CharlesPapert
Director of Photography
The problem lies when "your" post workflow is not yours at all. That is to say, when you are hired to shoot material but have no say over post, in terms of how the material is handled. I can't tell the editors on any of my DP jobs what NLE to use, what their workflow should or shouldn't be. I can (and do) recommend solutions, but if the post supervisor tells me that they can't afford X and Y, that's that. It's a reality of working in this industry vs playing; the departments are segregated and there are politically hurdles to overcome that often just aren't worth it.
I have shot maybe five RED jobs and each and every one was finished via the proxy Quicktimes used for the edit. They never went back to the R3D's to conform. Seems dumb, right? They simply didn't have the budget or time to do it "right" and it was always "good enough". Thankfully my exposures were close enough that I could color correct the footage adequately off the proxy files, but obviously not ideal.
There is one simple solution for narrative production that seems to be satisfactory for all parties: Alexa. Post likes it, I like it, the producers like it. The only stumbling block is the price of the package, but not a single producer I've worked with in the past year has denied that is the right way to go. Again, while the F3 served me well enough for season 1 of my show, the Alexa is that much better and easier to deal with in post. I have no doubt that the other manufacturers will emerge with a new generation of cameras that will give the current Alexa a run for the money (similar quality onboard recording codec, more integrated accessories)--but then the Alexa will move foward as well.
Smart and experienced producers take stock of which cameras are easier than others to work with both on set and in post and will have specific ideas of what they want to use next (inexperienced producers will tend to base their interests on hearsay and usually have their information wrong--how many times did I hear someone ask about the Canon D5?). The question "what camera are you thinking for this job" is generally posed to me as part of my interview process. Anecdotally, few are interested in using RED primarily because of the workflow. I'm not saying they are the majority, it's just who I happen to have been working for. Sometimes there are more specifics involved: for a feature I shot this year, we settled on Alexa very quickly (we both had it in mind) but when I pushed for ARRIRAW recording, I was told there was no way. ProRes444 it was. Eh, no biggie.
I have shot maybe five RED jobs and each and every one was finished via the proxy Quicktimes used for the edit. They never went back to the R3D's to conform. Seems dumb, right? They simply didn't have the budget or time to do it "right" and it was always "good enough". Thankfully my exposures were close enough that I could color correct the footage adequately off the proxy files, but obviously not ideal.
There is one simple solution for narrative production that seems to be satisfactory for all parties: Alexa. Post likes it, I like it, the producers like it. The only stumbling block is the price of the package, but not a single producer I've worked with in the past year has denied that is the right way to go. Again, while the F3 served me well enough for season 1 of my show, the Alexa is that much better and easier to deal with in post. I have no doubt that the other manufacturers will emerge with a new generation of cameras that will give the current Alexa a run for the money (similar quality onboard recording codec, more integrated accessories)--but then the Alexa will move foward as well.
Smart and experienced producers take stock of which cameras are easier than others to work with both on set and in post and will have specific ideas of what they want to use next (inexperienced producers will tend to base their interests on hearsay and usually have their information wrong--how many times did I hear someone ask about the Canon D5?). The question "what camera are you thinking for this job" is generally posed to me as part of my interview process. Anecdotally, few are interested in using RED primarily because of the workflow. I'm not saying they are the majority, it's just who I happen to have been working for. Sometimes there are more specifics involved: for a feature I shot this year, we settled on Alexa very quickly (we both had it in mind) but when I pushed for ARRIRAW recording, I was told there was no way. ProRes444 it was. Eh, no biggie.
