There is too much specialisations that requires really high skills and experience to be managed properly by one operator.
Fred,
There is a reason that Television and Cinema have tried and true workflows. Obviously a wrench has been thrown into the gears with cheaper NLE's like FCP and the lower price of AVID, and obviously the 5d/7d has brought medium quality motion imagery to the masses, (the RED can be included in this), still there is a reason that most workflows are first you produce dailies, secondly the editor cuts to the script with proxy files and script/director/client changes, third once the final cut is signed off, color correction, titles and effects are outsrourced, fourth inserted into the edit and outputted to the client''s or medium's standards.
That is the old way and it works.
The new standard is now all over the place, unless your working on a episodic television project that is closed loop and even then those are shot on RED at 2k, 3k, 4k, JVC's at 2k, secondary cameras like the 7d at 2k . . . you get my drift.
When most still photographers move or add motion imagery, they are not completely diving into the full post production process. They use their macpros, and shoot a 5d/7d purpose it out in something that FCP will read and start cutting.
They obviously don't have a handle on color, because it seems that for every piece I see in color I see two black and white videos, because I guess black and white is an easy color to manage out of a precooked file.
Though you can take a macpro to virtually any price you want, a full fledged PC based AVID system is $15,000 at a starting point and that doesn't include any real effects software, just a basic editing machine, a NLE editor like AVID and a few terabytes of fast drives.
And even with that your not fully prepared to cut 4k RED files with any speed especially if you attempt to filter or color correct on the timeline.
Given this, there is no doubt in my mind that the standard for shooting and editing in a few years will be 4k.
Just like in still photography, nobody really needs an 80mpx still camera output but if the photographer buys 80mpx, he/she will deliver 80mpx. The same with motion imagery. If you can shoot 4k, you'll probably start cutting in 4k.
So right now there are ways to work in 4k, you can obviously color correct prior to editing, you can do a certain amount of effects and titling in the NLE's though that is usually overkill and working in ways that are redundant.
All of this depends on client, market and most importantly budget. One editorial house I know in the midwest is full busy with their editors though their DaVinci's suites are empty. That leads me to believe that color correction is being laid on the editor, along with simple titling and effects and probably due to budget.
In LA editorial houses have closed down by the block, but the one's that have survived, even thrived are now mobile and edit, correct and output as the filming is happening. (I know this sounds impossible, but they are doing it).
I'm an inch away to moving our studios to PC boxes that are AVID or Premier based and not because I like those software suites, (I find them very non intuitive), but because PC based boxes offer tons of add ons like accelerators, render cards, etc. that puts the high def editing into virtual real time.
The only thing that held me back was the recent announcement of FCP 10 and I'm still a little concerned that FCP 10 will be more consumer based, less professional, especially if all the rendering is handled by the computers processors. We'll see.
One thing that nobody has mentioned on this forum is this announcement that Canon and Technicolor have formed an alliance for processing and output.
http://www.hdslrhub.com/news/canon-and-technicolors-new-picture-style.htmThough this isn't a standard for everything, at least it's a start.
Though canon video probably outnumbers RED 1,000 to 1, the only thing that holds back RED is the slowness in getting product out on the shelves. The RED is the only camera I've used in a long time that I can visually see a big difference between the files of any other motion based camera.
I do believe on the medium to higher end it will become a RED world, though I don't believe that Peter Jackson buying a dozen or so Epic's or James Cameron buying 50 for their upcoming projects are a clear indication of where the market is going, as both those gentlemen are working in 3d with massive millions of dollars in special effects. At their level, they could probably shoot it with an Iphone and it would all turn out.
IMO
BC