Hi All,  I looked around site but didn't see any answers to this age-old question... there is an outside chance I might be hired as an editor for a feature film, which is supposed to be shot on a high end Alexa package, not sure what codec/format at the moment.

I'm pretty sure my old computer, which is fine for lower end stuff, is going to be struggling with anything more than full HD. So I was wondering what the best (in my circumstances) workflow might be for this footage? I'm guessing a low-rez to hi-rez process would probably be best but wanted to confirm. I'm seeing some mention of Dnx36HD as an edit resolution, that should work if up-rez procress is fool-proof. I would only be providing picture edit, color-correction, audio, etc. would be done elsewhere.

Thanks!

yes, your plan is correct.

but you can use anything as low-rez really.

I tend to use XDCAM50 mostly. A bit bigger and better than DNx36.

If u cook up very a high quality mp4 preview from that, it should look slightly better than with DNX36. And you don't wanna relink to the original Alexa files for every preview you make, too much hassle.

The DNx36 route is a well tried proxy workflow for Avid when working with high quality Alexa footage.

Often you'll find the Alexa footage is shot at UHD, and many editors prefer the proxies to be created at this resolution, even if they're intending to work/deliver at HD. This gives you the latitude to zoom into your footage by 2X without any loss of final picture quality. If it's a feature, it's possible you might be working at some DCI resolution such as flat or scope.

If your Alexa rushes are something like ProRes, it's easy to Link to these, transcode to DNX36, cut the film and export the (linked) AAF to (say) Resolve. The Colourist should be able to link back to the original Alexa Rushes for the final grade.

That said, if it's the first time you've done this, I would always recommend a quick test to make sure the workflow performs without any problems.