Working with RED IPP2in FCP?

I have been asked to do the color grading on a music video shot using RED raw and IPP2. Am not sure I want to take this project on as I have never worked with RED footage. As I understand it the client wants me to grade it and return it to them for final editing and commercial distribution. How difficult is RED raw and IPP2 to work with.

FCP will work with RED IPP2. You need to download and install the Apple Workflow installer (v19) from RED's support page. Once you do this, then you can access the RED raw settings in the FCP inspector. There's a button that opens the panel for raw settings. The downside of working with RED native footage in FCP is that performance won't be very good if they shot high-resolution files.

However, was the original video edited in FCP? IMHO, it seems like the workflow that they are after should be done in Resolve. If can be done in FCP, but that's really not the best place to be doing that sort of work. Even RED's own Redcine-X Pro would be a better choice.

How are you getting a list from them and are they expecting graded selects with handles and a list back (i.e. the normal grading roundtrip workflow)?

I appreciate you answer. After further discussion with the client they have decided to try to do it in house which is fine with me.

Larrie wrote:

...How difficult is RED raw and IPP2 to work with.

I agree with what Oliver said. I recently graded some 8k/23.98 R3D IPP2 material from a V-Raptor in FCP and it was very easy. On my M1 Max MacBook Pro 16, performance was OK and on my M1 Ultra Mac Studio is was no problem. 

That said, it *was* 8k, so whether R3D, ProRes RAW, ProRes 4444, etc, each frame has 4x the data of UHD 4k. So any effect such as noise reduction will be considerably slower. 

The material had a beautiful look and I was very impressed with the flexibility in post. Part of that may have been the Xeen cinema lenses used. 

As Oliver said, your issue is not whether R3D is hard to handle in FCP. It is procedurally straightforward and from a hardware performance standpoint it's easy if on adequate hardware.

The real issue is how to handle a collaborative multi-NLE workflow involving a color graded product. In your case does grading means "finishing", IOW denoising, transitions, graphics, etc? If so I don't understand doing that in FCP then handing to someone else (presumably using a different NLE like Resolve or Baselight) for "final editing". 

If final editing means trimming a few frames, that's OK. But the product by that point will normally have all effects and transitions baked in. 

They were thinking about giving me an ungraded a string out version of the music video with all the clip editing completed. I was to color grade that and ship it back to them for the addition of the effects and transitions. They decided to go a different direction so I am out of the loop. In any case, I was not sure I wanted to do it. Thanks for your time and comments.