Monsters Workflow

Over half of the movie has been shot now and I have a load of great footage from a lot of different cameras. The a-cam was a Red MX but we also carefully shot on 5Ds, 7Ds and an EX1. And to add to that list, all the sound is dual system meaning it was recorded onto a separate recorder.

To deal with sound, Tim Dutton synced timecode as time of day with the Red and if another camera was running, shot a plate of the slate running for several seconds as well. At first I was looking at editing completely inside Premiere Pro CS5 to take advantage of the Mercury engine and its ability to work with almost anything in realtime inside a single timeline. The tests were great but the thing that still is a big bother with Premiere is its a pain to deal with dual system sound. Also, I might get to work with an editor and he's mainly a FCP guy. I batted around a number of ideas on getting a workflow that really protected the footage and transcoding was not really an option for me.

I've had Cineform for a long time and have had a love-hate relationship with it for years. I've used it on a number of other jobs but never really found a great way to take advantage of it. They've added major updates over the last year including a program called Firstlight. What Firstlight will give you is the ability to grade nondestructively a first look onto your footage. You can also load in .look files from Iradas Speedgrade. I'm trying out the trial for that right now. It's an amazing little program.

After testing tonight and seeing how Cineform is able to virtually rebuild the crappy h264 movs from the 5D and 7D and also closely protect the RAW data in RED files, I think I'm settled on a workflow. So here it is:

CONVERT
All footage will be converted into Cineform 444 and 422 DI files. From there I can build a Firstlight database and apply a LUT and basic grade to all the footage to give it an initial look. The active metadata inside each file applies the look in realtime. From there, I can ship the footage over onto the Mac and convert it into Prores files for editing. The look will bake into the files. Pretty cool to be able to edit with something like the final grade applied.

EDIT
In FCP, I can sync sound with Pluraleyes and replace the audio tracks quickly. Then the fun can start with actually making the movie. Once its done, I can ship out an XML file and copy the Prores files over to my PC to online in Premiere. From here I can reconform the footage back to the Cineform files. I can also link back up to the native Red files too if need be - and most likely will. Audio can ship out of FCP to go for finishing, scoring and sound effects.

CONFORM
In Premiere, I can now relink everything and also go into Firstlight to disable the LUT applied but I can also do a first pass on color to get everything looking even and flatten out any contrasting footage. Sequences can also have any overlays and transitions added here. I can then disable those transitions and leave just the straight cuts for color grading. I'll then render out separate sequences for each scene into DPX sequences.

GRADING
I'm a huge fan of Color. I think its a great app that has a lot of power in it that people miss. Testing some DPX sequences in there last night, I really found some new tricks I didn't realize existed when working with 5D/7D footage in particular. You actually gain a lot more finite control over the files and don't introduce loads of noise when pushing them around. Final grades will be rendered out in Prores 444 and final assembly can then trip back to FCP and/or Premiere for final finishing.



These stills here are directly out of Iradas Speedgrade. The looks can be exported and brought into Firstlight and applied in realtime. There's a little craziness happening in the jeans of the 2nd shot but in final color, something like that would be controlled.

Format Considerations for Acquisition

Now that's a boring topic, huh? I thought it would be a good one to lead off with. What I want to take a minute and discuss is how I approach what camera and format to shoot on going into production and how that effects the end deliverable. There's a ton of this info out there already but I figure it's worth my chiming in. I'll keep it short and make it a little more like a checklist.

WHO'S THE CLIENT?
This is the first question that comes to mind to me. You need to understand what kind of expectations already exist for who you're working for. They may have an end deliverable. For instance, Sony Music requires a 1080p high quality (422 color or higher) deliverable. Other clients might not have a master deliverable requirement but they may have been working with productions for years. If this is that case, seeing productions suddenly scale back to tiny cameras and crews might be scary. A new client, in need of eduction can at times be one of the easiest to work with if you start out the conversation correctly and coach them through how you're giving them a high quality for very little footprint.

SHOT REQUIREMENTS
Are you shooting slow-mo? Is your deliverable that high quality 1080p master? Then don't shoot that slow-mo off a 7D, EX3 or something that shoots 720p. You need to to acquire higher res, most likely RED or now Alexa or if you can afford it, Phantom. do you need to hang off a crane? What weight requirements do you have? Do you have shots that require unique views (i.e. worms eye view from inside a hole) - might go 5D on a remote.

STYLE REQUIREMENTS
Style is similar to shots but for me includes the overall look of the production. Are you going for more of a reality feel? You can shoot with something like a HVX or EX1 with its native zoom and feel good about it. Shooting for a more filmic look? Shoot as high quality as you can and in that case, take into consideration what kind of glass you can work with. One example might be RED with a good set of Cookes is a whole different look than shooting 5D with a set of L-series glass on the front.

VFX
Are you doing a lot of VFX work in post? How about a couple DO NOTS... DO NOT shoot with a camera with bad rolling shutter and cause it to show up (5D and 7D users). Do not shoot with high contrast shots that blow out or underexpose. Shoot with a camera with more latitude (RED, Alexa). Shooting for motion tracking? Use a camera with a clean codec that doesn't block easily.

LIGHTING and LOCATION
Where do you have to shoot? What time of the day? If you're shooting at night and have a somewhat limited budget, pick a more sensitive camera like a 5D or 1D. Pick a RED MX over the original RED for night, you'll drop your lighting package considerably.

TALENT
Who are you shooting? If it's a celebrity, put together a good package. You''ll be spending on everything else around them anyway. Acquire in as high a quality as you can.

TIME
One of the most important. How much time do you have on the shoot? RED is not fast, XDCAM is very fast. Do you have a limited window? Maybe you need to shoot multiple cameras with a limited budget, picking something like XDCAMs will drop your need for needing ACs for each camera.

What kind of time do you have in post? It's amazing what you can really do with the 5D's codec and especially the XDCAM codex as limited of a color space they have. But with enough time and layering, you can get a really filmic look out of them with color correction. RED will get you there faster and better in post. Time and deliverable are important here. If you have a really tight deadline, shooting 5D rather than EX1 would be an issue as you have a ton of sync sound to process. What are your storage requirements? Think post through before you shoot. Its very important.

Those are a few of the questions I go through on each production and finding the proper balance. No single camera is going to be ideal in every circumstance. Think it through, weigh your budget requirements, get creative.

Elevate featured by Newtek at Siggraph

I'm excited to have the opportunity to have the Red video featured at Siggraph at the Lightwave3D booth. They also just posted it in their newsletter here.

I'm a big advocate of Lightwave as its been a very powerful program when needing to work small and fast. I do the vast majority of my own 3D work much of the time and Lightwave has always been able to let me do what I want. I think in part because it's so flexible and there is a lot of hidden power that most have no idea is there. Find out more about Lightwave at www.lightwave3d.com

Red - Ordinary World is released

The Ordinary World released this week on iTunes and climbed into the top25 on the music video charts! It released on their site today with a Behind the Scenes video as well. Exciting to see what this video is doing. I'll continue to add links here as they come. Links below.

Redmusiconline.com
iTunes
Youtube VEVO


CREDITS:
Project: Ordinary World
Band: Red
Label: Sony PMG

Producer and Co-creator: John Zappin (AKA - John Reuben)
Director and Co-creator: Jeremy Hughes
DP: Al Laus
Gaffer: Howard Newstate
AC and Red Package: TJ Helmuth
Studio: NuMynd Studios - Nashville
VFX: Kelly "Kat" Meyers, Shawn Dorsey, Jeremy Hughes

Red is coming

It's almost out and I can't wait! 3 months of grueling work on this project.

Project: Ordinary World
Band: Red
Label: Sony PMG

Producer and Co-creator: John Zappin (AKA - John Reuben)
Director and Co-creator: Jeremy Hughes
DP: Al Laus
Gaffer: Howard Newstate
AC and Red Package: TJ Helmuth
Studio: NuMynd Studios - Nashville
VFX: Kelly "Kat" Meyers, Shawn Dorsey, Jeremy Hughes

Red update

We're heading into the last leg for finishing up the Red video. There is still a lot to do but it's exciting to see the buzz the video is getting. It's been a blast turning this thing around in post, grueling but a blast. I've been tackling this project as a challenge with the tight deadline with the level of effects we're delivering. Two other guys have stepped on to help me out and have been huge in pushing this project along. Those would be Shawn Dorsey and Kelly (Kat) Myers. We've had a great, tight little crew that has helped out in so many ways along the way and when this is all over, I'll be sure to give props to each one.

But since I'm in post world right now, I just wanted to give a quick rundown of the tools that have been being put to work on this thing. Its a bit of throwing the kitchen sink at it since people aren't an option. I will say these tools work together so well though, I've had very few hangups so far and none of which has been major.

Editing - Premiere Pro with Cineform
Online/offline and assembly - After Effects
Lightwave 3D & messiahStudio
Eyeon Fusion
PFHoe for 3d tracking
ZBrush
3D Coat
E-On Vue
Skype has been great for collaboration as we're all over the place

Look forward to hopefully a lot of breakdowns and info on how this whole project flowed start to finish with a small budget and 7 weeks start to finish after we wrap up and deliver.