Best premiere pro lossless codec for coloring?

[Neutral]

Hi all,
So I have a hefty project I'm working on. It was shot in 4k on the alexa mini in prores 4444. I edited everything in Premiere and I'm guna color it in davinci resolve. There's a TON of small specific things I did in the premiere edit like scaling in shots, re framing, nesting and warp stabilized shots. All things resolve will not be able to handle well when trying to import with an AAF or XML. So I thought what I should do is export a lossless video file from premiere and chop it up in resolve myself or use an EDL to chop it up. I've been color grading for years and really love it. This is my first time being able to work with footage from a really good camera with a lot of color depth to play around with so I want to get the most I can out of the grade. What codec should I export from Premiere? The logical answer would be prores 4444 I'm guessing, but I'm on PC. I don't have that option with premiere. So right now I'm looking at DNxHD. But I've never used it and there's so many different kinds I'm a bit lost.
If you have any suggestions or experience with this I would really appreciate some help, thanks!

 

[Cary Knoop]

DNxHR 444 should be fine, you don't need a lossless codec.

Make sure you use a SMPTE or other chart to see if all your levels from and to DaVinci are correctly set and interpreted.

 

[Neutral]

DNxHR 444 should be fine, you don't need a lossless codec.

Make sure you use a SMPTE or other chart to see if all your levels from and to DaVinci are correctly set and interpreted.

Thanks for the suggestion. I've never used an smpte for anything. How do i check my levels etc?

 

[laverdir]

Neither Premiere nor Resolve is a finishing (compositing) system.

Maybe it's easier to export EDL from Premiere, import it in Resolve, do the color correction / grading there, export the clips and bring them back to Premiere.

 

[Neutral]

Neither Premiere nor Resolve is a finishing (compositing) system.

Maybe it's easier to export EDL from Premiere, import it in Resolve, do the color correction / grading there, export the clips and bring them back to Premiere.

What would be a compositing system then?

I'm not making any more adjustments or changes after color grading so it would make sense to render my final (master) out of resolve correct? Would there be any reason to go BACK to premiere once I'm done in resolve?

 

[Cary Knoop]

Neither Premiere nor Resolve is a finishing (compositing) system.

Could you explain what you are saying?

 

[starcentral]

There's a TON of small specific things I did in the premiere edit like scaling in shots, re framing, nesting and warp stabilized shots. All things resolve will not be able to handle well when trying to import with an AAF or XML.

This is where using remote grades comes in handy, it will allow you to see the edit in DaVinci, but when it comes time to export, it will let you export FULL length clips of the original and this way all that titling, scaling, motion, warp stabilizing, etc.. remains in tact. Look into this because if you already like DaVinci, you're about to like it even more. It also applies the same grade to the entire clip so if the SAME CLIP is used in 23 different parts of the edit - they are automatically graded for you. This is also a plus. If you need to change the grade for one of those edits you just use keyframes.

I grade projects for other people and this workflow is a must for me and what I use 99% of the time.... it avoids a hell of a lot of headaches importing and XML and DAvinci not seeing or understanding parameters from your NLE.

UNFORTUNATELY the REMOTE grade feature MUST be enabled BEFORE you drop clips into your media pool and import your XML. You do it by starting a new project and under TIMELINE SETTINGS check the box that says "automatically match master timeline with media pool".

If you're already started a project and want to move over your grades you will have to start a new project and then create stills/powergrades of your looks and re-apply them all.

 

[Neutral]

This is where using remote grades comes in handy, it will allow you to see the edit in DaVinci, but when it comes time to export, it will let you export FULL length clips of the original and this way all that titling, scaling, motion, warp stabilizing, etc.. remains in tact. Look into this because if you already like DaVinci, you're about to like it even more. It also applies the same grade to the entire clip so if the SAME CLIP is used in 23 different parts of the edit - they are automatically graded for you. This is also a plus. If you need to change the grade for one of those edits you just use keyframes.

I grade projects for other people and this workflow is a must for me and what I use 99% of the time.... it avoids a hell of a lot of headaches importing and XML and DAvinci not seeing or understanding parameters from your NLE.

UNFORTUNATELY the REMOTE grade feature MUST be enabled BEFORE you drop clips into your media pool and import your XML. You do it by starting a new project and under TIMELINE SETTINGS check the box that says "automatically match master timeline with media pool".

If you're already started a project and want to move over your grades you will have to start a new project and then create stills/powergrades of your looks and re-apply them all.

Very interesting, thanks for sharing this. I haven't started the grade yet, I'm going to today. So I'm going to attempt what you said, although I can't say I understand how it works at all based off what you said haha. Is this method still using a 1 file render of your original project? That would mean you're not grading original footage. Correct?

 

[starcentral]

But when it comes time to export, it will let you export FULL length clips of the original and this way all that titling, scaling, motion, warp stabilizing, etc.. remains in tact.

I should be a bit more clear about this; you will render full colored clip lengths out of resolve, then relink them in your NLE where you perform all your tilting, scaling, warp, etc. So in that sense they remain in tact.

You can still do this "round trip workflow" without full length clips but it also gives you a small degree of leeway to change the edit a bit if it was just a base grade applied across the whole clip and there are no power windows, etc.. being keyframes.

Very interesting, thanks for sharing this. I haven't started the grade yet, I'm going to today. So I'm going to attempt what you said, although I can't say I understand how it works at all based off what you said haha. Is this method still using a 1 file render of your original project? That would mean you're not grading original footage. Correct?

You still import the XML file and color the clips against the edit from the XML but in addition you will have a MASTER TIMELINE and if you flip to it inside resolve, now you have a timeline full of every clip that you dropped to your media pool in order that will automatically get a copy of your grade from your XML timeline. hence on the deliver tab you can switch to master timeline, export it as individual clips, and now end up with each clip in full length and colored.

Make sense?