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Postproduction guidance - beginner


Patricia Dauder

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Hi,

 

I'm looking for a book/guide/pdf file, up to date with postproduction technology, I can read to get acquainted with postpo workflow nowadays.

 

I make 16/S16mm films (indie -very low budgets) every now and then and would like to know the process well to get the best results when working with editors and labs, specially when it comes to digital transfers, scanning, etc.

 

Years ago I bought Film Technology in Post Production by Dominic Case. Great book. It helped me to understand how things work in the lab but I guess it's a bit out of date now

 

Any recommendation?

 

I'm also trying to find out which editing program I can start working with that is not too complicated for a beginner . The editor I work with usually recommended me Da Vinci Resolve (I had been working with Final Cut up to now)  because I need to work a bit on the editing before I start the final edition with him (won't do any color grading myself,)

 

Thanks!

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2 hours ago, Patricia Dauder said:

I'm also trying to find out which editing program I can start working with that is not too complicated for a beginner . The editor I work with usually recommended me Da Vinci Resolve (I had been working with Final Cut up to now)  because I need to work a bit on the editing before I start the final edition with him (won't do any color grading myself,)

If your Final Cut experience is with version 7 or earlier, Resolve is the closest to that of all the available software. It's free, and ubiquitous now, so it's worth knowing. It's a very capable editor, as well as an excellent color correction tool.

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2 hours ago, Patricia Dauder said:

I'm also trying to find out which editing program I can start working with that is not too complicated for a beginner . The editor I work with usually recommended me Da Vinci Resolve (I had been working with Final Cut up to now)  because I need to work a bit on the editing before I start the final edition with him (won't do any color grading myself,)

As a professional filmmaker who has cut several pretty large features on Resolve, it works great. I use it 100% of the time and it's probably the best over-all tool on the market today. Other tools require the use of several programs to get it all done OR are much more money. 

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1 hour ago, Tyler Purcell said:

As a professional filmmaker who has cut several pretty large features on Resolve, it works great. I use it 100% of the time and it's probably the best over-all tool on the market today. Other tools require the use of several programs to get it all done OR are much more money. 

 

1 hour ago, Perry Paolantonio said:

If your Final Cut experience is with version 7 or earlier, Resolve is the closest to that of all the available software. It's free, and ubiquitous now, so it's worth knowing. It's a very capable editor, as well as an excellent color correction tool.

Thanks both! I'll definetely go for Resolve. I had the doubt wether it was a program only for color grading but I see It's the best choice for editing.

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Patricia,

 

I would advise to spend some time to get familiar with Resolve, I recommend the Ripple training available on their website. You will learn ten times faster than just reading the Resolve manual (over 4000 pages).

DaVinci Resolve 18 Core training is a good starting point.

 

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1 hour ago, Dirk DeJonghe said:

Patricia,

 

I would advise to spend some time to get familiar with Resolve, I recommend the Ripple training available on their website. You will learn ten times faster than just reading the Resolve manual (over 4000 pages).

DaVinci Resolve 18 Core training is a good starting point.

 

Thanks a lot Dirk for the advice. Did not heard about this training but I'll check the website. And as soon as get Resolve installed in my computer (by next week) I will start spending time on it.

Groetjes!

 

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You do need an up-to-date machine as Resolve is demanding on resources- it wouldn't run on my Windows 7 all-in-one. Just a thought.

I'm sure any machine from the past couple of years will be fine but if not, Lightworks is also free with the limitation that the free version will only output SD, but you can take a 1-month subscription just for the render.

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On 12/18/2022 at 6:48 PM, Mark Dunn said:

You do need an up-to-date machine as Resolve is demanding on resources- it wouldn't run on my Windows 7 all-in-one. Just a thought.

I'm sure any machine from the past couple of years will be fine but if not, Lightworks is also free with the limitation that the free version will only output SD, but you can take a 1-month subscription just for the render.

That's true. Resolve is not running on my Mac os High Sierra 10.13.6. So I need to update the system.

Thanks Marc!

 

 

 

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4 hours ago, Patricia Dauder said:

That's true. Resolve is not running on my Mac os High Sierra 10.13.6. So I need to update the system.

Thanks Marc!

 

 

 

...........or you could try Lightworks, which runs perfectly on my old machine! With, as I said, the render limitation.

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On 12/23/2022 at 7:38 AM, Patricia Dauder said:

That's true. Resolve is not running on my Mac os High Sierra 10.13.6. So I need to update the system.

Thanks Marc!

 

 

 

The hardware is most important part. It is easy to upgrade the OS. What are your computer's specs, especially the graphics card? I left Final Cut Pro when they switched to FCP X, i love resolve it does it all, even the free version. But FCP X runs very well on a lesser powered Mac.  Something to consider.

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Hi Patricia!

When shooting on film, make sure that you have a good lightmeter, and try to do every shot in camera. " i fix it on post "
Attitude dont take you anywhere, nada. davinci is great, and ask Mutascan, Helsinki, Finland, ask them if they can lower scanning price,  cos you are going to make you first film on film. They are very, very good place to developping and scan. In Europe.
Happy new year and good luck on you project.

Harri

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I should add that the steep hardware requirement is for Resolve. However, if you have a newer Apple Silicon chip inside of your computer, then the requirements are much less. I don't have one yet, will soon, but even an entry level M1 mac can run at least the free version well enough for editing. I also work mostly with S16 film originated material and went from FCP7  to Resolve but always had a 12 core mac pro with 2 graphics cards. 

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Not necessarily. I put Resolve on a 7-year-old Windows PC recently and it's fine. It'll even just about cut 4K, although it's probably a better idea to use the built-in proxy stuff at that point.

We are beyond the point where basic post needs huge hardware.

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On a Mac it does matter except for the new apple silicon.  have tried it on a 2012 Macbook Pro i5 2.5 with 16gigs o ram and it crashes. Even for windows there is minimum requirements. OP needs it for basic editing so, there is some wiggle room there, but as I said before, on a modest mac FCP X is plenty fast. 

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  • 3 months later...
On 12/16/2022 at 5:34 PM, Dirk DeJonghe said:

Patricia,

 

I would advise to spend some time to get familiar with Resolve, I recommend the Ripple training available on their website. You will learn ten times faster than just reading the Resolve manual (over 4000 pages).

DaVinci Resolve 18 Core training is a good starting point.

 

Apart from that 4000 page manual (you need lots of courage for that as a starter...) there are also some much more friendly training books on  https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/davinciresolve/training  .

Download is free and you get all media material with it to start working with Resolve immediately. The books are a beginner's guide, and then more detailed guides for editing, audio, color correction and visual effects. I think they are pure fun! 

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