sound editor
• Script supervisor

A Pre Post Primer

Most of you have edited with images acquired on film or video cameras. But the buzz these days is the RED ONE and other digital cinema cameras. If you understand postproduction for film and video, skip to the next section.

For you greenhorns, a quick review on film and video workflow.

There are two methods to get video material into your desktop editing system. If footage was shot on videotape, you can input it from a videotape player connected to a video card on your desktop editing system. Depending on the format, some video decks have a FireWire interface that can transfer video right to your desktop or laptop. However, pro high definition formats require a desktop system with an HD-SDI card.

Some cameras capture directly to a disk, compact flash or hard drive recorder like a Firestore device. Media files from these devices are imported directly into a desktop NLE. These media files may need to be converted to a media format native to your NLE. For example, Panasonic’s P2 media is converted to QuickTime via the Log and Transfer function for Final Cut Pro.

If the project was shot on film, images can be transferred to videotape in a telecine session or converted to digital files using a film scanner, It is assumed that in either process, HD videotape or HD media files are being created. Typically, the HD source material is down converted into lower resolution standard definition elements used for the offline cut. However, the combination of cheap storage and HD codec’s like Avid’s DNxHD, Panasonic's DVCPro HD and Apple’s ProRes (that compress HD into smaller more manageable file size), is rendering the practice of using SD media obsolete. Once the film sources are transferred to tape or scanned into files, they can be input or imported into your NLE.

TELECINE, FILM TO TAPE

The hourly rate for an HD telecine session can be expensive, starting at about $700 per hour. In a traditional telecine session, the director sits with a colorist who does scene-to-scene primary and secondary color correction. At around $700 per hour, (rates vary from facility to facility) this could add up to of a lot of money for grading footage that may not be used in the final cut. A cost saving alternative is a one-light transfer.

At the end of the day, decisions are based on the budget and final delivery specs. If do a full color correction session that will be finished for HD, be sure to transfer to HD Cam SR, which uses a superior 10 bit rate 4:4:4: color sampling scheme.

FILM SCANNING, FILM TO DATA

Scanning film to data is a more robust but usually a more expensive process then telecine. In fact, film scanning is part of the digital intermediate (DI) process. Film scanning is non-real-time process where you are charged per frame instead by the hour. The set up is different too. The operator will set the D-max and D-min levels of each film reel and then scan each frame into a digital intermediate file format such as DPX. The DPX files are then moved into the digital pipeline for editing, image manipulation, color grading and other finishing work. Usually a LUT will be applied in the scanning process. The LUT is part of the color and look management to insure image continuity throughout the entire DI chain.

Audio is another consideration. In a film production, dialogue, set sound and ambient sound is recorded onto a recording device such as a DAT (digital audio tape) recorder or a Zaxcom DEVA hard disk recorder. Typically the on set recording device is synced to time-of-day time code. When you digitize or import the production sound, you should have a scene and take log that matches the camera slates to help you sync sound to picture.

Finally, there are three basic postproduction workflow's you will deal with.

1. Nonlinear tape based (Videotape or disk sources for SD or HD mastering)
2. HD file-based (using Avid DNX, DVC Pro HD and Apple ProRes codec's)
3. 2K file-based (RED and other RAW file based cameras)

Our focus is centered on Final Cut Pro and we’ll further delve into these workflows in the MASTER section.

So now that we reviewed the basics of film and video post production, its time to move to RAW or digital cinema workflow.

_______________________________________________________________________________

In the previous SHOOT section, we walked you through you're the fundamentals of Digital Cinema cameras. Digital cinema cameras require a different approach to how you handle production and editorial workflow.

The following lesson will focus on workflow for the RED ONE camera that is being adopted by the film and music video producers.

REDCINE RED ALERT AND RECODE.

Don't be alarmed; these aren’t Soviet era propaganda movies. Rather, these are tools that you’ll work when using the RED ONE camera. RED ALERT and REDCINE are free software tools to assist HD mastering and/or DI workflow for projects that will go back out to film.

The RED ONE captures still images sequentially and encodes the images as RAW files recorded as data onto flash or hard drive. This camera uses proprietary wavelet compression called REDCODE to compress 4K RED RAW into manageable file sizes by reducing the data rate of 4:4:4 4K/24p RAW image sequences to rates around 200 Mb/sec. R3D is the native RAW file format produced by REDCODE.

If you have a digital still camera, you have already been introduced to the basics of RAW workflow. The RED ONE works like your digital camera; you take pictures, down load the pictures files onto your computer and then use a software program to adjust color, gain, sharpening and other settings.

There are 5 applications that can work with Native RED ONE footage; they are RED ALERT, REDCINE, Scratch, Final Cut Pro 6.02 (and later) and most recently, Quantel. RED ALERT and REDCINE are complimentary applications for transcoding footage from the RED ONE camera and also allow for some basic one light color correction and Shot Framing. RED ALERT works on Intel Mac OS only while REDCINE is available for both Mac and PC Intel based computer platforms.

RED ALERT and REDCINE are software programs that act as telecine "film to video" converters, converting the REDCODE RAW data into RGB video, providing basic one-light image processing and color correction.

RED ALERT

This tool provides the ability to adjust Color Temperature, Saturation, Contrast, Brightness, and RGB gain, RED ALERT also offers the ability to generate QuickTime proxy or reference from the RED ONE's R3D RAW files.

REDCINE

REDCINE offers advanced image control features allowing you to crop, resize and reposition footage plus Color Temperature, Saturation, Contrast, Brightness, and RGB gain adjustment tools. REDCINE offers more advanced options for compression and export file choices. REDCINE allows you to the read either REDRAW, the uncompressed 12 bit linear RAW format, or REDCODE RAW, their 4K wavelet based 10 bit log codec, from a RED ONE camera.

REDCODE

RED has built in native integration with QuickTime. As you shoot creating 4K, 3K or 2K wavelet RAW files, QuickTime reference movies are generated in the cameras. These and are not self-contained movies but pointers that link to the RED RAW media.

The REDCODE plug-in is required to edit natively in Final Cut Pro. The QuickTime player in FCP uses the reference files to play back RED footage in real-time. The reference files access the RAW R3D files but do not actually use the Native R3D files to edit with. The reference files have the ability to extract up to Half of the source file's image data, or pixel information, so if you were to shoot in 4K, the reference file in QuickTime display a 2K version of your source footage. QuickTime Reference Files contain 4:4:4 color sampling, a REC709 color space, which is the standard for HD video.

It is important to understand the RED philosophy is based on the idea that most projects shot on 35mm film are finished in HD and never go back to film. RED ONE is a digital cinema camera designed as an alternative to shooting on 35mm film. The wizards at RED and Apple designed a native workflow that will allow Final Cut Pro users to finish HD quality without ever leaving their desktops.

FINAL CUT PRO WORKFLOW FOR RED

Ok, let’s refer back to the HD documentary; go back in time and change the cameras. Instead of shooting on HD Cam, the producers use RED ONE cameras and shoot everything 4K, 24P (23.98psf).

Since you are delivering a HD master, the workflow is very straightforward. We took the liberty of using the diagram below provided by RED to show the workflow for Final Cut Pro. This assumes you offline, online, color and output an HDCAM SR master from you FCP system.

The above diagram, shown on RED’s web site, indicates Final Cut Pro native editorial workflow for HD mastering. This workflow allows you to edit and master your project on your FCP system using the following steps:

1. Shoot on the RED ONE
2. Store the REDCODE RAW (R3D) files of CF RED drives.
3. Preview your footage using RED ALERT or REDCINE
4. Use QuickTime reference files in Final Cut Pro to cut picture.
5. Transcode the R3D files into Apple ProRes files.
6. Re-link your offline sequence to the new ProRes files
7. Complete final color correction pass in Final Cut Pro using Color.
8. Import your final audio mix tracks.
9. Output an HD CAM SR master.

Looks easy don’t it? Unfortunately, this is more complicated then the diagram and run down demonstrate. There is no replacement for hands on experience so make sure your data wrangler has experience using RED tools.

This workflow allows you to finish and output your project from your FCP system. However, there are several caveats to DIY mastering and color correction that you need to be aware of. Additional steps are required if you intend to do a DI from the REDCODE. We will cover this in the MASTER section.

This completes the EDIT lesson. We provided a lot of information here and we could have added even more. At the end of the day, however, each project and situation will require different workflow approaches. And the best way to start is by having an experienced person on your team. Professional post houses and post supervisors deal with complex technical issues everyday. So when in doubt, call a pro and get them involved early in the production.

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