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Editing 4K

Hi everyone,

You'll have to pardon my ignorance regarding some of these technical aspects - I'm trained in the writing/performing side of filmmaking.

Looking at shooting a low budget feature in 4k. I have just been told by my potential editor that they'll need to transpose the footage to make it digestible for the computer system, which will then mean we will have to re-edit - with a professional editor at a later date - if we want to get the footage back to 4K.

Does this sound correct? Would that mean doing one edit at, say, 1080, then another at a later stage (and at much more expense) to get it back to 4k? Surely there's a simpler way, as I've known many micro-budget features that didn't need to edit twice, and made it into some big festivals with subsequent distribution deals.

Is it a matter of finding someone with a hard drive that can handle all that footage in 4k?

Thanks, and any advice will be most appreciated.

Aus
 
Yes......that can be if his pc has a 16RAM of memory.... for him it will be faster to edit in 1080. He looses speed if he edits in 4K... in the end its faster to edit the stuf in 1080 and replace it with the 4K than directly edit the 4K. This is a problem I have to solve myself, so this year looking for some more RAM and a video drive.
 
Thank you for the reply, FL.

Just to be sure I understand: The editor will bring the footage down to 1080p, edit it at that res, and we will submit to festivals still in that res? Will we then be able to bring the film back up to 4K if we lucked out and got some sort of deal with a platform that wanted this?

Once again, thank you for the reply.

Aus
 
No... he will edit in 1080 and when the movie is done, with all the adjustments layer and sound in place replace the 1080 with the 4K footage and do a 5 or 7 days render of the movie. If you edit 4K on a slow computer the calculating time of will take to long... on my pc...I make a cut or I move a 4K clip and it takes my computer 20 or more seconds to do it..... That's incredibly ineffective. Its the fastest way he can edit... for a low budget movie he might be the best. What is the financial deal you made with him? Are you gonna pay him in day's or for the entire product? Is he a beginner or a long time veteran?
 
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Thank you again for replying, mate.

She is a film school grad. Has edited two ten minute shorts, but this will be her first feature.

That makes a lot of sense, and I know she won't have the capabilities to edit in 4k, so 1080 will be the go.

Thanks again, mate, really appreciate it.

Aus
 
transpose

It's transcode. Now you know what it's actually called, you can google it.

which will then mean we will have to re-edit - with a professional editor at a later date - if we want to get the footage back to 4K.

Incorrect.

Is it a matter of finding someone with a hard drive that can handle all that footage in 4k?

No, however, you do need to find an editor who knows what they're doing. An editor who won't bullshit you, either intentionally or through ignorance. It's not a good way to start a working relationship. If they've got something as simple as this wrong, what makes you think you can trust them to do a good job with your film and/or have your best interests in mind.

Short explanation of what usually happens, you get the original footage, transcode to whatever codec/resolution/quality you need to edit. You then edit the film. When you're ready to export the final version, you relink back to the original media and export at your desired resolution.
 
Short explanation of what usually happens, you get the original footage, transcode to whatever codec/resolution/quality you need to edit. You then edit the film. When you're ready to export the final version, you relink back to the original media and export at your desired resolution.

Exactly...:yes: but about the transpose mistake.. we don't know if she or he is the one that made the mistake. Sounds like both of them are a bit green.... there is noting wrong with that. The most important thing is that you find people that have integrity and can do the job... if the 2 first shorts are good than that gives a good Idea about somebody skills.... a different problem can be time. Does she have the time to work on a Low budget movie? We al have to eat and have a room above our heads. Filmmakers must sometimes delay the low-budget passion to do work that we need to do to make a living.
 
Speaking of terms to Google, the process of creating lower resolution files and then relinking to higher resolution files for the final export is called a proxy workflow. Many NLEs have some sort of support/toolset for doing it pain-free.
 
Another term that might help is "offline" and "online". When I made the jump to HD 7 years ago, my then 10 year old computer couldn't handle the footage. Did some research and learned that nobody in Hollywood was cutting full rez footage, they would use offlines/proxies. Because I was doing a feature, I ended up downrezing all the footage to 240p for the offline edit (but these days I see no reason to go below 720p at the smallest). As long as the proxy/offline filenames match up to the source footage, doing the conform or swapping them out is really pretty easy.

Even today I do this. I shoot in 4K, create DNxHD36 media for Avid, Cut in Avid, then bring the edit into Resolve via XML. As long as I import the 4K media into Resolve before bringing over my edit from Avid, everything links up automatically.
 
Another term that might help is "offline" and "online". When I made the jump to HD 7 years ago, my then 10 year old computer couldn't handle the footage. Did some research and learned that nobody in Hollywood was cutting full rez footage, they would use offlines/proxies. Because I was doing a feature, I ended up downrezing all the footage to 240p for the offline edit (but these days I see no reason to go below 720p at the smallest). As long as the proxy/offline filenames match up to the source footage, doing the conform or swapping them out is really pretty easy.

Even today I do this. I shoot in 4K, create DNxHD36 media for Avid, Cut in Avid, then bring the edit into Resolve via XML. As long as I import the 4K media into Resolve before bringing over my edit from Avid, everything links up automatically.

Cool I did not know that was even possible.
 
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