Best transcoding workflow for colour correction AND editing later on

[Guest]

Usually colour correction happens after "picture lock", when the edit is ready.

But this time I am working on a documentary where we finalize and export a colour corrected version, but changes the the edit could still happen later on.

The codec (SONY HEVC-HS UHD 422 10Bit 200Mbit) is too heavy for smooth playback when you add effects and colour correction (and a mercury transmit with a breakout box and third party scopes..). So I have to transcode.

I am editing with Prores Proxies (Prores 422 in HD), but there is a colour shift when switching back and fourth, so grading in Prores 422 is not a good idea if the originals are used for export.

Thats why I thought transcoding all the footage to Prores 422 UHD could be a good idea and replace the originals, so I will export exactly what I see when I grade.

I just tried to "consolidate and transcode" and it seems to work, although a lot of files are just copied to the folder and NOT transcoded although they are shot with the exact same camera (Sony FX3) on the same day with the same settings. Maybe an audio bit was used.. anyway, playback is smooth.

NOW before I continue on this consolidated project. Whats the best workflow if I have to re-edit later on and maybe go back to all my source footage?

Should I copy the souce files from the old project to the new one? Does this maybe confuse premiere because multiple versions of files with the same name exist?

Does anyone know a good way to re-edit a consolidated project?

[Guest]

Oh no.. transcoding did NOT work as expected. I am using the "colour manged" workflow of premiere with "automatic LOG detection" and "auto tone map" and all my LOG footage has been converted to rec709 in the transcode. Highlights are blown out and cannot be recovered anymore.  Any solution?? 

[R Neil Haugen]

They put a switch for log detect and tonemapping because in some cases, they do mess up the desired workflow.

In this case ... you may need to turn them off, and manage "manually", including using the same normalization LUT or process per camera.

The other alternative I've seen in some long-form workflows was they simply t-coded everything of certain cameras "up front". Essentially discarding use of the original media from some cameras. As that simplified the process from edit through delivery.

[Guest]

That was my first thought.. transcode everything first.. Unfortunately Prores 422 in UHD 50p would be about 6 TB for my project. I dont have an SSD in that size yet and would like to avoid going back to RAID HDDs.. I hope some affordable 8TB SSDs will come out soon. Right now 4 TB is the only available "standard" size.. or you have to combine multiple drives.

[Guest]

In my "standard" Premiere Project the Proxies and original media workflow is quite buggy.. You never know if premiere relinks proxies to originals and vice versa.. even though they are named differently... or they suddenly loose connection to originals.. problems with multichannel audio.. colour... Another reason I would love to skip proxies.  

[Guest]

Next idea: I would like to show all media used in my current timeline in a bin and then transcode only this media in the background (using AME) and relink to that media. Is that possible. I can select the metadata field "video media usage" and then I see how often video has been edited to ANY timeline. But then I have to delete all other sequences first and do it by folder. Any options?

[Guest]

I try to use the metadata field "video usage" but the "search bins" in premiere arent able to filter out clips by this field. 

[Guest]

Now I selected all Clips with "video usage" greater than 1 (they are ALL at least in one sequence as my raw footage is organized in sequences) and added a metadata "comment" like "x" manually. Then I created a "search bin" and searched for my comment "x". Now I can select all clips "modify->colour" set it back to Rec709, send it to AME and convert to prores 422 "match source" with 4 mono audio channels (as there is no such thing as "audio pass through" on transcode, which is truely horrible) and then I will try to relink all those files in the smart bin to those transcoded files. I really hope this will fix the workflow - I can always relink to the originals later on if I encounter any issues. At least AME is transcoding in the background while I can continue my work - not like the "consolidate and transcode" option in premiere which blocks all my work.

[Guest]

Oh no... I cannot attach proxies, relink or replace media in a search bin. Thanks adobe!

[Guest]

Maybe the better option is to use "consolidate" to COPY all the clips used in the sequence to another location, and then use Apple Compressor for example to transcode them to Prores without altering audio channels or colour information and then inn the last step just relink the clips in the project to those files. This way you could get around so many flaws of adobes colour and audio management.. which is truely horrible.

[Guest · Accepted solution]

Maybe THATS the best workflow next time:

Consolidate (COPY NOT TRANSCODE) all files from the sequence to a new location.

Transcode them with Apple Compressor (To keep Audio channel configuration and colours intact) to another drive.

Disconnect the first drive containing all the source footage and start the original project (not the consolidated one).

Relink one file which has been used in the sequence, it should automatically relink all the other files from the sequence.

Now reconnect the first drive and relink all the other files, which are NOT in the sequence to the original (not transcoded) media.

Voila. The result should be a sequence with original media plus optimized media for all the clips used in the sequence.

At least I hope so. (In FCPx you do this with the click of a single button.. just saying..)