So, the first batch of cameras shipped out nearly three weeks ago now, and the second followed a week later. With 50 Red Ones in the wild now, information has come streaming in. This post is mostly based on what I’ve picked up on RedUser.net. We’re not getting our camera until November 30 and Red hasn’t (yet?) made its QuickTime codec and RAW processing software available to non-owners.
Red workflow is — as one might expect for a camera that has only been on the market for three weeks — still fairly immature. That said, at least five distinct workflow possibilities have emerged. These are:
- Traditional DI finish
- Native SCRATCH workflow
- Desktop offline/online workflow
- Desktop online native workflow
- Desktop online non-native workflow
Traditional DI Finish
This one is fairly straightforward. After being downloaded, Red footage is simply processed into 2K or 4K DPX or TIFF sequences, and fed into precisely the same sort of DI pipeline used for DPX or TIFF sequences scanned from film. This will probably be the most common workflow, at least initially, for higher-end feature productions, because it’s extremely comfortable for them.
The one missing piece in this workflow right now seems to be that RedAlert (the stopgap application Red has given to camera owners to process RAW footage while the fully-fledged RedCine app is being finished) doesn’t currently transfer most of the metadata from REDCODE RAW files into DPX sequences. I’d expect this to be fixed soon. (If it hasn’t been already.)
This is Indie4K, though… the extremely high costs associated with this approach (a 100 minute feature with a 10:1 shooting ratio can be expected to take up dozens of terabytes) will probably make it mostly off-limits to low-budget indies.
Native SCRATCH
Assimilate has been on board with Red from the beginning — we saw them handing out cards and Red’s NYC NAB screening event last year. It’s not hard to see why. The two companies have fairly similar approaches to the market. They’re both new players in established markets, who have nothing to lose by offering products and prices that actually reflect the state of technology, rather than old market segmentation schemes.
Anyway, Assimilate now has native REDCODE RAW support in a beta version of its SCRATCH software. Though probably still out of the price range of many indies, this option is a lot cheaper than a traditional DI workflow, and brings all the benefits, well known to fans of dSLR photography, of working with original RAW footage.
Desktop Workflow
Since there are three possibilities here — and since they’re going to get discussed in more depth, being more relevant to the primary audience of this blog — desktop workflow options will get their own post, which should be up within the next few days.
