(Page 3 of 3 pages for this article  <  1 2 3)

Filed under: Post Production •

3 Ways to Get RED Footage into Final Cut Pro

The Final Cut Pro Log and Transfer tool

The third method of trans-coding RED files to ProRes is right from within Final Cut Pro using FCP’s own Log and Transfer tool. This process will be familiar to anyone who has loaded P2 media into FCP as the process is nearly the same. Near the end of 2008 RED provided new support for the editing of “native REDCODE media (R3D’s) wrapped in QuickTime.” This new functionality involved importing the media through the Log and Transfer tool. But these QuickTime wrapped R3Ds are still very processor intensive to work with and don’t much of any real performance advantage over editing the proxy files. The Log and Transfer tool also offers the option to encode to ProRes and it makes importing very easy though the clips do take some time to process. Upon opening the Log and Transfer tool you should first check your preferences:

Set the import to ProRes (or ProRes HQ if you desire) and then load the media by navigating to your R3Ds via the Add Folder button in the upper left corner. Once FCP has scanned the media the shots will load into the L&T window. This tool provides a lot of options for individual clips as you can scan and shuttle each clip, mark IN and OUT points if you only want to take in specific parts of a clip as well as log and make comments. When you are ready to process you can drag individual clips into the Queue (it says “Drag media here” so it’s a bit idiot proof) or select the Add Selection to Que to add all the clips or clips from a multiple selection. FCP will now begin the process of trans-coding the R3Ds to new, self-contained ProRes clips. It’s important to remember that new media is created in the Capture Scratch folder that you have designated and FCP will place the new clips into your currently selected Logging Bin. One other item to note is that at this writing FCP will only bring the clips in at 2K (2040x1024) resolution. There are no options to trans-code to 1920x1080 (or any other reduced size) or keep the 4K clips at 4K. A 2K ProRes file actually plays back pretty well but files that size might just be a bit overkill for offline editing depending on your system.

One other thing that the L&T tool does offer is the ability to apply a custom look designed in REDAlert to the files upon import or use one of the default custom looks provided:

You can save your own custom presets in REDAlert via the File > Save Preset setting and they will show up in the RED FCP Log and Transfer plugin menu above. Choose that new look from within the L&T preferences and this look will be applied to all the clips you are importing. Be aware that there are some limitations on these “look” files created in REDAlert. They were outlined by Adam Wilt in his PVC article RED+FCP: Native REDcode Importing.

Encode times

By far the biggest downside to trans-coding to ProRes is the time that it takes the machine to process and churn out new files. As a quick test I took the same 1 minute 13 second .R3D file and timed the different encodes (on a 8-core 3 ghz Mac Pro, 3 ghz RAM, fiber channel RAID). Here are the results:

Compressor: ProRes HQ full 2K resolution - 8:34, 1920x1080 - 13:38

It’s easy to see that a ProRes encode takes a lot of time when compared to using the proxy files or making RED QuickTime native files. This is where leaving a batch encode running overnight is a great solution. Compressor would seem to still be the best option since it is reliable and can down-res the files from 2K and 4K to a more manageable size. If FCP’s Log and Transfer tool could down-res then it would be a great option too. To me, the absolute best option would be a stable REDrushes. Its control and ease of use trumps both Compressor and FCP’s Log and Transfer tool. A dedicated Macintosh that has had its operating system slimmed down to only the barest essentials might make for a more stable REDrushes and make a great encoding station. If you are a hardcore RED camera post-production house/user then that might be the best investment of all.

But wait ... there is a 4th way. All of the above methods stay directly in the RED/Apple universe. If you want to venture outside of that universe you could use a 3rd party application like Clipfinder. The RED user community has built a number of great applications and utilities and Clipfinder is just one example. It’s a free application (donation accepted) that is very similar to REDrushes in functionality. And it’s speedy. It created ProRes files from the same test clip used above in 1:22 at 1920x1080 doing a quarter resolution debayer and a lightning fast 32 seconds for a 640x480 quarter resolution transcode. The more options the better.

You can load whole directories and see valuable info like the duration and resolution of a shot and the presence of a .RSX look file. It also provides all of the rendering options that REDrushes provides in its own interface with the ability see cropping options and save presets:

There’s even a “watch folder” option that will scan a folder and render any newly added clips. There are even more options detailed in the extensive help files on the Clipfinder website. It uses the same underlying technology that REDrushes uses to render its clips so my question is how stable of an application is Clipfinder? Is it more stable than REDrushes? I put on a batch of an entire RED music video shoot (102 .R3D files) and asked Clipfinder to render 640x480 H.264 BITCs for the client to preview and log the footage. When I got in the next morning I had a folder full of 102 640x480 H.264 BITC QuickTime files:

So far I like Clipfinder very much!

(Page 3 of 3 pages for this article  <  1 2 3)

Great write up.  I was hoping to hear a little more about how to go back to the original r3d files for onlining using the options other than FCP Log and Transfer. 

In the beginning of the article you stated the question; why shoot on Red if you’re not going to go back to the original data?  Well, I agree, but can you point us in a direction to get a clear workflow?  Which programs keep the metadata when transcoding?  Which programs can pull just the frames used in an edit and give us high quality output, etc.?

Thanks

Posted by lmerino  on  02/14  at  05:03 PM

---

Unfortunately as Bill stated the RED white paper of re-batch transfering of ProRes to native RED quicktimes doesn’t work unless you use Log and Transfer. If you check out Clipfinder linked above, there are some options there. It seems that software is constantly being updated so check it often. Crimson Workflow is another applications that can help in this respect. Also check out software called Monkey Extract from Rubber Monkey. (this is a great idea for another article btw)

At our shop we have a Quantel eQ that takes an offline list and conforms from the .R3D files. Assimilate Scratch does the same thing. At this point in time an online option like that is one of the best routes as they work solidly and very well. Of course not as many people have an eQ or Scratch as have Apple Color. But until Apple gets their workflow bulletproof there will be some hoops to jump through for this type of offline/online workflow.

Posted by Scott Simmons  on  02/14  at  06:09 PM

---

Sorry to use the comments section for a question, but it’s very quick   Does the EDL you put into your eQ box basically contain the TOD timecode from the transcoded quicktime edit (timecode which I assume was brought over when transcoding the original footage using RedRushes or other)?  Then, that timecode just matches the timecode on the original .R3D files?

Posted by lmerino  on  02/14  at  06:27 PM

---

It’s the perfect place to ask a question!

The shoots usually use time-of-day code on shoot that’s what we use through the edit. And EDL from Avid or an AAF (via Automatic Duck) from FCP to the eQ uses TOD code. But the eQ allows you to choose which timecode track to use for a particular conform. It’s very flexible and works well.

Posted by Scott Simmons  on  02/14  at  06:44 PM

---

We cut on Avid, and I think that’s what has been failing us.  We have tried following several documents for the Avid workflow, keeping metadata intact and so forth, and so far the results have not been pleasant.  I think what adds to the problem is that our production machines are all Windows based, and most tools are for the Mac.  RedCine, which seems to be the only Windows tool for transcoding media, is… well, we have raised our fists in anger more than once against that program.

Fortunately, this is all internal work for now as we try to understand the test the workflow… so we have time.

What has been your best workflow for getting media into Avid while keeping all timecode, etc.?

Posted by lmerino  on  02/14  at  06:50 PM

---

<What has been your best workflow for getting media into Avid while keeping all timecode, etc.?>

MetaCheater. It has worked very well. It creates a batch list with all metadata intact. I believe that REDRushes does the same now with the metadata but I can make MetaCheater do it’s thing so quickly that I still use itI I don’t know if it’s avail on PC or not. One solution would be to have a Mac to transcode your DNxHD media that could then be brought into a PC Avid.

Posted by Scott Simmons  on  02/14  at  07:08 PM

---

I’ve transcoded 2k Pro Res clips for offline editing. Is it possible to conform these to 4k pro pres (referencing the r3d files) to bring into after After Effects for compositing? Thank you!

Posted by winnith  on  08/28  at  12:22 PM

---

winnith, you can’t conform to 4K in FCP as it doesn’t handle that rez. My guess would be using something like Automatic Duck get get to AE and then using Adobe’s native R3D support to work at 4K. I don’t use AE very much so my knowledge is limited.

Posted by Scott Simmons  on  08/30  at  07:39 AM

---

Might you make the video tutorial on red footage and final cut pro?
Sightline Payments Kirk SanfordBingo

Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)  on  06/22  at  07:56 AM

---

Name:

Email:

Location:

URL:

Smileys

Remember my personal information

Notify me of follow-up comments?