How to export Braw and retain its flat color space?!

[defaultoox0p3kd078a]

hi everyone,

Hope yall are having a good holiday week. So I have maybe a stupid question and I appologize (ive been searching google for this answer and just see alot about working color space and timeline colorspace etc)-- I need to export Braw (ungraded) clips from premeire and I need to keep Premiere from making any changes to the u touched color upon export (i.e. I need oremeire to NOT export it in Rec 709).... is this possible?

Ordinarily on a film I'd do an online edit... standard xml export, import in resolve and readjust the cut points as they are linked to the raw 6K footage. On this show I can't do it that way due to the amount of speed changes and refrains on the offline edit which is in premeire. Yo online edit that on resolve which treats speed and reframe with slightly different math. It'd be insane. So we were going to do a prores 4444XQ and recut by hand which sounds nuts....but not as nuts as an online edit of this. The devil you know and such.

But the obvious dilemma is the export...because premeire I believe exports by default to rec 709 changing our native flat log look...this wouldn't ordinarily be a concern but the color work is very particular and been tested on braw footage in that space with complicated node intensive looks saved.

Is it possible to override the rec709 export and just keep my braw, upon export, looking eactly as it does color wise as a raw camera file.

Thank you!

[YANNA26705213grl5]

I would like to know the answer to this question too.

[R Neil Haugen]

You've got a choice ... either you export say a ProRes or DNx 4444 file out of Premiere, the colorist works from the media as if it was any other 'regular' media they would get delivered to them, from your export of, or ... they apply the previous BRAW practice.

You could test using the 4444 (and make sure you check Maximum Bit Depth and set to 16bpc in the Export settings!) from both a Rec.709 and maybe PQ or even HLG timeline. Both will probably work. But again, the colorist will be getting that media as if it were any other video file.

You should have (nearly) all the file data in the process, just ... arranged a bit differently.

For using the previous BRAW practice, you have to use an XML workflow. Because what you want isn't the "log look", it's the media in it's original state. And you can't export BRAW from BRAW.

Even if you managed to use an HLG or PQ sequence in Premiere, and got the BRAW to come in looking mostlly log-ish, it wouldn't export as the exact same data.

And for that workflow in Resolve, it will HAVE to be the exact same data.

I work for/with/teach pro colorists. This sort of thing is a right royal pain to handle the conform, but is a regular & normal part of "The Job" for experienced colorists. I'll go though the steps, you probably know the drill but many don't.

First, the reframing needs to have been handled with "set to framesize" as the option for any "auto" reframes by Premiere.

Second, any "merge clips" work joining audio & video files has hopefully been done with the Multicam process, and not the "Merge Clips option! 

"Merge clips" in Premiere does not keep the audio file metadata, so the XML out file will only list the video file, but not the audio file. A flattened multicam 'clip' will include both in an XML.

Third ... it's normally better if you have used Speed/Duration for retiming clips rather than Interpret Footage ... that seems to have a better chance of getting into the XML ... though admittedly, this is not probably going to come in perfectly in Resolve. For all retimes, if you've got notes as to what the retimes are that is a HUGE help for the conform.

Fourth ... you need to also export a flattened, moderately low-res H.264/5 file, of the entire sequence. This is so the colorist can put that on maybe V3 and use it to check cuts, clips, and retiming/reframing.

Fiifth ... NOTES! As mentioned above, all retimes should have a note so they can be recreated at need in Resolve by simply setting the data in for the effect as the colorist works down the conform. But ... any reframes should include a note of timestampt/reframe data also.

With a full set of the assets of the project, this should be doable without too much extra time spent.

Neil

[defaultoox0p3kd078a]

Hi neil,

Thank you for always being so on top of these posts. I am going to attempt the first way mentioned later today and compare with my BRAW footage and see if it is creating drasitcally different color math when exported from Premiere and brought in Resolve as it meets the looks Ive worked on.

I unfortunately did the "merge clip option"and I remember it being the less preferable option but didnt remember a work around at the time. But I suppose my question is if I did an online edit and my visual cuts match up (with speed changes rebuilt in and all)- I can always drag just an export of the sound and see if sound is also a match. If the timelock matches between the premiere file and resolve than in theory sound should as well (and then Im just confomring Post Sound's final deliverables when completed, no)?

As far as reframes all the files reframed are of the same ilk- same native res etc - I did my reframes using the media inspector at the left hand side. Is there any benefit to using "set to frame size" when doing custom reframes when the footage that is coming into be reframed is all the same res, aspect ratio, etc.  By custom reframes I mean that these reframes are not the standard framings of what was recorded in Production... these are taking what is in production and actually changing the composition in custom unique ways per individual shots...so if I onlined in resolve I dont believe there is a single button push to get all my reframes to be what they were in premeire... I believe Id have to rebuild them from scratch based on notes on the math (x and y coordinates etc which should ball park me within 80% of the final comp, god willing) and of course the low res reference file being used for the online cut comparison anyway?

Thanks for your detailed response and sharing of knowledge it is so greatly appreciated.

[defaultoox0p3kd078a]

Also my speed re-timing of clips is of the 2nd prefered kind-- just used to either lengthen moments or shorten--- generally via speed ramping/time remapping (especially for the stunt sequences) but some are an un-keyframed standard overall speed change.

[defaultoox0p3kd078a]

*Of the first prefered kind- I used speed/duration 

[defaultoox0p3kd078a]

And one last question- for VFX are they working off High res exports of timelocked cuts (like Pro Res or DnX) of a shot or are they working off the raw camera file. I was under the assumption they may workk off an online edit like myself but they are crossing between different softwares unlike me who is simply staying in resolve so I am unsure. Thanks again

[R Neil Haugen]

That's a lot of stuff that unfortunately you're just going to have to test. Wish I had a better answer, and ... it would be nice if these various companies could get their software to 'talk' to another even a titch better.

The XML/EDL/OMF/AAF standards haven't changed in some time now. That whole shtick needs upgrading.

Neil

[defaultoox0p3kd078a]

Agreed. So Agreed. No worries and thanks for everything Neil.