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Sarina McCavana

Simple Assist Postproduction Workflow Tips

Updated: Feb 28, 2023

After completing the grade and the online of the whole Wartime Crime series for Discovery Network and UK Network, I thought it could be useful to detail here some post workflow tips I used in order to ensure fast and steady delivery and avoid wasting valuable time sorting out pre-grade edits.

When you work on archive shows that consist of different formats and different frame rates it could quickly become a nightmare working with XMLs if not managed properly.

So here are a few important tips I will always use to ensure all goes as smoothly as possible pre- and post-grade:

  1. First, make sure to convert all your footage to the same frame rate before the offline edit begins; especially when it is for broadcast, this will avoid dropped or doubled-up frames that could make you fail QC. (your timeline should be fully conformed before grade).

  2. Make sure all your folders are clearly labeled and organised.

  3. Once your picture is locked, do not rename and move files from one folder to the other*. *This could create problems down the line when importing your XML, or relinking media.

  4. Export a reference QT of your master edit and then always duplicated and prep your timeline for grade, this means collapsing your footage to one or two tracks max, removing Lumetri, Speed Ramp, Graphic and Text.

  5. Project manage, consolidate and transcode your media, this will stream down your workflow, and make importing your XML into Resolve easier, it will also mean that you can copy your project and save just the necessary media on your backup drive (less space needed).

Project managing your picture-locked edit will essentially create a new folder with a copy of just the assets used along with a new project file.

  1. Export your XML (or AAF if working with Avid)

  2. In some cases (mostly with Premiere Pro) footage rescaling will not copy across to Resolve when working with mismatched resolution files; make sure to set your project settings to ‘Scale Full Frame with Crop” in the Input Scaling Preset, and or use your QT reference to re-adjust manually when necessary. If you are round-tripping then Premiere will be able to retain the information once your import the XML back into Premiere, if not, you will have to re-adjust your footage manually so allocate time to do that.

I hope this helps, happy grading!

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