What time(code) is it ?

Long time no Blog . No sleep till Warsaw.
Well the last month in Australia before we relocated to Poland for Post production was mad.Mountains of things to render and a fixed departure date.
It's always interesting how the ramifications of simple descisions ripple through something as complex as digital post. In this case its all about shooting at 25 fps instead of the regular 24 fps.
Since we have shot in two Pal countries where digital post is really easy in 25 frames per second we have had a really straightforward time editing , synching etc the offline edit. The path for the HDACM footage we shot in Poland has been simple. The problem we ran into has been with the footage from the red camera. The RED one produces files in a raw format that you then process using RED supplied software, in our case REDCINE into files that can be colourgraded. Well since everything with RED is still in development the current REDCINE software has a small bug in it that makes it uncertain if it is writing the correct 25 fps timecode into the DPX files. (DPX files are 10 bit ,to allow maximum use of the red footages amazing grading latitude ie you can do some pretty extreme colour corrections and it still holds up without banding.)
So without the certainly that each frame of the film has the right timecode embedded in it , it is pretty scary to relocate the 8 500 gig hard drives of files to Poland to Conform ( reassemble digitally the hi res version of the film ) not knowing if the offline edit will match the assembled hi res online.This was a problem that had to be solved
This is where the excitement of bleeding edge post production occurs. Using the REDUSER.net resource we found two pieces of software that solved the problem. These are CRIMSON workflow and GLUETOOLS . These two programs are developed by what appears to be one man shows. Both solve problems beautifully and are at the moment indispensible. Both also are in development continuously. The of the guys behind these solutions offer a level of support that I have never seen before, I was just emailing them sometimes daily with questions and they patiently responded, night day , weekends. Updates arrive as they write them. great stuff. Our film is only ,say 4 months behind the first features shot on RED so its pretty exciting ( sometimes puzzling/stressful ) to be working in a complex emerging workflow situation that you have to get right.
Any way the timecode is now right and later this week we do the conform at PAY studios in Warsaw on their Quantel Pablo. Then 2 weeks of colour grading , one of my favourite parts of the whole film making process.

BACK IN POLAND FOR BELLADONNA POST

Here we are again a year later back in Warsaw, Poland this time for post production. So far it has been a heddy mix of jet lag miracles and lots of cigarette smoke.
Our apartment is close to the centre of Warsaw and judging by the furniture and the general personal touches must belong to a middle aged lady, layers soft toys on tops of cupboards (maybe she has a grandaughter) probably by this stage you're wondering why I'm mentioning these details. You see as we ran out of time in Australia and didn't finish mixing the music tracks we needed to buy a keyboard with a midi input to make it work (not really a standard piece of equipment) As we begin to unpack Marcus opens one of the cupboards and there stands a 4 octive keyboard a MIRACLE!!! How, why does this woman have this particular keyboard?
Traveling with terrabites of information stacked on an enormous amount of drives was certainly interesting, and ultimately successful, as the drives have been tested and are all OK. It's a scary process as our whole project lives as information, its not like a physical print you literally carry and feel like your last 2 years can be attached to something tangible, with the RED camera its just data, information in boxes. We transported the drives (as they are very sensitive to bumping and static) as hand luggage. Our first obstacle at Melbourne airport. Our carry on suitcase was weighed almost at immigration and was over the limit, so the kind chaps told us to just remove the drives, camera, computer, from the bag and carry them in our shoulder bags. It seemed odd but it worked. Phwee!!! We decided to wrap the drives in bubble wrap and ribbon, pink to be exact, which proved to be a very handy trick as the luggage inspectors thought we were carrying layers of cake, and it seems that all you have to say is "its a Movie please be careful". So far we have had a couple of meeting with the Sound designer and the Colour Grading Company and are about to do few test prints from the Quantal to 35 mm film. Photos are coming up. Annika