Today is my birthday. I am 44 years old. Last night, I celebrated with several friends, drank too much and stayed up too late. How do I choose to spend my day? Working on my projects from last week. I’ve got 2 of 3 cats on my editing station, a greenscreen problem to work out on 4K, and several sequences left to edit.
And there is nothing I would rather be doing right now than this. 
Tackling the problem of 4K greenscreen is actually a great way to spend my time. Solving riddles, experimenting and learning keeps the brain sharp. Before my party last night, I was tinkering with this greenscreen stuff. I made a rookie mistake. I forgot to make the project 32-bit floating color space from the 8-bit default. That had a significant effect on the quality.
My issue is this: I am working with 4K greenscreen footage from the Sony F55 and I’m using it on a 1080P timeline, so I can get the close ups from the same camera, same clips. When I punch in on the 4K footage, the shots don’t hold up well and they should. I’ve done this technique in the past with Panasonic GH4 greenscreen footage, so working this out shouldn’t be that hard. The Sony shoots in S-LOG color space, but the setting used for this shoot with closer to REC709, which is making this different for me.
Since I work in Adobe CS6, I had to purchase the plug in TotalCode, plus use the latest Sony RAW plug ins. Now that I have those, I have extended the lifespan of using CS6 as I am not a fan of the Creative Cloud rental of software model.
The solution seems to be to export the Sony footage to the Mirizon ProRes 422 intermediary codec, (set at 444 color space, nearly uncompressed) and then keying it all in 4K, then exporting the new keyed 4K shots into Premiere to then rescale the shots within the edit, already with the backgrounds in place.
For me, learning the latest codecs and cameras and how they might cause ruckus on my post production workflow only makes me more prepared for paid work.
This is all academic though, as most of my readers will have reached this conclusion before I finished typing it. Or this blog entry was like reading a Japanese Kanj and I revealed a more engineering aspect to my personality which assures the lack of procreating practicing on my horizon.
Either way, it simply means, I am loving the problem solving and the creative way my brain functions again. Nothing feels better than the act of creation, of any kind. Right now, I am on fire again, and the warmth therein sooths my soul.
I am blessed. I have many good friends, and a good life. If this month is any indicator as to how 2016 will turn out, then this truly will be a great year for me.
“The world is a vampire, sent to drain
Secret destroyers, hold you up to the flames
And what do I get, for my pain?
Betrayed desires, and a piece of the game
Even though I know–I suppose I’ll show
All my cool and cold-like old job
Despite all my rage I am still just a rat in a cage”
– Smashing Pumpkins
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