Sat Feb 18, 2023 10:04 pm
Color Finale Transcoder allows you to convert BRAW files into ProRes quickly and easily, all via a very slick Workflow Extension directly in Final Cut Pro. It's a great application. There's also the incredible EditReady which is also fantastic at just converting BRAW to ProRes with lots of power and controls. Again, it's great. And of course, DaVinci Resolve is free and even has the Blackmagic Proxy Generator app to easily convert BRAW to proxies.
However, the downside to having to transcode footage is that it takes extra time, and it takes extra storage.
As long-time Final Cut Pro users, we got frustrated when clients would hand over SSDs with 2-4TB's worth of BRAW footage, that we'd need to convert to ProRes to start editing with it in Final Cut Pro.
Whilst we love and use DaVinci Resolve - Final Cut Pro is our editing tool of choice for many reasons, so we wanted a solution to allow us to access BRAW files natively.
For whatever reason, Apple doesn't have BRAW support high on the priority list, nor do they want to help Blackmagic impliment BRAW support in Final Cut Pro - so we took matters into our own hands.
Now we can just import BRAW files directly into Final Cut Pro, with full RAW controls, and access to all the camera metadata. You can then send a FCPXML to Resolve for colour grading.
You can even get a colourist to do a first pass of the colour for "dailies" in Resolve, by tweaking the sidecar metadata and supplying the editor with new sidecar files.
BRAW Toolbox can also do things that even DaVinci Resolve can't do - for example, you can even keyframe the ISO, Exposure, Color Temp, Tint and Custom Gamma Controls.
BRAW Toolbox seems to be used by two groups of people - editors like us, who get supplied BRAW files from clients (where they have no control over the shooting format), and Blackmagic Camera owners, who prefer to cut in FCPX rather than DaVinci Resolve or Premiere, and want the smaller file sizes and RAW controls that BRAW offers.
We do actually own and use Blackmagic cameras for lower budget jobs and internal shoots - but like you suggest, we've just always shot ProRes, and it's never been an issue. However, since creating BRAW Toolbox, we've been shooting BRAW, just so that we can "eat our own dog food" and it's worked great, and our editor has really appreciated having full RAW controls.