Over at Digital Content Producer there is an article about a music video production shot on the RED Digital Cinema Camera. They highlight a workflow problem they have with the camera. They list things that didn’t work, and problems that they had, which really boil down to one thing: They didn’t have post worked out before they shot. They didn’t know how to make post work on the RED. It’s not hard. It’s not rocket science. But it does have to be in place before you are ready to edit.

RED has a quick workflow diagram on their site.

While I admit, this is a very simplified version, it’s pretty close.

So, when we were getting ready for the 48 hour film project in San Francisco, I tested tested and tested every night for a week. I dealt with the same issues of Quicktime versions not working with the proxies and the slow down in build 16. But a week before our shoot, I solved all the issues allowing the editor to work in real-time with the H resolution (2K) proxy files. We had a lot of shots in our 8 minute film, and we were able to do it all in a 48 hour period.

In all things film, the key is pre-production.

Thomas A. Koch