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how many space do you need for short/medium length/feature film?


Dan Wake
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1 hour ago, Dan Wake said:

how many terabytes of space do you need to edit and color a short, a medium length movie and a feature film approximately? let's assume 2 options please: it has been shot entirely in 4k raw or the whole movie has been shot with a high quality codec.

 

thx

If your shooting in raw or any high end codec like pro res as much as possible.

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There are a lot of variables in what you are looking for but here is a rough guide to storage size per min for common formats.

1743307011_ScreenShot2019-01-06at14_36_03.png.8e7760e9b2d4f33f230c9d1e730eed00.png

There are a number of calculator apps available for Android and iOS that will give you an exact result for more cameras and codecs but the chart above should be enough to get you in the ballpark but the biggest variable though - and one which no calculator will get you anywhere near a solution for - is the shooting ratio.

If you were doing a 10 minute UHD film shot in RAW on the BMPC 4K then it would need 123.6GB of storage (12.36 x 10) but that is if you did it in one take of course.

The shooting ratio will vary wildly and make the total storage requirement many times that amount but only you will know what that ratio will be depending on the type of film it is and how you will be shooting it and numerous other different unique factors.

Just as an FYI, here are the shooting ratios for some feature films.

Aim for Primer but budget closer to Hateful Eight !

ShootingRatiosC3.thumb.jpg.049da54cba2bacd680403246d466fc13.jpg

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Remember that you can always buy more drive space if a project ends up being larger than expected.  

Worth noting is that RAW comes in different flavours and I suspect there is very little difference between them in the real world.  People talk about Prores HQ being good enough for most projects, and considering the difference between 272MB/s and 117MB/s you might end up shooting RAW 3:1 or 4:1.

Quote

Storage Rates

Storage rates based on 30 frames per second.

4096 x 2160

CinemaDNG RAW - 272 MB/s
CinemaDNG RAW 3:1 - 129 MB/s
CinemaDNG RAW 4:1 - 97 MB/s

Apple ProRes 422 HQ - 117.88 MB/s
Apple ProRes 422 - 78.63 MB/s
Apple ProRes 422 LT - 54.63 MB/s
Apple ProRes Proxy - 24.25 MB/s

3840 x 2160

CinemaDNG RAW - 255 MB/s
CinemaDNG RAW 3:1 - 122 MB/s
CinemaDNG RAW 4:1 - 92 MB/s

Apple ProRes 422 HQ - 110 MB/s
Apple ProRes 422 - 73.6 MB/s
Apple ProRes 422 LT - 51 MB/s
Apple ProRes Proxy - 22.4 MB/s

You're looking at some serious drive space though - 4K RAW 3:1 at 30:1 shooting ratio for a 90 minute film is still 20TB.  That's just the source media - you will also need to render proxies to edit with, and various other assets.

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39 minutes ago, kaylee said:

please make a short before anything else lol

Excellent point!

@Dan Wake is this your first feature?  or are you gearing for a career in post-production?  The stats on people who try to make a feature film without first having made several short films are pretty dire - most don't know what they're getting themselves into and the project is never finished.

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bro, this is the best advice ever, people told this to me, and i resisted, but im so glad i listened:

dont start with a feature doc, or a feature feature, or anything like that. start with a SHORT film no longer than 15 min. 

the amount of storage space you have doesnt matter if your footage is useless garbage.

additionally, you may find that an elaborate video timeline taxes your system more than youre used to – be aware of that as well

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I wouldn't feel bad shooting a short with a c100 ii, renting or buying one wouldn't be crazy expensive. Supersampled 1080p, great ergos. The eos r has supersampled 1080p also in its S35 mode (plus clog), which looks very good as well. Those are cheap to rent ($136/week), then your movie would look good and fit your storage constraints. Should be much easier to edit too. 

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Heck, I once shot a feature on the HDV codec.

Camera and codec are considerations, but, damn, they are so far down the priority list when doing a low budget film and you're just trying to make it happen. 

We've all seen great looking films shot on thin codecs and cheap cameras. How one shoots is so much more important than the tech.

Be that as it may, I'm currently working on a feature doc with 100+ hours source and proxies.  It all fits comfortably on a 4TB drive. 

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2 hours ago, fuzzynormal said:

Heck, I once shot a feature on the HDV codec.

Camera and codec are considerations, but, damn, they are so far down the priority list when doing a low budget film and you're just trying to make it happen. 

We've all seen great looking films shot on thin codecs and cheap cameras. How one shoots is so much more important than the tech.

Be that as it may, I'm currently working on a feature doc with 100+ hours source and proxies.  It all fits comfortably on a 4TB drive. 

comfortable space inside that hdd XD, is it shot in full hd?

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2 hours ago, thebrothersthre3 said:

Definitely looks like a good option. I am seeing them used under $2000 on ebay. Better internal recording than the C100 and of course better external options.

The C100 mk1 and mk2 are better at high ISO's though. Really considering the C100 MK2. 

Yeah C300 has a true broadcast Codec if you need that. Some people like the output of the original C100 better. I know I do. But the mk II has a more modern look.

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