Stability - At Last(Long Post)

i hope thread finds well.

 

quick story, , useful information:

 

about 4 months ago, made decision use premier pro on rather large , complicated feature film.  during production, there 3 rigs going full time - ingest , encode, sync , dailies, , co-editors rig, cutting coverage edit make sure capturing needed.

 

all well.  editorial 24 hours behind production, testimate not ppro's robustness, our terrific di kept machines fed media multiple sources.

 

this point mention on cs 5.5.2.

 

about 3/4 of way through show, 6.0 released.  co-editor, being fan of new interface along having warp stabilizer right in timeline decided pull trigger , migrate post.

 

of course, kept of daily log projects (which contained out sync'd files, dailies , one-lights or r3d red files) in cs 5.5.2 version , continued ingest , sync in 5.5.2.  coverage edit moved 6.0.

 

a few weeks later, production wrapped , moved post production in southern california.

 

that's got ugly.

 

we experienced every issues that's been repeated in forum. example:

 

• random serious error crashes
• timelines not re-draw
• sequences not export (out of ame or ppro)
• random dropouts of audio, followed absence of video playback
• repeatable errors - i.e. serious error crashes whenever extract edit intersect dissolve on audio track. makes trimming out shot... challenging.
• every exit require force quit.
• randomly corrupted projects (with inconsistent auto save, time machine critical recovery)
• etc.

 

about week ago, film made rough-cut stage, , given on producers , director notes pass.  left co-editor , week start process of troubleshooting goal of creating stable rig rest of editorial process.

 

after 4 solid, documented days, have arrived @ has demonstrated stable implementation of ppro 6.0.1 we've had.

 

following process in exact order - hope helps if you're encountering frequent issues.

 

1 - fresh reinstall of mac osx 10.7.4 

wipe hard drive, reinstall os, , update os until no further updates available.

 

2 - repair permissions on os drive.

 

2.5 - install peripheral hardware.  important - additional hardware on "hero rig" 2 channel esata card.

 

3 - configure media drive.  in our case, running 4 disk raid 0 - that's 4 3gb 7200 rpm enterprise (meaning, not green) drives.  softraid powered softraid 4.3

 

4 - copy show media internal media raid - have 6 discreet ups of media in 3 different locations on external raid 5 drives.  copy took day, given 5 tb of data used in show.

 

5 - install premiere suite - allow java update.

 

6 - repair permissions on os drive.  turned out critical, moment installed cs6 suite, permissions on drive reporting errors.

 

7 - install digital rebellions maintenance tool - full housekeeper, quickfix, & cs repair.

 

8 - use dropbox keep cloud of of our projects - so, install dropbox , restore projects os drive.

 

9 - begin time machine of entire system.  this, backing 4 drive (4x4gb) raid 5 external drive owc connected via esata.

 

this initial took 8 hours.

 

10 - clone os drive discreet 7200 rpm 1 tb drive , store nearby.

 

here our hero rig configuration:

 

mac pro 5.1

osx 10.7.4 (tried mountain lion, reasons below, reverted lion)

64 gb internal ram

480 gb accelsior pci ssd os

4 x 3gb 7200rpm raid 0 12tb

2 apple 30inch cinema displays

audio playback via digital optical out external amplifier attached genlec monitors in 2.1 configuration. (note, feel has contributed further stability, not asking additional audio processing through 3rd party hardware, , instead relied on system level optical out , allowed processing outside of rig)

 

and final piece puzzle - perhaps important item contributed stability of rig...

 

do not install cuda card.

 

i'm positive hate last part.  trust me, understand.  had brand new quadro 4000's in of editorial rigs, , 1 rig multiple quadros' in order run da vinci's resolve.   in single rig have designated color correction , conforming.

 

all of editorial rigs powered ati radeon hd 5870's.

 

please believe me when last item tried remove configuration.  yes, attempted work configurations gpu acceleration on , off, , no matter state of acceleration, nvidia drive , cuda drivers contributed systems instability.

 

we tested 3 quadro 4000's ensure didn't have random bad card well.

 

as further precaution, on our finishing rig, have removed 3rd party plug-ins (magic bullet suites, colorista, etc.) our blackmagic , aja i/o cards.

 

what left set of rigs run day without crash, long not try extract edit across clip has audio dissolve, , navigate around timeline of audio tracks configured waveform display off.

 

we working 1080p prores media @ 23.98 , audio 48k 16bit bwfs (broadcast wave files)

 

some considerations:

 

our timelines complex.  we're cutting action film lots of quick cutting, speed ramps, trick dissolves, etc., , in preparation sundance submission, have average 35 tracks of temp sound fx , music.  our production sound average of 8 channels of audio well, making our average timeline contain 42 tracks of audio 6 tracks of video.

 

our projects large.  average shoot day contained 250gb of media broken 20 scenes each multiple takes multiple cameras.  single reel might contain 8 days of source media 2 terrabytes of production assets.  in reel 1, example, there 6,000 pieces of media loaded every time open project. reel 1 approximately 275mb in project size. have 6 reels comprising rough cut.

 

i'm pointing out nature of our project has caused run lean possible in order maintain stability.  situation may not resemble ours in terms of project , timeline complexity, may find able run rig more accessories.  happens we're using accomplish our goal of stable production environment.

 

finally, remain convinced forward compatibility leave sort of remnant code in projects causes degradation of performance on time.  meaning, we're creating master projects contain of logging information require, creating leaner editorial "working" projects of unused media removed, clearing out old versions of sequences no longer need.  these new projects created in 6.0.1 , appear more reliable 5.5.2 project up-converted 6.0.1.

 

in retrospect, should have insisted remain on 5.5.2 balance of show. transition indeed frustrating, record:

 

i raised on avid media composer since release in late 80's.  nyu (my alma mater) had 1 of first installs in country, , learned interface there, , won first emmy on avid rig. i've since cut on symphony, ds, flame, inferno, etc.

 

i've completed several feature films on fcp v7 - including 6 might have seen theatrically , can buy on itunes, etc. , yet...

 

aside sharpening trimming functions, adding match frame source side of monitor, , allowing l-cuts without having unlink synced media...

 

... happy cutting show on ppro.

 

i hope able achieve same result.

 

best,

 

andy jenkins

 

producer/partner/editor - haxan films

creators of blair witch project

 

 

p.s.  in no way affiliated adobe, nor compensated them.  licenses own of software purchased via retail channels.

 

congratulations on achievement also..thank time , effort put considered  post.

 

it refreshing hear leading edge instead of bleeding edge.

 

 

as regards

 

aside sharpening trimming functions, adding match frame source side of monitor, , allowing l-cuts without having unlink synced media...

 

if want start separate discussion thread.. can contribute @ least  1 thing may helpful in these matters.

 

craig

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