Tonight I had the pleasure of talking to members of the Australian Screen Editors guild about “Digital Workflows”. The event was recorded, so at some stage in the future, I’d imagine you’ll be able to see it online – but in the meantime, here are some quick notes from the discussions, just so that people can easily find things we were talking about.

But first, big thanks to Jill at Swinburne University for organising the venue, and fellow filmmaker Patrick McCabe for inviting me along!

My co-panelists were Roslyn Di Sisto from Method Studios who is a colourist that works on DaVinci Resolve (which excitedly, a version of Beta 9 was literally just released tonight – I haven’t tested it yet, but I believe it now supports audio-pass through, which makes it really handy for rushes), and CJ Dobson from Iloura who is a colourist that works on Autodesk Lustre. Both are INCREDIBLY talented young colourists, who are really masters at their craft (as well as just being lovely and inspiring people, who have climbed the ranks from Assistant Editors in the Tape Room) – so I highly recommend trying to get a chance to work with them if you can. Digital Pictures/Iloura offer a “Colour After Dark” special initiative, that invites emerging filmmakers to best realise their project’s creative potential through the use of their colour services (aka – if you’re a student, or you have a low budget project, they can squeeze you in after hours for a much cheaper rate), so it’s worth getting in touch with them to find out more!

A lot of people also asked who we have used in the past for creating DCPs… we have personally built up a great working relationship with the Rodney at Jorr, and can’t recommend his companies services highly enough. Digital Pictures/Iloura also offer a DCP Creation Service.

Here are some handy links…

Software Mentioned:

• Final Cut Pro X – the software that killed Final Cut Pro 7 (and not in a good way)
• Adobe Creative Suite 6 – which is now a lot cheaper thanks to the Creative Cloud
• LightWorks – free on Windows, will eventually come to Mac & Linux
• Smoke 2013 – currently free till December during it’s Beta Period – so test it out!
• QtChange – allows you to add timecode to Quicktimes
• MPEG Streamclip – a great free program for doing file transcodes
• Resolve Lite – a free version of DaVinci Resolve
• FCP auxTC reader – allows you to “read” timecode recorded to the audio track of a camera
• 5DtoRGB – handy tool for converting Canon DSLR footage whilst maintaining maximum quality
• Magic Bullet Grinder – handy tool for converting Canon DSLR footage quickly
• easyDCP – a great DCP creator and player
• REDCINE-X Pro – RED’s free application that allows you to transcode R3Ds to whatever you require

Topics Talked About:

• Debayer Filter – This gets pretty geeky pretty fast, but if you’re really into it, sign up for fxphd
• Colour Depth – all about the Bit Depth…
• DCPs – the new way to get your film out there to cinemas!
• Backing up your Data – check out this old blog entry I put together after another Swinburne Lecture.
• The Role of the Assistant Editor – again, another old blog entry worth having a look through
• Audio Syncing in REDCINE-X Pro – helpful video

If you have any questions, or if there’s anything we discussed but I haven’t linked to above, just let me know.

Thanks to everyone who came along!

Best Regards, Chris!