Jump to content

Advice on coming up with a post workflow?


brandon kaufman

Recommended Posts

Hey!

I'm wondering if someone could give me some advice on figuring out how to go about post for a short film I wrote, directed, and am editing. A little context: it's in 5k and the files are .r3d. My computer's a little bit slow when I've used DaVinci in the past. Here are some specs:

2.3 GHz Dual-Core Intel Core i5

8 GB 2133 MHz LPDDR3

Intel Iris Plus Graphics 640 1536 MB

I'm not particularly well-versed in technical minutiae, but I don't believe that's ideal for the kind of onerous files I'll be dealing with.

There's a good editing suite near where I live, but that costs pretty expensive, and the budget's already very tight. Does it make sense to render / convert the files there and edit them at home, using my free version of Da Vinci? Alternatively I could render/convert and buy DaVinci pro, since the cost would be roughly the same for a single day of editing. But if it seems like it's necessary for the sake of the project, I'd definitely be willing to go over the budget and edit in a professional grade facility.

Excited to hear thoughts / can answer any follow up questions!

Thank you so much....

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Premium Member

That's a fairly basic machine, particularly since it doesn't have a real GPU, but if you have proven you can throw a basic timeline together in Resolve then you can probably do what you need to do. Render time may not matter much as it can happen while you sleep!

Really the way to do this is to work backward from what you want to end up with, exactly like you would if you had to deliver a big TV show to Netflix. If you need to deliver an HD result, convert your r3ds to some sort of intermediate format at HD resolution (prores springs to mind) ideally with a log encoding, then edit and grade that.

What are you aiming to end up with here?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

13 minutes ago, Phil Rhodes said:

That's a fairly basic machine, particularly since it doesn't have a real GPU, but if you have proven you can throw a basic timeline together in Resolve then you can probably do what you need to do. Render time may not matter much as it can happen while you sleep!

Really the way to do this is to work backward from what you want to end up with, exactly like you would if you had to deliver a big TV show to Netflix. If you need to deliver an HD result, convert your r3ds to some sort of intermediate format at HD resolution (prores springs to mind) ideally with a log encoding, then edit and grade that.

What are you aiming to end up with here?

That makes sense! Very much appreciate that. Also not sure if this is unhelpful but I'm looking to end up with a 5K cut for the colour grader.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 minutes ago, Phil Rhodes said:

And you've tried just throwing your 5K R3Ds on a timeline and cutting them, with the resolution wound down?

 I have not, but I tried editing a previous project in 4K on my computer and the frame rate was, like, 1. I did not, however, render proxies that time.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Premium Member

I'm sorry to say, but you will need to invest in a new computer no matter what. Transcoding your entire show and using a proxy file to edit is smart, but renting the facility doesn't seem worth it. Apple is going to be releasing a new M1X Mac mini in November, which will be pretty kickass and burn through those .R3D (red code) like it's nothing. You don't need the "pro" version, it doesn't offer anything important until you're ready to do finishing and need noise reduction and DCI 4k resolution. Otherwise, just cut it in 1080p and when you're ready to export the final, up the resolution to 4k for the final output and you should be good to go. 

But yes, you will need a better computer no matter what. Resolve will not run well enough with that system you currently have. I struggle on my MUCH newer system with a real GPU. 

Edited by Tyler Purcell
Link to comment
Share on other sites

8 hours ago, Tyler Purcell said:

I'm sorry to say, but you will need to invest in a new computer no matter what. Transcoding your entire show and using a proxy file to edit is smart, but renting the facility doesn't seem worth it. Apple is going to be releasing a new M1X Mac mini in November, which will be pretty kickass and burn through those .R3D (red code) like it's nothing. You don't need the "pro" version, it doesn't offer anything important until you're ready to do finishing and need noise reduction and DCI 4k resolution. Otherwise, just cut it in 1080p and when you're ready to export the final, up the resolution to 4k for the final output and you should be good to go. 

But yes, you will need a better computer no matter what. Resolve will not run well enough with that system you currently have. I struggle on my MUCH newer system with a real GPU. 

Thanks so much for this reply! Just one point of clarification. Do you mean I will need a better computer no matter what going forward? Or to be able to cut it in 1080p?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I hate to join the "new computer" chorus but a dual core with 8gb of ram is extremely underspeced for just about any workflow, much less a RAW workflow. But yes, you should absolutely do a proxy workflow. It may take a while (days?) to render it all, but once you've done that you can always rent a system or even just find a friend with a more powerful system and do an online later prior to doing color.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Premium Member
8 hours ago, brandon kaufman said:

Thanks so much for this reply! Just one point of clarification. Do you mean I will need a better computer no matter what going forward? Or to be able to cut it in 1080p?

Yes, because you will need to add effects to it up the road and you'll be stuck to using render cache, which is annoying. For realtime playback, you'll need something a bit more than what you got, even for 1080p. Also, who is doing to do the online? 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

6 minutes ago, Tyler Purcell said:

Yes, because you will need to add effects to it up the road and you'll be stuck to using render cache, which is annoying. For realtime playback, you'll need something a bit more than what you got, even for 1080p. Also, who is doing to do the online? 

In that case maybe it makes sense to just hire an editor—thankfully I have some friends who do that! Maybe it's beyond my technical knowledge/skills/infrastructure at this moment in time...

Again though, thanks so much for taking the time to help out!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...