Recently,
Post teamed up with Autodesk and Alt Systems to host a roundtable presentation that looked at digital acquisition — particularly using the Red One camera — and the challenges that pros are facing in handling files during post production.
The goal of this LA-based event was to present a sampling of pros working on Red projects, and the solutions — Autodesk’s in this case — that are helping to simplify workflows. My job was to ask tough questions and not let it dissolve into a sales pitch in front of our guests, all of whom had their own Red experiences.
Todd Iorio of Resolution/LA, a division of Union Editorial (LA/NYC), was on hand to discuss his work, which focused on commercials, his studio’s specialty. Resolution has Autodesk Flame, Smoke and Maya, as well as Avid DS, and Iorio says about one out of eight projects that comes to the studio is shot on Red.
Paal Anand of Bling Imaging in Hollywood also participated, and detailed some of his Red experiences. Bling has Flame and Toxik, and works on commercials, music videos and long-form projects, including indie films. But it’s the spot clients that Anand says seem to have adopted Red for acquisition. Longform clients, he says, still prefer film, and his music video clients feel Red footage is too sharp for beauty shots. In addition, Anand says VFX can be a challenge because of the compressed format.
Both Iorio and Anand have tried different transcoding solutions, each with different degrees of success, and have ultimately selected Autodesk’s Wiretap Central for the job. Wiretap is a software application that transcodes Red’s R3D files into RGB or DPX files on a background system — or cluster of systems — leaving an artist’s creative workstation free to continue working without any hits to performance.
But what’s interesting is that, while both are happy with Wiretap’s performance and ability to allow them to continue working, neither has been able to monetize the transcoding process. Instead, they chalk it up as a necessary step in simply securing a job.
Post and Autodesk will host a video of the event on our respective Websites, as well as a white paper that provides an overview of these Red workflow solutions.
DOWNLOAD THE WHITE PAPER
/Media/PublicationsArticle/Autodesk Red PDF.pdf