Workflows for working with Arri & RED Raw footage

Workflows for working with Arri & RED Raw footage:
Richard Harrington demonstrates in this short tutorial how to work with Raw footage in Premiere Pro.

If you’re looking to do an offline-online workflow with your RED Raw footage, to cut in something like FCP7, then check out Oliver Peter’s detailed article on doing just that. Oliver creates QT Proxy files with the free Red Cine-X Pro, edits in FCP and then conforms back to the Raw footage to grade with using Red Cine-x Pro again.

For even more workflow tips, tricks and tutorials check out some of these previous posts:

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Arri Alexa - Legal vs. Extended

Arri Alexa - Legal vs. Extended - NegativeSpaces - Ben Cain:
While this article is very specfic to the Arri Alexa and its digital color workflow, in a broader sense much of the information here can be readily applied to the difference between YCbCr 422 digital video, RGB Data, and all the things that go wrong when we monitor in video but post process RGB Data.

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Working with Arri Alexa footage in post

Working with Arri Alexa footage in post:

Understanding Arri Alexa frame rates

I was working on a project recently that was shooting on the Arri Alexa at multiple frame rates – 30fps and 60fps. As I was on set doing the card copying and back up I was surprised to see all the footage coming in at 30fps even though we were shooting at 60fps, although the footage looked like slow-mo.
A quick google revealed something I’m sure the camera dept knew, which was that the Alexa has several frame rate controls. In this case I was learning about the Project frame rate and the Sensor frame rate. The Project frame rate should be set to your deliverables rate (normally in the UK 25fps, but on this particular projects 30fps) and your sensor frame rate set to whatever you wish. If its the same as the project frame rate audio is enabled, if its different its disabled.

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HD Video Pro - Help Desk: LUTs, Looks And Scene Files | HDVideoPro.com

HD Video Pro - Help Desk: LUTs, Looks And Scene Files | HDVideoPro.com


At a recent AbelCine seminar introducing the new ALEXA Studio camera, I gave a presentation on ARRI's Look Files and their online LUT generator. Afterwards, several people asked me to describe the difference between a Look File and a LUT. I explained that ARRI's Look Files were more like Scene Files. It seemed like an easy answer, but it just opened the door to more questions. With more and more cameras shooting in flat-looking Log modes or RAW, the topic of LUTs on set and their implications in post have become big points of discussion. At the same time, there are many cameras that utilize the more traditional Scene Files for control of color and contrast. Furthermore, there are cameras like the ARRI ALEXA and RED EPIC that offer their own unique types of image control. The confusion is understandable. Let me start by explaining some of the terms.

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Codex Digital Offers Full Support for ARRI Alexa Studio

Codex Digital Offers Full Support for ARRI Alexa Studio:
Codex Digital now offers full support for ARRI's Alexa Studio with Codex ARRIRAW Plus and the Codex Onboard recorders, which can record up to 48 frames per second of ARRIRAW from the Alexa Studio in 4:3, using Codex' new high speed Data Packs. The company is also readying the debut of the Codex Vault at NAB 2012.

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ARRI’s DNxHD Alexa update, Sorenson Squeeze Pro and OP this, OP that

ARRI’s DNxHD Alexa update, Sorenson Squeeze Pro and OP this, OP that:

ARRI has begun to ship its DNxHD update for their Alexa camera. This announcement that the Alexa would get DNxHD as an onboard recording option (besides ProRes) was welcome news to post-production people like myself who use Avid Media Composer. While ProRes is supported in Avid both by AMA linking and direct MXF creation (in the Media Composer version 6 on Mac that is) DNxHD is Avid’s own in-house codec and is a perfect option for compressed hi-def media. But ARRI’s onboard DNxHD recording uses an MXF format that’s a bit different than Avid’s. Read on for a discussion of why that is (and lots of OP).

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Pomfort - LiveGrade: Interactive Look Control via SDI

Pomfort - LiveGrade: Interactive Look Control via SDI
Pomfort's LiveGrade application uses Blackmagic HDLink capabilities for live manipulation of HD-SDI images and offers a complete solution for the creation, manipulation and management of looks.

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ARRI Group: ARRI ALEXA in-camera recording using AVID’s DNxHD MXF file format

ARRI Group: ARRI ALEXA in-camera recording using AVID’s DNxHD MXF file format
The Avid DNxHD recording function for ALEXA will be distributed as a cost-effective, downloadable software upgrade during January 2012 and is now entering Beta phase testing with selected broadcast productions. Avid DNxHD codec data rates of up to 145Mbit/s (bit depth 8 bit) and 220MBit/s (bit depth 10 bit) will be supported in the initial release. Avid’s highest quality version of the codec, Avid DNxHD 444, will record at 440Mbit/s at 10 bit depth and will be provided as an upgrade for all adopting customers later on during the first quarter of 2012.

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Alexa LUT using Avid Color Correction

Alexa LUT using Avid Color Correction
Apply the Color Correction Effect on an Alexa logC clip or put it on an empty track above to view the footage in linear space with gamma and highlight roll off.

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Arri Alexa ProRes Workflow for Avid Media Composer 5+ – Updated – Freelance Feature Film, Commercial and Music Promo Colorist -- Jack Jones Freelance Colourist

Arri Alexa ProRes Workflow for Avid Media Composer 5+
Since starting over with this website around 6 months ago, one of the more popular pages, and reasons people end up on this website, is an article I wrote entitled “Arri Alexa ProRes Workflow for Avid Media Composer 5+”

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Looks, LUTs and Live Grading the ALEXA | CineTechnica

Looks, LUTs and Live Grading the ALEXA | CineTechnica

When Arri released the SUP 4.0 firmware for the ALEXA, they also added the ability to create color ‘Looks’ to load into the camera. These Look files are similar to scene files found in other cameras, but they aren’t burned into the Log C recording of the camera. Instead, they can be used in post by converting them to LUTs using Arri’s LUT Generator.

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Looks, LUTs and Live Grading the ALEXA

Looks, LUTs and Live Grading the ALEXA:

When Arri released the SUP 4.0 firmware for the ALEXA, they also added the ability to create color ‘Looks’ to load into the camera. These Look files are similar to scene files found in other cameras, but they aren’t burned into the Log C recording of the camera. Instead, they can be used in post by converting them to LUTs using Arri’s LUT Generator. These looks then travel as metadata with the clips recorded (through the XML file). Look files can be created by saving a still from the camera and loading it into the Arri Look Creator, which can then modify the still and output a look. A company called Pomfort, based out of Munich, was actually the first to work with Arri Looks. Their software, Silverstack SET, manages data on set and allows the manipulating of Arri Looks before sending them into a NLE or Color Grading suite. Silverstack SET is a fantastic tool for working with ALEXA material in general, and now Pomfort has come up with a new piece of software to take the process of Look creation a step further.

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Dailies and Proxies: Alexa and Resolve

Dailies and Proxies: Alexa and Resolve

Using Blackmagic Design's DaVinci Resolve allows you to transcode this footage to something more manageable (Apple ProRes Proxy, or Avid DNxHD36) for editing and dailies viewing on set. In addition Resolve can easily apply a LogC to Rec709 LUT, and add a metadata slate on all the footage at once. This process works with both the full Resolve, and the free Resolve Lite.

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Alexa Log C - Workflow Options

Alexa Log C - Workflow Options:
This post is intended to be a work in progress so I'll be adding more information over time as workflows evolve. I'm intentionally leaving some of this open ended because I'd like anyone reading this who can speak to the topic to help me flesh this out. If you have something to add, please shoot me an email. 




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