Edius 6.03 and Arri Alexa files.

[Red Union Films]

Has anyone used Edius 6.03 on an edit with Arri Alexa. If so, can you let me know what codecs Edius will see natively out of all the codecs from the Alexa. Also, what EDL is best from an Avid MediaComposer 5.5 to bring into Edius 6.03, that links to the Alexa files? This EDL would be a simple 3 track cuts only timeline.

Thanks.

Dave.

[NakedEye]

Hi Dave... first off I have not done this so take it or leave it.

Alexa can capture to prores 422 or 444 so these are useable in Edius with the caveat of Edius not seeing the extra colour information...(8bit only)

With MC5.5 you can export to AAF AMA ingested material such as prores from Alexa... heres how. http://lfhd.net/2011/03/21/avid-5-5-...aaf-now-works/

AAF support in Edius should be better/easier than EDL... he says tongue in cheek....ignore the automatic duck route it is for going back to FCP which has no import of AFF AFAIK.

The above AAF export from MC5.5 should not be tied to Prores so if you have a better format you may be able to avoid any QT gamma shift...though I would try with the native files from the Alexa first.

Best
Dave.

[Red Union Films]

Hi Dave.

Stop there, you had me at 8bit. Totally forgot about the lack of 10bit support. I will have to use another NLE for the edit.

Thanks anyway.

Cheers.

Dave.

[Andrzej]

Vegas is you friend :)
You can set in project setting precision mode- 8 bit, 32bit float RGB or 32bit float YUV levels. Most filters support 32bit float.

[Red Union Films]

Hi Andrew.

Do you know if it will see the Arri raw files and apply luts for the log c, and does it do the full 4:4:4:4 QT files?

Thanks.

Dave.

[Andrzej]

Vegas does not support LUTs by itself (I think you can by using Cineform codec), but you don't really need it. LUTs are just RGB curves and you can re-create them manually.

Watch this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WeLUL_O6lKc

nothing special.

I don't think it will work with Arri RAW files- they are very new- only expensive software woks with them now. It does work with RED RAW.

It should work fine with QT 4:4:4. It works in 32bit float.

If you have ProRes QT LogC files, than you can convert them in AE. AE has LUT filter where you can load LUT file and "apply look". You can download predefined ones from Arri site. Arri RAW is way more problematic and expensive to work with :)

Check this:

http://www.gluetools.com/products_arriraw.html

Forgotten about free DaVinci Lite- it will read ARRI RAW.

[Red Union Films]

Andrew.

That all looks good, thanks. I was only wanting to use the LUTs to set a simple typical RGB finished look when editing. Have had a look at some stuff on an Avid with flat logC files, and it does not feel good to edit with. Like you suggest, using a filter to pull up the colours, is all that would be needed for the edit. Any proper grading or colour work would be a separate issue later. It looks like the footage will most likely be in a standard RGB range under QT anyway.

It's a real pity that I can't use Edius for this and some other future work. Working with all the camera files as either native codecs or uncompressed and only rendering to a submission format at the very end, is by far the best way of working. My typical Edius workflow is great for any type of project that I have done to date. Although it would be fair to say that a certain amount of thought has gone in to pre-production when choosing hardware (cameras etc.) to match with Edius's abilities. Unfortunately, I can see how difficult it will become to tailor a production around Edius, when someone will insist on working with some of the more pro codecs and raw file types.

Cheers.

Dave.

[Andrzej]

Yes- Edius is for broadcast mainly. You can use it in other way, but sooner or later you will start feeling missing bits. That's why I said- GV gives us Edius Film :)