Epic > RCX > DnXHD > MC5 > Dark footage?

[Fred Beahm]

Yo! I'm working on a feature in Seattle. It's being shot on two epics. I'm the assistant editor. My duties entail syncing audio in RCX, transcoding to DnXHD, importing into avid, logging/prepping/binning/organizing for the lead editor. My issue is; The lead editor and post house are saying that the footage is looking dark on their end. It looks fine on my end, via desktop monitor and via sdi out of the rocket on a flanders calibrated monitor. The footage also looks the same on desktop monitors inside of MC5, but I do notice that it looks dark (2 stops or so) when I output via Mojo DX SDI to the Flanders. My question is; what's causing this? Is it my transcode? Is it Avid? Mojo? Is it purely an output issue? I'm tying to pin-point it but can't figure it out. I'm not an Avid guy. I despise the program in fact. But, it's what the job calls for. If it was me, I'd be editing the raw r3ds in cs6, but that's not the case here. Can any Avid/Red pros out there help me shed some light on this? The techs at the post house believe it's something to do with my transcodes. I've bumped out the specs that they asked for though, 1080p 23.98 DnXHD 36 8-bit for their offline. I haven't touched any of the color settings, they want the DP's camera settings intact and any color work done on their end. I'm suppose to have a conference call with them tomorrow but I'd like to get redusers opinion before that call. Please & Thank You in advance. ~ FrEditor

[MichaelP]

Do you have constrain to SMPTE levels in the options tab enabled? And on a related note, I would suggest syncing in Media Composer to the BWF files directly as it maintains all the metadata of track info and such, let's you easily sync to mix track only, and allows the editor to match back to ISO tracks if needed.

Michael

[Fred Beahm]

Michael,

Thanks for your response. Where can I find the smpte settings? I've looked and looked. Is it the Safe Colors menu? I'm in MC 5.0.4. Also, is there a walkthrough or tutorial on how to sync to the BWF files? As far as I know the new RCX copies all of the meta data now. All my meta data seems to be intact after my transcodes have been done. I appreciate you taking time to respond.

Best.

[Fred Beahm]

Found it, in RCX. No, it's not checked. Should it be? I thought you meant in Avid. Thanks again for your time.

Looks like this guy had a similar issue:
http://www.reduser.net/forum/archive...p/t-58779.html

As well as this gentlemen, that you also replied to:
http://www.reduser.net/forum/archive...p/t-50508.html

[Fred Beahm]

You were describing this method (skip to 8:20), right Michael?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f3Vha...ayer_embedded#!

[MichaelP]

Yes, that's the method (I wrote the script for that video)..

Michael

[Fred Beahm]

LOL. Thanks Michael. I don't think we'll be going that route but I'm still trying to shed some light on what's causing the video to look darker on the reference monitor at the post house. A friend of mine suggested that I should import as RGB and not Rec601/709?

[MichaelP]

Did you create files with the SMPTE setting active and that did nothing, or nothing that was correct? Selecting RGB or REC.709 has no effect on MXF/DNxHD created outside the application as the look of the image has already been baked in to the media. When looking at the footage in Redcine X Pro, are you able to look at it on a scope? Is it legal REC.709 video?

Michael

[Nick Morrison]

Selecting RGB or REC.709 has no effect on MXF/DNxHD created outside the application as the look of the image has already been baked in to the media.

Michael

Michael, you are right that once media has had its color space "baked in" it won't change. HOWEVER...I have found with Avid that it is CRUCIAL to inform the Avid WHAT THE COLOR SPACE IS OF THE FILE YOU ARE INGESTING. If you pick the wrong color space, the footage will look "wrong" (usually too dark, or too bright). Happens to me most often with GFX. A designer renders his element out in RGB, but we tell the Avid its 609...and it comes in f*cked.

Sounds to me like this could be what is happening with Fred. It may be a color space issue.

Fred, I suggest you give this a shot, to test this theory: export your materials RGB straight out of the Avid. Your vendor may be looking at the deliverables in Final Cut or After Effects...which most commonly work in RGB.

I've had this type of problem before when working between AVID...and other applications.

Unfortunately, I wish there was a way to LABEL Color Space better (if only quicktime did this automatically...like it does FPS, Compression, Codec, and Sound properties).

I'm not positive this IS what's happening with you, but at least now you can check.

Good luck.

[MichaelP]

The post house is looking at the native MXF/DNxHD media that was created. They are seeing it dark, and Fred is not. The import process does look to RGB or REC709 where REC.709 doesn't change anything, same on export. If you select RGB then it will lift blacks assuming graphics levels of 0 and reduce whites assuming graphics levels of 255. But you can't import an MXF file created in REDCINE X Pro, it is copied to the mediafile folder, referenced, then played back. So none of the levels adjustments have any effect on the media.

Michael