Preparing Digital Camera Files

DigitalFilms by Oliver Peters The modern direction in file-based post production workflows is to keep your camera files native throughout the enter pipeline. While this might work within a closed loop, like a self-contained Avid, Adobe or Apple workflow, it breaks down when you have to move your project across multiple applications. It’s common for an editor to send files to a Pro Tools studio for the final mix and to a colorist running Resolve, Baselight, etc. for the final grade. In doing so, you have to ensure that editorial decisions aren’t incorrectly translated in the process, because the NLE might handle a native camera format differently than the mixer’s or colorist’s tool. To keep the process solid, I’ve developed some disciplines in how I like to handle media. The applications I mention are for Mac OS, but most of these companies offer Windows versions, too. If not, you can easily find equivalents. Copying media The first step is to get the media from the camera cards to a reliable hard drive. It’s preferable to have at least two copies (from the location) and to make the copies using software that verifies the back-up. This is a process often done on location by the lowly “data wrangler” under less than ideal conditions. A number of applications, such as Imagine Products’ ShotPut Pro and Adobe Prelude let you do this task, but my current favorite is Red Giant’s Offload. It uses a dirt simple interface permitting one source and two target locations. It has the sole purpose of safely transferring media with no other frills. read more...