I really like the Alexa… and I’m an editor.
It’s no secret that Arri cameras have change into the usual of high-end productions throughout the movie and tv business. Arri’s means to provide such a high-end picture, when it comes to shade latitude and dynamic vary have secured Alexa’s dominance because the workhorse for Hollywood’s elite cinematographers for digital filmmaking.
On the publish facet, we normally don’t have any management over what digicam package deal is chosen for a mission, or how that footage makes its option to us. But of all of the cameras and codecs that we see every day, Arri footage is beloved in post-production simply as a lot as it’s on set. All high-end cameras today make an unbelievable picture, however I actually recognize something that makes my workflow quicker and extra environment friendly. Arri’s ProRes and ArriUncooked workflows in publish are quick and easy, and that’s why I really like the Alexa.
I wish to share with you some Alexa and Arri workflow ideas I’ve acquired through the years engaged on commercials, options and TV exhibits. Most of the following tips are written for Adobe Premiere Pro, however you’ll discover a lot of the data will switch to different NLEs if you know the way to do the equal motion.
So let’s get began.
Arri’s Log C
Consumer digital cameras are usually set as much as shoot in a typical shade profile referred to as REC709. Pro-level cameras additionally seize their footage in log, a flat shade profile that retains the complete vary of the digicam’s sensor inside every clip. Footage shot in log will normally ship a a lot wider dynamic vary and provides us rather more management over a picture than what REC709 can present. Every digicam producer has their very own sort of log shade profile, tuned to the {hardware} of their totally different cameras. On an Arri digicam, selecting Arri’s Log C shade area will make the most of the complete vary of Arri’s highly effective sensor.
Arri ProRes Workflow
Arri cameras have the unbelievable means to shoot on to ProRes. Specifically, ProRes 422 HQ and ProRes 4444 are the commonest codecs I’ll get again from an Alexa shoot.
These variations of ProRes are constructed for ending, and ProRes is normally a really easy codec for an NLE to deal with—so getting footage in, organized and beginning to edit is admittedly fairly easy.
Just like bringing in any media in Premiere, both navigate to the footage in your media browser or right-click within the mission window and click on “import.” Once your footage is imported, I’d advocate making proxies of all the media to speed up your workflow. Premiere makes it tremendous straightforward to toggle forwards and backwards in case your proxies and full-res media are each related. You can learn a full article on Premiere proxy workflows here.
Premiere has the flexibility to create Proxies for you primarily based on encode presets you create by way of Media Encoder, however in case you are working with a variety of side ratios inside a single mission, Premiere finally ends up being a little bit of a ache in creating the proxies. You’d must create presets for every side ratio and that may change into time-consuming, and once more, all about effectivity over right here.
Instead, I like to make use of a 3rd get together app like Edit Ready from Divergent Media for creating proxy media from Alexa footage. Edit Ready will match the side ratio and determination settings, and might output a ProRes Proxy file, with out having to create and ingest and encode preset inside Media Encoder. Edit Ready will interpret the file in the identical means that Finder does. This means you’ll have a proxy on the similar decision and side ratio as the unique clip, simply with a smaller sized codec.
This is extraordinarily useful in creating proxies for anamorphic footage, which is available in squeezed, and we’ve got to inform Premiere to interpret that footage in a different way. By default, Premiere doesn’t have an anamorphic side ratio encode preset that may match the decision and match the best way finder interprets the squeezed file. I’ve had this drawback a number of instances, and it merely simply slows me down having to create customized presets for various side ratios, particularly if I’m engaged on totally different modifying machines and don’t at all times have my presets accessible. I’ve discovered it to be quicker to let one thing like Edit Ready simply do the work. I’ll let it run within the background whereas I’m modifying, then I merely Attach Proxies to the media inside Premiere when it’s carried out.
To de-squeeze anamorphic footage in Premiere, spotlight the clips in query, proper click on and hover to modify and click on on interpret footage.
Once there, beneath Pixel Aspect Ratio click on the Conform to: toggle and choose Anamorphic 2:1 within the dropdown menu.
Premiere will then interpret that footage shifting ahead as anamorphic and it is going to be de-squeezed. You can do that for your whole footage without delay if in case you have all of it imported.
Arri’s Embedded LUT
Alexa and Amira cameras which are taking pictures in Log C may maintain an embedded LUT inside every clip, reminiscent of an business commonplace REC709 LUT or a customized look created by the cinematographer. These LUTs stay on the supply stage of every clip and arrive embedded throughout the clip robotically (assuming the cameras had been arrange that means from manufacturing). This is tremendous useful within the edit to right away have a REC709 look on the footage with out doing something further on our finish to inform Premiere to use the LUT. Cinematographers and DITs may create customized appears that might be embedded onto the footage to ensure you’re seeing what they had been seeing on set.
The embedded LUTs can simply be toggled on and off when wanted inside Premiere. To discover the embedded LUT, load a clip into the supply menu from the mission window and click on Effect Controls. You may load a clip instantly from a sequence, however you’ll must then toggle to the grasp model to see the unique model of the clip, versus simply that occasion of the clip within the sequence.
You will see that Lumetri Color has been added and is carrying the Amira LUT. You can toggle this on and off for this clip, and for any time this clip is getting used, by clicking the fx button. Any of the Lumetri Color parameters might be adjusted from right here as properly.
ArriUncooked Workflow
Some greater finances productions will select to shoot in ArriUncooked. This is an uncompressed, unaltered uncooked codec that holds a ton of knowledge whereas taking over a ton of area. Usually, productions will shoot ArriUncooked if they’re wanting to maintain as a lot picture data as potential off the sensor or if they’re working with numerous VFX photographs; however ProRes Log C is way extra widespread.
DIT Charlie Anderson (The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Netflix’s The Good Cop, HBO’s Vinyl) gave us some perception from the manufacturing facet.
99% of TV shoots ProRes for the sake of pace and processing. ArriUncooked is a beast when it comes to information and is is usually utilized in commercials or movies. Nothing will stress you out greater than taking pictures a number of cameras at 48fps in ArriUncooked and having to obtain, sync, and transcode all that footage without delay, after which do an organization transfer in the midst of all that.
The elevated storage and processing necessities of ArriUncooked normally imply further manpower and additional CPU horsepower.
The Arri’s ProRes and ArriUncooked have the very same bit depth of 12 bits (in case you’re curious, RED cameras are 16-bit with their .R3D recordsdata). So what makes one higher than the opposite? ProRes is a compressed codec, whereas ArriUncooked is uncompressed when it comes to high quality. Both are unbelievable seize choices, however for those who’re going to most high quality for VFX or theatrical or no matter, then select ArriUncooked, you’ll have extra data to play with in your DI.
Alexas are surprisingly good in low gentle, particularly with ArriUncooked. You have much less compression to cope with in ArriUncooked, which lets you clear up a number of the sensor noise that comes with taking pictures at 3200 ISO. The latitude within the digicam is shocking, even with ProRes. It takes quite a bit to severely overexpose the digicam, there’s nonetheless numerous element in highlights in excessive distinction conditions.”
ArriUncooked recordsdata come to us in publish as .mxf recordsdata, so on a Mac you received’t have the ability to preview them in Finder with out a third get together software. However, the workflow for importing and utilizing ArriUncooked footage is similar to importing and dealing with ProRes. The solely distinction is that you’ve got the additional benefit of having the ability to vary digicam settings throughout the NLE. In the identical place the place we’d toggle the embedded LUT for ProRes clips, with ArriUncooked you’ll have management over the colour area, publicity index, white steadiness and tint settings whereas remaining non-destructive to the unique footage file.
Simply load the unique clip into the supply window and click on on Effect Controls. Adjusting any of those settings will change them on the supply stage and can have an effect on any occasion of that clip getting used all through the mission.
Project Bloat & Removing an Embedded LUT Globally
Slightly over a yr in the past, I used to be about 6 weeks into chopping a community collection when our mission file for episode one was continuously crashing. It was an enormous mission, with a number of thousand items of media, a number of digicam varieties and totally different codecs, all referencing their very own proxies, so I wasn’t shocked that the mission was having some hassle. Our assistant editor seen that the mission file dimension was sitting above 500MB, which is very large. Usually, Premiere mission recordsdata are sitting round only a few megabytes, and the huge file dimension was contributing to the instability of our mission file.
Our predominant cameras on the present had been an Alexa Mini and an Amira, and after some digging, we discovered that the embedded LUTs that had been coming off of the digicam had been chargeable for the bloating mission file. Simply turning off the LUTs wouldn’t assist the mission file dimension since that data would nonetheless be held within the mission. We wanted to delete the LUTs solely, and we wanted to do that on each Arri clip within the mission to make an actual distinction. We had been additionally working extraordinarily rapidly and had 7 extra episodes to chop over the approaching weeks, so we wanted a fast option to repair this drawback in future episode tasks as properly.
We ended up making a preset inside Premiere that eliminated the LUT globally throughout any Arri clip you drag it onto. Here’s how one can do it if you end up in the same scenario.
(One caveat to notice is that this preset will take away the LUT solely from the mission, and whereas that may reduce down your mission file dimension and enhance stability, you received’t have the ability to merely flip the LUTs again on. Instead, you should use lighter load LUTs inside your sequence by including them to adjustment layers.)
First navigate to your whole Arri footage in your mission window. Depending in your mission, this may very well be as straightforward as making a search bin for clips containing “.mov” within the identify. (excluding all R3D media as an example). Load one of many clips out of your mission window into the supply monitor. Then within the Lumetri Color window, beneath Creative select None.
Then, beneath the panel menu within the Lumetri Color panel, click on Save Preset and identify it.
Now spotlight all these Arri clips within the search bin you made and drag your new preset onto the clips. Save your mission and try the mission file dimension appropriately far smaller. If you’re having these points through the edit, this can make a major distinction within the stability of your mission: quicker open instances in addition to quicker saves and autosaves.
Pro Tip for Premiere customers: In a latest replace, Adobe added a Global FX Mute button that may be added to this system monitor toolbar. Turning this on will disguise all non-essential results to make modifying a lot quicker to your machine. There is not any want to show this characteristic again off earlier than export, as a result of Premiere will at all times export with all of your results on and rendered appropriately.
This useful characteristic will pace up playback, nevertheless it received’t assist with the mission bloat subject.
Using LUTs on Adjustment Layers
If you’ve eliminated the embedded LUT on all of your footage, you’re now flat Log C. This doesn’t actually trouble me throughout editorial, however chances are high your administrators, producers and purchasers received’t love the flat look of the footage through the edit. Anything I can do to make my director or producer really feel like we’re nearer to the ultimate imaginative and prescient, the higher. So on this case, if I’ve eliminated the embedded LUTs for a lighter load mission, I’ll use an adjustment layer with a typical or customized LUT over all the footage within the sequence.
To accomplish that in Premiere, go to File, New, Adjustment Layer and drag it into your sequence above your footage. With the adjustment layer chosen, within the Lumetri shade panel, beneath Basic Correction, open the dropdown for Input LUT. Select one of many ALEXA REC709 LUTs from the dropdown. Feel free to regulate different shade parameters within the shade panel if wanted.
I normally put the adjustment layer up on a observe means out of sight so I don’t have to consider it and lock that observe so it doesn’t get reduce up or moved as I’m shifting across the edit. I’ll use different adjustment layers all through the edit for different issues, however I’ll go away this one only for the 709 look to simply swap it on and off if wanted.
Keep in thoughts that, as you convey extra objects into your sequence, that adjustment layer will apply its contained results onto something that lives on tracks beneath it. If I pulled in clips from a distinct non-Arri digicam, as an example, they would want to go above the REC709 adjustment layer within the sequence.
Finishing Prep and ProRes 4444 XQ
When it involves ending prep, there are a pair other ways you may ship to a colorist. If you’re working with ArriUncooked footage, I’d advocate sending an XML of the locked reduce together with a tough drive of all the complete res media. This will permit the colorist to have full management over the adjustable digicam settings if wanted, and provides them the best potential high quality of the footage you will have accessible to work with. If you’re working with ProRes footage, you may both ship an XML and a tough drive, or you may prep a flat Log C ProRes file to be graded.
In the case of sending a ProRes file, for those who haven’t carried out so already, you’ll have to take away any LUTs and shade results from every clip so the colorist has probably the most data potential, with out engaged on prime of your momentary results. If you will have shade results and LUTs dwelling on adjustment layers, that is fairly straightforward to show off; however for those who’ve carried out any shade results on the clip stage in your sequence, you’ll have to take away these results earlier than exporting for shade. You can even have to take away any transitions like dips or dissolves from the footage so the colorist has the flexibility to grade the whole size of the shot by way of the transition. These transitions can be added again in later after the grade by both the colour and ending workforce or by the editor.
When I export for shade, I’ll render a Log C ProRes 4444 model of the edit. ProRes 4444 will give the colorist much more shade data than a typical 422 HQ. And for the reason that Alexa shoots in ProRes, that is fairly near what was coming off the digicam from the beginning.
Recently although, I’ve began utilizing a ProRes 4444 XQ codec for sending to paint. ProRes XQ is a just about lossless codec from Apple that they describe as the best high quality model of the ProRes 4444 and is particularly designed for VFX and shade work. I began utilizing this on a mission the place the colorist was having hassle bringing the noise out of a low gentle scene. The ProRes 4444 XQ codec will ship information charges which are greater than double the bitrate of commonplace 4444. It might be about double the file dimension as properly. This codec doesn’t come commonplace on Apple machines and can must be put in into your Quicktime codecs.
First obtain the ProRes 4444 XQ dice here, and unzip the file. Then, on a Mac do a highlight seek for /Library/Quicktime and drag the part file into the Quicktime folder.
Restart Premiere, and ProRes 4444 XQ will present up in your Video Codec dropdown as Quicktime codec.
Love in
Like most high-end cameras as we speak, the Alexa delivers an unbelievable picture—but it nonetheless stays quick, painless, and very simple in post-production. And that’s why I really like the Alexa.
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