Blackmagic Cinema Camera with Lightworks Posted by stajan - 04 Jun 2012 06:20 I am planning to shoot an Indian language Movie with Blackmagic cinema camera & Lightworks for Editing.I read an article that Blackmagic Cinema Camera features a built-in SSD recorder that allows 2.5K uncompressed CinemaDNG RAW 12-bit capture and Avid DNxHD. Hope LW can handle Blackmagic raw files & How can I export to DaVinci Resolve(its free with Blackmagic Cinema Camera!) for color correction?raw or DPX? What will be the ideal workflow for Blackmagic+Lightworks+DaVinci Resolve? Posted by kevinjardine - 04 Jun 2012 06:28 If you search the forum for "Blackmagic" using the Search tab above you will find that the Blackmagic codecs are not usually supported by LW. You will likely have to transcode to another format first. Kevin Posted by abelmilanes - 04 Jun 2012 08:27 A logical workflow for cinema release (not including VFX work) would be. - Shoot DNG - Use Resolve as your dailies tool. - Transcode relevant media to edit friendly format. DNxHD MXF sounds interesting. Mind metadata relevant to EDL/AAF workflow - Edit in LW. - Export back to Resolve as EDL or AAF. - Comform the original DNG files in Resolve and Grade and Finish. - Export for DCP creation. 1 / 5
Posted by RWAV - 04 Jun 2012 08:28 It is unusual to edit with RAW files, be they Red, Arri, or other. I'll stand to be corrected, but Resolve, which is being bundled with the BM Camera, has a DNG to DPX converter and LW Pro supports DPX. Therein, I suspect, is one of the many reasons why Resolve and the camera go hand in hand. It s quite likely that a workflow will include storing the DNG files on the Resolve and importing the NLE timeline which will automatically link to the DNGs since they were the source of the DPX files? Posted by Forum Admin - 04 Jun 2012 08:48 If you're not working in greater than 1920 x 1080 resolution, you can capture on the Blackmagic's SSD recorder into ProRes or DNxHD and import the files directly into Lightworks Pro (you'll need to buy the additional one-off licence for DNxHD if you choose that). This would be a great workflow. Posted by RWAV - 04 Jun 2012 10:58 I think it's either or - you can't save DNG for your notional cinema release while also writing DNxHD 'proxy' files. Posted by Forum Admin - 04 Jun 2012 11:04 No, but unless you need the extra dynamic range, and resolution - and for many projects you won't - then DNxHD and ProRes are absolutely "Production Quality". Posted by RWAV - 04 Jun 2012 11:08 2 / 5
Ah! A rational voice. I've previously pointed out that 250Mbps is the current digital cinema distribution standard - which is pretty close to DNxHD. Posted by Forum Admin - 04 Jun 2012 11:21 Well, I've worked extensively with these codecs, and, with a good source, the quality (and ease of editing!) is phenomenal. Posted by khaver - 04 Jun 2012 11:45 With the DNxHD codec installed and activated, will Lightworks export out to 10bit DNxHD? Are any of the image sequence export options 16bit? Posted by Forum Admin - 04 Jun 2012 11:50 Lightworks ENCODE is limited to 8 bit at the moment. I think 10 bit is a possibility for the future. I don't know about 16 bit export (in any format). Will try to find out. Posted by sotitomo - 04 Jun 2012 12:37 No, but unless you need the extra dynamic range, and resolution - Who doesn't? 3 / 5
Specially dynamic range, nobody in his right mind would throw that away if given the option. Posted by sotitomo - 04 Jun 2012 12:40 Lightworks ENCODE is limited to 8 bit at the moment. I think 10 bit is a possibility for the future. I don't know about 16 bit export (in any format). Will try to find out. Wow this is very limited! I was never aware that Lightworks export was limited to 8bit only. This is only good for DV material. 10bit at least is a must! I thought that was only a limitation of the beta version. So you can never really finish on Lightworks. Not anything serious anyway. Will programs like Resolve and others accept an EDL or otherwise from Lightworks? That would be the only way to finish in a higher quality than 8bit I guess. No point in Lightworks supporting DPX but only 8bit really. Posted by Forum Admin - 04 Jun 2012 12:45 sotitomo wrote: No, but unless you need the extra dynamic range, and resolution - Who doesn't? Specially dynamic range, nobody in his right mind would throw that away if given the option. Well, yes and no. In an ideal world, of course no-one would throw away extra resolution if it were available, but if it means a lot of additional expense and complexity, a lot of existing workflows are OK for their current purpose. 4 / 5
I have no doubt that in as few as a couple of years it will be commonplace to shoot in 4K (even if very few people are able to view in that format) but will that mean that (for example) if a documentary is shot in 2K or 1080p that no one will watch it? I don't know the answers to this, and I guess we're all going to have to figure out what's the best approach to all of these amazing new developments. Posted by Forum Admin - 04 Jun 2012 12:59 Sorry - I need to clarify. I was referring ONLY to DNxHD encode being limited to 8 bit. The other formats are at their normal capabilities. We just haven't had time to write the 10 bit encoder for DNxHD. We will do as soon as we can. BTW - on a side note, I disagree that 8 bit is only good for DV. Most AVCHD-based cameras only record in 8 bit (and probably only 4:2:0 as well). 5 / 5