Short Film Pipeline

[_Rok_]

Hi there,

Can someone confirm whether my Final Cut Pro 7 workflow is on the right path? I've been reading the FCP manual (and a 3rd party book) but neither address my situation specifically.

Photography was completed about a month ago, and this is the media I am dealing with:

Video:
- Ninja 2 ProRes HQ (90% of the footage) (camera: Canon 5D mk3)
- CF card from 5D (10% of the footage) (camera: Canon 5D mk3)

Audio:
48kHz WAV files from professional sound mixer.

I'll be editing on a 2009 13" laptop MacBook Pro and I'm not confident that it can handle the ProResHQ files so I believe I need to do an off-line edit in ProResLT, and then switch back to HQ for final output.

Workflow:
1) Transcode ProResHQ to ProResLT in Compressor (maintain file names).
2) Transcode CF Card media to ProResLT in Compressor (maintain filenames).
3) Import ProResLT video into FCP (separate bins for each scene).
4) Import audio files in to FCP & sort into appropriate bins as ProRes LT video.
5) Sync production audio to video and MERGE CLIPS.
6) Use merged clips to edit the film.
7) When edit is complete, I'll take the LT files offline and then reconnect the media to the HQ footage for final output.

I'm still pretty blurry on how to interface with a Sound Designer and Composer, so for now, I want to make sure I don't do anything that breaks the basic conventions used by those departments.

I'm afraid to jump into the edit because I don't want to use a flawed approach that I pay for several months down the road.

Thanks for your help.

Thomas

 

[_Rok_]

I'm hammering through my manuals but I'll take any feedback I can get, even short notes like:

"Yup, that's how it's done, You're on the right track"
"Looks good to me"
"You can't go any further until you hire a XXXX"
"This is terrible"

 

[ItDonnedOnMe]

That sounds right - it's pretty much my standard workflow except I don't usually do the offline thing. Are you sure LT will work better than HQ? The primary difference is just data rate as far as I'm aware, so it's drive speed that matters more than processor. ProRes Proxy is the lower res version which definitely easier on CPU utilization, but I'd be surprised if the laptop can't play back HQ from a fast enough drive - my 2009 17" certainly can.

 

[Alcove Audio]

I don't know about other audio post people, but I like ALL the audio - yes, even the camera audio. It's an easy way to check sync.

Does Merge Audio function completely remove the camera audio or just mute it?

 

[_Rok_]

The camera audio is preserved. Merge Clips creates a clip that references several different source files so you can treat them as one on the timeline.

 

[Alcove Audio]

The camera audio is preserved. Merge Clips creates a clip that references several different source files so you can treat them as one on the timeline.

Gotcha.

 

[jax_rox]

Sounds about right - you might add in there:

-Edit film
-Lock off edit
-Export XML to colourist
-Send HQ files to colourist

Or:
-Edit film
-Lock off edit
-Export XML to Resolve
-Import HQ files to Resolve
-Import XML to Resolve
-Resolve assembles edit
-Grade
-Export

 

[_Rok_]

ItDonnedOnMe,

I did several tests and compared CPU & Memory usage needed for FCP7 to simply play each file format in the timeline. Each file was tested independently on its own timeline, and I allowed FCP to optimize the sequence settings to accommodate each file as I added them. As each file played, I noted the average results in iStat Pro. I'm not a systems expert but the results were informative:


Format | CPU % | FCP RAM

ProResHQ | 45% | 734MB
(Ninja2)

H.264 | 60% | 600MB
(Camera CF)

ProResLT | 32% | 695MB
(Transcoded in Compressor)

ProResPROXY | 28% | 660MB
(Transcoded in Compressor)


I will be transcoding everything into ProResLT, doing an offline edit. When the cut us locked, I'll reconnect the Ninja's HQ footage to the sequence, and leave the CF footage as LT.


I think my laptop might handle editing directly on the HQ footage, but once I get several layers stacked in the timeline, I can pretty sure I'm going to run into CPU & transfer rate issues with my HD.

Again, if anyone has a suggestion, question, or opinion that provokes further study on my approach, I'm all ears.

Thanks!


Thomas

 

[ItDonnedOnMe]

So there is certainly a difference in CPU usage, I didn't realize that. It's not huge and both are within the capabilities of your system but you're right that multiple streams could likely be an issue with HQ.

That's why I was thinking ProRes proxy might make more sense for your offline. I was curious so I just ran a quick test similar to yours, this is what I got:

HQ: ~80%
422: ~70%
LT: ~60%
Proxy: ~30%

This was on my quad core 15" - not sure why the numbers were so much higher than yours, were you playing a shot with much motion in it? My shot was handheld, fairly stable but the entire frame is moving throughout.

In any case, I think if you're going to go to the trouble of doing an offline you might as well use Proxy and get the benefit of half the file size/data rate (vs. LT) and what looks like possibly half the CPU utilization as well. It also encoded much faster in MPEG streamclip.

Oh, and one other thing regarding offlining with merged clips - make sure all of your audio files have absolutely unique names. I ran into problems with this using an H4n, which will reset it's file names when you clear a card. Ended up with matching file names across two different days and caused all kinds of trouble reconnecting later - I ended up having to go through and manually change file names in the xml. I would assume the same is true for video files as well, just never ran into it myself.

 

[_Rok_]

My ambition has crashed head-long into the learning curve.

I never bothered to test the Proxy CODEC, I simply assumed it would look terrible (how wrong I was). This is absolutely a serviceable codec to cut with. Who knows, it might even yield an acceptable result for some simple green screen pulls for VFX turnover. Otherwise, I can drag the HQ material into Nuke and do something better there.

BTW, the footage I tested was very simple and relatively little action in the frame (actor walks past camera, camera pans, actor walks into distance).

Thanks for the tips. I'm feeling less 'alone'.



Thomas

 

[ItDonnedOnMe]

Glad to help out, I actually dismissed Proxy for a long time - when it first was implemented I think it only ran at half-res or something, in any case the picture quality was terrible. So after testing it back then I just completely ignored it only to realize just last year that it was dramatically better now.

I'm not sure I'd go as far as to try using it for anything like green screen, but for basic cutting it's great, especially on the go - you can fit over 50 hours on a cheap 1TB portable drive and edit right from it.

 

[_Rok_]

Hi Jax,

We went with your suggestion to use Resolve. Although I'm not doing the grading myself, I have a couple questions about the Resolve workflow. Do I need to round trip my project back into FCP7 in order to:

1) Drop in the final audio from the sound editor?
2) Output different resolutions & codecs for various distribution formats (Festival projection, DVD, Blu-ray, YouTube, Vimeo ...).

Or is Resolve my last stop for my film before export/distribution?

Last Question: Near the bottom of THIS PAGE (under SUPPORTED VIDEO FORMATS) I see "UHD Limit" listed several times. What does this mean? My film is 15 minute short is 1080p ProRes HQ, am I okay with the free version of Resolve, or is there a gotcha?

Thanks,

Thomas

Sounds about right - you might add in there:

-Edit film
-Lock off edit
-Export XML to colourist
-Send HQ files to colourist

Or:
-Edit film
-Lock off edit
-Export XML to Resolve
-Import HQ files to Resolve
-Import XML to Resolve
-Resolve assembles edit
-Grade
-Export

 

[jax_rox]

Hi Jax,

We went with your suggestion to use Resolve. Although I'm not doing the grading myself, I have a couple questions about the Resolve workflow. Do I need to round trip my project back into FCP7 in order to:

1) Drop in the final audio from the sound editor?
2) Output different resolutions & codecs for various distribution formats (Festival projection, DVD, Blu-ray, YouTube, Vimeo ...).

Or is Resolve my last stop for my film before export/distribution?

Last Question: Near the bottom of THIS PAGE (under SUPPORTED VIDEO FORMATS) I see "UHD Limit" listed several times. What does this mean? My film is 15 minute short is 1080p ProRes HQ, am I okay with the free version of Resolve, or is there a gotcha?

Thanks,

Thomas

You shouldn't need to round-trip, but it depends how far along you are in the edit process. Traditionally, Resolve (or online software) would be the last step and you would finish in that. Realistically, either way works, depending on what you prefer.

Keep in mind that for an XML export to Resolve, assuming you'll be finishing in Resolve, titles and all Video effects must be baked in to the clip itself, and the clips brought in as part of the ingest. This shouldn't be too much of an issue, though, if it is indeed your final step.

You should be able to drop the final audio into Resolve (I've never tried it myself). You should be able to preserve audio files in your XML import, if you drop your final audio into FCP before you do your XML export, then make sure you ingest the audio file into Resolve, you shouldn't run into much issue - I've never done it before, though, so you might want to test for yourself.

Resolve's output dialog is great, and you'll be able to export a .dpx master, ProRes master, H.264 for YouTube etc. all out of the one batch dialog.

In specific regards to DVD .m2t files and JPEG2000 for DCP packages, I'm not 100% sure about the specific workflow out of Resolve; you may need to use something like Compressor or Squeeze for the .m2t's at least. Might be worth doing some tests.. I'm not currently at my home computer so I can't test it for myself.

In Davinci Lite, your maximum output limitation is 1080p, which is what the UHD limit refers to. You can ingest 4k, 5k, 6k etc. footage, but your maximum output is limited to 1080p. In the 'real' versions of Resolve, you can output at 2k, 4k etc.
As you're workign with 1080p source and export, I can't foresee any issues.

 

[_Rok_]

Right on, thanks.

In terms of cutting, I'm in the final 0.5% (some VFX still in the hopper).
In terms of that final 0.5% ... it's been incredibly difficult to wrap this project ... much respect to those who've completed their own films.


Thomas

 

[gorillaonabike]

Right on, thanks.

In terms of cutting, I'm in the final 0.5% (some VFX still in the hopper).
In terms of that final 0.5% ... it's been incredibly difficult to wrap this project ... much respect to those who've completed their own films.


Thomas

I feel like such a technical noob when I read this stuff. I simply push the log and transfer button and leave FCP 7.03 to do everything. The only time I touch the import is when I need to change the fps on a multi-cam shoot.