Smart Slate editing

Hello,

This is my first time working with a project that was shot with a smart slate. I assume they are used in order to facilitate syncing via timecode? In order to take advantage of this what's the proper work flow when I try to sync?

Thank YOU

I read up a little about Smart Slates, how do I know if they Jam Synced the camera? Does it even matter for FCP, I read you need Avid and its auto sync feature to take advantage of it?

if the idea is that you get identical TC on picture and sound,
then yes, that can make syncing faster.

for FCP you need 3rd pasty apps like Sync n Link
[assistedediting.intelligentassistance.com]

or Sequence Liner
[www.spherico.de]

i haven't used either of these, sorry.


nick

I have used Andreas' Sequence Liner. Very helpful. He's helpful and knowledgeable as well as his software.

The smart slate itself is just the slate with visual TC running on it that you see on your rushes. Whether they jam synced the camera to the master TC gen is another question. Sometimes the audio recorder is the master TC source and sometimes there is a Deneke or Ambient box that generates master TC that the slate, audio and camera jam to.
Is this a film, digital or tape project?

Ideally, the cameras and audio are all jammed to one TC source and you can create merged clips using the common TC.

If there's a film to tape transfer or 4k/2k transcode to a lower res for editing, you'll have to know what was done on set to figure out how you're going to proceed and sync your rushes.

ak
Sleeplings, AWAKE!

Thanks for the links, it's digital.

Quote
Joe Riggs
Thanks for the links, it's digital.

There is no defined route regardless of analog or digital, it always depends on the setup.
Hardware setups (cameras, audio recorders, electronic clappers etc.) change to digital. This allows to compare metadata from most of the devices.
My sequenceLiner does this. This doesn't mean all of the thing/syncs are done automagically. It only gives a start point.

Main thing is that you record with TOD timecode and video (and audio devices) do run with a reliable quartz. Then everything can be matched very easily within FCP - it still have to be linked manually.
Another option is to use (audio) LTC with the Ambient device (I don't have experience with the Deneke) which can be recorded to one channel of the cam's audio. This TC can be extracted and you use the slate to sync, even if the video TC not TOD or not existent like with DSLRs.

Andreas