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Best Workflow for CS4?
  • Hey, fellas. I'm shooting a short film this Sunday (zombie film!),and I'm trying to advise the editor on how to best handle my insane GOP1 stuff. He is editing on CS4. Should he convert to something, or work with the .mts files direct?

    Also, which Driftwood GOP1 would you recommend for a nice fine-grain sizzle? We'll be shooting in an old house, mostly with natural light through the kitchen window, and a simple light kit to fill in if necessary.

    Thanks, fellas, in advance for your helpful suggestions. (those with non-helpful suggestions can go stick their head . . . somewhere not nice, I guess :-)
  • 2 Replies sorted by
  • hmmm, CS3 I think was the first version I used, then cs4, cs5 and now CS5.5. I think the same applies for CS4 if I remember correctly, but I can't promise. So if you're not going to do insane post production, as in heavy CC, sharpening, vfx etc, then stick to raw .mts, import your files properly using avchd fullHD 24fps progressive preset, make whatever bins you need in PP to organise your footage, drag and drop and you're ready to go. Now I can't remember properly what dynamic link was like back in cs4, but the way I work, is on my timeline, I can "replace with After Effects composition" any clip I want. Then you have AE and PP simultaneously open, and as you work on clips in AE doing CC/vfx etc, it automatically updates in PP (but requires rendering ofcourse). You can also copy and paste stuff from PP to AE easily. Another route which is a bit more perfectionist and overkill is transcoding your .mts files to the format of your choice, uncompressed or DNxHD for instance, in 5dtoRGB. Then import the transcoded in PP and work normally as you would. This way though you will spend a lot of time transcoding, and you will need load of space as you will be left with huge files. If the computer system is not up to date though, transcoding might actually speed up the process since it's less CPU intensive to work with less compressed files. If you do transcode though through 5dtoRGB, you will also benefit from excellent chroma interpolation and smoothing. This will only benefit you though if you have a strong blue or green in the background (causing 4:2:0 to break) and perhaps (not proven) if you very heavy sharpening and CC. Also, don't freak out if your GOP1 transcoded files don't play in media players like VLC and WMP, they just don't when you've shot GOP1, but will import fine and play in PP. Driftwoods 178 MB reaquainted patch is absolutely stunning, and does things to your grain structure and underexposed areas that I haven't seen in a consumer digital camera before. not much help but...
  • no, that's great. I figured it would be best to work with originals, but I just thought I'd check in here. We will not be doing heavy post at all. Even the "flashback" differentiation look will be done with color balance, lighting, and an old 16mm Bolex lens :-)