10 bit or 8 bit master file

[Nigel Smith]

Hi

A post house recently did a grade on a project I am involved with, shot on Red One MX at 2K 16:9 25fps.

The project will be finished at 1080/25P, and then downconverted onto Digibeta.

The graded footage came back as uncompressed HD, rather than DNxHD185x as requested.

Do you think we have lost anything getting an 8 bit rather than 10 bit file of the master?

1024 - 256 seems like a big step down, but I was assured that the difference wouldn't be noticeable on Digibeta.

Any opinions or advice appreciated - I'm still learning about post workflows.

Nigel

[Phil Rhodes]

If you aren't going to grade it any further, I'm not sure it'd be visible.

 

Bear in mind that just because something is "Uncompressed HD" that doesn't preclude its also being 10-bit.

 

P

[Paul Bartok]

can I ask why are you finishing onto a Digibeta,

Edited December 14, 2011 by Paul Bartok

[Nigel Smith]

The 1:1 HD was in this case 8 bit - I phoned to check as it is a different Avid import option for 10 bit - 1:1x.

 

We are finishing to Digibeta as the only affordable option for festival screenings. We screen the finished films at BAFTA every year for example, and can't afford to hire HDCAM decks for mastering and then again every time we screen the films. BAFTA's screening theatre, almost all festivals and many other cinemas [eg Curzon chain] have Digibeta decks installed.

To be honest the films look great at BAFTA, so long as you are not inthe front 4 rows, but then that's true of most cinemas for me!

 

One more point - TBH I feel that RED 2K makes excellent SD, but slightly soft HD.

 

I wish we could afford DCP, but I think it is too expensive still at the moment.

I do however make a DNxHD185x digital file for archiving - so that rich students can pay to have this put on to HDCAM or DCP'ed.

 

Thanks for the comments :)