Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/82522
The main players share info on transcoding, post innovations and more. By Christine Bunish Post quizzed six manufacturers about how to make cameras that help facilitate the post production workflow. The powerhouse roundtable discussed the production-post link, the trans- coding process, hardware and software that streamlines post, the changing role of the DIT, and ensuring compatibility with the most popular edit systems. Camera-makers of different stripes are represented on the panel: Red Digital Cinema with its popular Red One and breakthrough 5K Epic; Arri with the Alexa digital motion picture camera's roster of feature and episodic TV credits; Sony with the new F65 and its 4K capabilities; JVC with its full product line, including the new GY- HM650U boasting WiFi transmission; Canon and its much talked about EOS C300 digital cinema camera; and Panasonic with its con- tinuing commitment to its flagship P2 line and the introduction of AVC-Intra and now AVC-Ultra product. What are your camera's biggest contributions or inno- vations to facilitating the post production workflow? TED SCHILOWITZ: "Connecting production and post has been a contributing factor to Red's success. Back on day zero we knew that post production needed to be part and parcel of the camera concept. When we came up with a camera that shoots a series of raw frames, we had to come up with a different concept for post production. If you were going to use this camera you had to look at post production in a new way. Five years later it's all com- monplace! Every editing system in the world supports the Red workflow natively. "Part of Red's popularity is that you can take the raw files and turn them into DNx and ProRes files for editing, then link back to the raw files for finishing. Another key component is the Red Rocket accel- erator card, for Mac or PC, that allows every process related to Red to happen in realtime: playback, file creation, DPX creation. Almost every post house uses Red Rocket on the set — the post production that used to happen off site now happens on the set." NEIL FANTHOM: "Alexa offers in-camera recording of Apple ProRes QuickTime files onto SxS Pro cards, providing the full range of codecs from ProRes 4:2:2 (Proxy) to ProRes 4:4:4:4 and creating a seamless fit into modern post production environments. "Additionally, the Alexa camera platform has a variety of other recording options: DNxHD recorded in-camera and wrapped as MXF files for direct ingest to Avid editing systems; HD-SDI recording using external low-cost HD onboard recorders for uncompressed HD recording or recording other compressed HD formats such as HDCAM-SR and JPEG 2000; and Arri Raw, a true digital negative pro- viding best possible uncompressed, uncompromised and unencrypted images at full sensor resolution." SIMON MARSH: "When we introduced the F65 we knew we couldn't just introduce the camera — we had to have a pipeline that went from on set to deliverables. We still need to optimize that work- flow, but from day one it was workable. "We did a lot of work with the SR Master Alliance partnership and its 26 member companies, which include 10 Hollywood post houses, so we could offer an SDK that can access the F65 raw decoder and JVC's new GY-HM650U camcorder will have the ability to transmit recorded video files from the camera via a WiFi hotspot. ated the Digital Motion Picture Center (DMPC) on the Sony Pictures lot so we could work with our workflow partners in a very real setting: We have a shooting stage with F65s, lights, lenses and a Translite and a workflow area for on-set color management, dailies creation and post production editing. All the elements of the 4K pipeline are there — it's a huge value in helping us get answers quickly. We hold classes in the DMPC every Wednesday through the ICG and other guilds." MICHAEL BERGERON: "Panasonic has been involved in post pro- duction workflow since we worked with Apple to enable DVCPRO HD to be the first HD format to travel over FireWire; it was the core compression codec inside QuickTime until ProRes was introduced. "When we launched P2 we knew it had to have a post production workflow: That was the value proposition of P2 — files were offloaded to media at a much greater speed at a time when everybody was still very focused on tape. We've stuck with P2 and added the AVC-Intra codec for near master-quality images at the same bit rate. "Our customers wanted the ability to take media out of the camera and start editing with it. That's where the conversation started with a couple of vice presidents of engineering; it's one reason we went with solid-state media — its random access and speed meant you could edit directly off the media. We built the camera around the workflow instead of the workflow around the camera." www.postmagazine.com Post • September 2012 23 the SR files, which use the same codec as HDCAM SR recorders. "We also utilized our cousins at Sony Pictures as workflow partners; they're working diligently to become the premiere 4K facility in Holly- wood. Sony Electronics' Professional Solutions of America group cre-