Preparations for XML and EDL Workflows to Resolve
A very crucial part of many pro video post workflows is sending the work of the editor/s to the colorist, VFx, or finisher. There are a ton of things that can go wrong, and every app "sees" XML and EDL files just a bit difrerently. Some tools, techniques, and workflows that are natural for editors do not necessarily conform properly when imported into another application.
How do you know what to do as an editor? The following document is a very good listing of things for editors working in Premiere to do to prepare a project for creating those EDL or XML - out processes.
It is from colorist Marc Weilage, as he posted it on the LiftGammaGain forum's Tools/Resolve board.
I've seen several such lists, from various post-production houses. This is one of the best, if not the best I've seen. So I asked Marc for permission to post this here for the general Premiere users to see. He immediately said "Yes!", and for that I am grateful.
Marc is a noted colorist working on "the street" in Hollywood for around forty years now. I think his main "tool" is currently Resolve, but over time he has worked every process and application from film and telecines through every grading application and type of gear that's been used professionally. So what follows is the wisdom and practical experience of his forty years in "the trade".
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To the Editor:
There's a whole list of rules the Premiere editor has to follow before a project will be framed and coformed correctly in Resolve (with repositions and moves and so on). We use something along the following:
1. Project must be “flattened” to no more than 2 video tracks if possible.
2. Remove any color effects, LUTs, or tints from the timeline.
3. The Premiere Project must be set to use “Set to Frame Size” (and not “Scale to Frame Size”) for all resized media prior to XML export.
4. It’s recommended that the editor must prepare the project in the same resolution & aspect ratio in which the colorist will be finishing: for example, a 4K project should be edited in 4K for best results.
5. Speed changes may not be correctly handled – detailed notes should be provided indicating if (or in case) speed ramps or changes have to be manually done per shot.
6. Any compound clips must be reduced to a single clip.
7. Multicam clips must be reduced to a single clip.
8. Merged clips must be swapped out with the original camera source clip.
9. Composites and titles should be provided as uncorrected ProRes 444 files or provided to colorist as plates for later compositing by the VFX artist. Separate title files should be provided as TIFF or PNGs with alpha channels.
10. Audio must be removed from the timeline. (Colorist will need a single flattened stereo track as reference only; this can be provided with the reference video.)
11. QuickTime ProRes LT HD Reference video should be set up with small timecode windows as follows:
- Source File name upper L VisTC
- Source File timecode upper L VisTC
- Rec timecode lower L VisTC
- Project name/version/date upper R
- Vis record TC must match embedded TC
The included Reference video (required!) should reflect the temporary color look used for editing.
For additional information, MixingLight.com and Lowepost.com have both done good tutorials on how to solve conform issues with Resolve.
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