Need help making a decision on which Thunderbolt External HD to purchase as a Master editing drive

[Andy Lam]

I'm going to be shooting a ~20 minute short narrative in May completely in RAW and I currently edit

on a USB 3.0 external and get choppy playback with Black Magic Pocket Camera RAW. I am hoping a Thunderbolt drive will improve this and make playback smoother, but can't afford a RAID TB drive.

 

I was wondering which of these drives would you guys suggest?

 

G-Drive 3TB

 

http://www.amazon.com/G-Technology-Thunderbolt-Professional-Strength-External-0G03124/dp/B00HQXUG2Q/ref=sr_1_4?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1396751461&sr=1-4&keywords=thunderbolt+external+hard+drive

 

LaCie 3TB

 

http://www.amazon.com/LaCie-Thunderbolt-External-Drive-9000353/dp/B00AJJIUKO/ref=sr_1_3?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1396751887&sr=1-3&keywords=lacie+thunderbolt

 

My budget is about 300 and I plan to get the Seagate 2 yr data recovery just in case, but I'd rather avoid the headaches of having to go through that process.

 

 

Thanks!

[Brian Drysdale]

What sort of editing and computer set up have you got? I'm just wondering if you may be better editing with proxies and then doing an online with say Resolve.

[Andy Lam]

My computer is a 15" rMBP with 16GB RAM and NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M 1024 MB.

 

I'll be editing with Premiere Pro and will probably try a light grade on Resolve, but am likely going to seek out a colorist to really take advantage of capturing RAW.

 

That was actually the workflow I planned on, but I'm afraid the sheer volume of footage that needs to be imported into Resolve and back out into a ProRes proxy might be troublesome.

 

I should also ask, if I cut up the proxies, then transfer the edited ungraded cut back to Resolve and I intend to then hand it off to a colorist. When do I sync the audio I recorded externally? Should I do this before grading during its first trip in Premiere or after I received the footage back from the colorist?

[Brian Drysdale]

I'm sure someone knows better than I do how well Premiere Pro can handle RAW, personally I'd go for proxies. Unless you've got a huge shooting ratio, you shouldn't have that much material on a 20 min project.

 

I'd sync up the sound at the stage after I'd imported the picture files for the actual edit. The colourist usually comes in after the picture lock, so they can work on Resolve or similar with the full RAW files, you can apply an approximate overall LUT for the editing files..

[Alexandre de Tolan]

Proxies is definitely the way to go for RAW files, even if they are compressed like the ones from the BM Pocket camera.

 

Apply a workable LUT if you want to edit with a relatively finished or contrasty look (but you can also bypass this stage if you don't mind editing with such a flat and sometimes color casted footage.

 

Sync your sound within your NLE of choice. Make your edit and roundtrip to Resolve. It will recognise your syncing sound and will export it to your finished project from the original RAW files.

 

If you are delivering your project to a colourist you should be fine exporting a XML file from your NLE.

[Andy Lam]

Proxies is definitely the way to go for RAW files, even if they are compressed like the ones from the BM Pocket camera.

 

Apply a workable LUT if you want to edit with a relatively finished or contrasty look (but you can also bypass this stage if you don't mind editing with such a flat and sometimes color casted footage.

 

Sync your sound within your NLE of choice. Make your edit and roundtrip to Resolve. It will recognise your syncing sound and will export it to your finished project from the original RAW files.

 

If you are delivering your project to a colourist you should be fine exporting a XML file from your NLE.

Thanks for the advice, does it matter what quality the proxy is as long as I roundtrip it back to Resolve?