Re: ALEXA vs. RED?

[Robert Monaghan] "After doing some reading of this thread, it appears that you are a bit a bit out of the loop on some of the products out there. Understandable, as you need to have a workflow that is solid. "

We are not in the camera rental business. We edit, create VFX and grade. We don't pick a recorder. We work with whatever production hired.

[Robert Monaghan] "I have been building a brand new suite to tools to retrofit Final Cut Pro to do a proper conform. This is regardless of the image format. The tool is designed to work with DPX frames, as well as ARRIRAW and Phantom Cine files. "

That's great news. With all its shortcomings FCP will beat any high end software at simple task like comparing an offline cut to the scans assembly. If FCP could actually move DPX around like it can move QT Movies that would save weeks of time.


[Robert Monaghan] "A Quick Question..
I know for a fact that 2K DPX is exactly the same data size as 2K ARRIRAW. So if you were to do 2k DPXs, wouldn't your data requirements be the same if you converted your R3D footage to DPX? "

Only the footage, that goes into the cut gets converted. That's no more than 2TB. As for converting vs working native it is good grading and compositing tools start to support RAW workflow but if I start sending untrimmed takes to the VFX guys they seen will go on strike.

Look, there is some misunderstanding here and I believe it is becvause we don't specify what kind of projects we are talking about. If it is a 30 sec TV spot with 20 minutes of source footage it will fly through any facility at full speed no matter what's the source format. If it is a feature film where footage comes in chunks over several weeks on slow external drives, takes tons of storage space and are not required for any work for month until the picture is locked managing files becomes a serious task.

Let's say you have an editing seat and a grading seat. Both have good DAS arrays, fast and big. Where do you copy the footage coming from the set? You don't. Because it will interfere with whatever current work is going on. You make a "workprint" and give it to your editor. You back up your transfer disk to LTO. And you keep your transfer disk until the picture is locked and it is time to "cut the negative". That's where you need a conform utility.